Welding Plates
07 October 2012
After taking a bit of a break from the boat, I am actively working on her again. All of the hull plates (except 2 radius sections) have been tack welded into place and I have started welding the butt joints between the plates. Before I installed the plates, I had put a bevel on the edges so that they form an interior v-groove. Using a back-step pattern, I make an initial pass on the inside. The outside is then welded after back grinding. So far this process seems to work well. I was not able to weld the inside of the bow so I made sure there was a small gap and a nice v-groove on the plates. I am only at the beginning stages of this process so I imagine I will be at it for awhile.
Radius 4-6 part one
04 October 2010
I worked on the radius section for one side from station 4 to 6 for about three days. I was having difficulty getting a good fit and spent a good bit of time aligning the plates only to become dissatisfied enough to start over. This portion is similar to the previous radius section where the plate needed to be split longitudinally but the length of this section is longer. One side is tacked now and I am pleased with the way that it turned out. The heat has finally let up and the weather was wonderful on Sunday.
Matching Plates
12 September 2010
This image shows two of the methods that I use to match the plate edges. Since there is no way to get a clamp on these portions, I weld a tool that I made from a bar clamp. It allows the plate levels to be adjusted easily. I also use a piece of angle that a chisel can be driven under as another method. To get the plates close, I weld a hook on the inside of the plate and use come-along to pull it into position. My other most useful alignment tool is a bottle jack.
Split Radius Section
12 September 2010
I have just completed the radius plates from frame 3 to frame 4. All of the plating for the radius sections was pre-rolled to the correct radius when I purchased the steel. The plans recommend that the mid ship sections be split lengthwise to allow overlap and refitting which is what I did. This last section of plate was cut to about 65" long and then split lengthwise. This process went much better than I had anticipated; the plates were easy to handle an bent into position nicely.
Plating to Skeg
15 August 2010
The bottom plating from the bow to the skeg was completed today. I will start back on the radius sections next.
5-7 Bottom Plate
06 June 2010
The last several weekends I spent doing things other than plating. I moved some of the plating around the shipyard so that I could use my trailer to pick up some steel from a friend (thanks Scott). This steel will not go on the boat but will help as tools and supports.
I have also spent some time tack welding stringers. This weekend I have been back on plating. I am working on the bottom plates from stations 5-7. This has been challenging work because of the difficulty in maneuvering the 5x10 plates. I am constantly learning new techniques for getting them to move into place.
Station 3 Radius
16 May 2010
I had a bit of difficulty getting the seams to match fair with the bottom plate. I ended up making a tool with part of an adjustable clamp welded to some angle. By tacking this to one of the plates, I was able to push the high plate down to meet the low plate. I think I had every c-clamp I own holding this plate in position but it looked nice when done.
Next Radius Plate
10 May 2010
I decided to try a different method with this radius section (station 1 - 3) since the weight of the plate was easily manageable. Instead of making a template, I clamped an over sized plate in position and marked from inside. I lowered the plate, cut, and raised back into position. The process went well; although I did need to grind a few places with it in place. One side has been tacked into position. I guess that I will repeat this process for the opposite plate. No work this Sunday (Happy Mothers' Day).
Tacking
03 May 2010
No new plates added this weekend. I spent the time adding tack welds in the already plated area. The stringers were tacked to the frames and the plates to the stringers. I did not see any instance where a stringer needed to be relieved in its frame slot; each stringer ended up bottoming out in the slot. In some places the strings had a small gap between the plating. If this happened near the frame, I pulled the plating in against the stringers and welded. When the gap appeared between frames, I jacked the stringer to the plating and welded. Everything looks fair to my eyes but I am not sure that I would notice a small dip or bulge at this point.
Went sailing instead
25 April 2010
I didn't get much work done this weekend. Saturday was so nice my wife and I went out on a Prindle cat for the day. The wind was great and we had no problem flying a hull. I did a little welding Sunday morning. My daughters' cat now has a catwalk to get up to where everything is happening.
Bottom Plates To Station 5
18 April 2010
Moving along with the bottom plates.
Plating Started
14 April 2010
I started plating the bottom of the hull at about station 1. I also added the first radius section on each side; mainly because I was curious how it would go. No major issues so far but I have yet to cut a plate only once. I guess my templates need some work because I have needed to fit check the plates and make adjustments.
Ready For Plating
13 April 2010
Starting to take form and is ready for plating.
Stringers Completed
13 April 2010
All of the stringers have been blasted and installed.
Bow Stringers
13 April 2010
Stringers at the bow completed.
Welder Tracks
13 April 2010
I added some angle to the frame headers longitudinally as a track for the
welder. It works great; I just have to remember to remove the welder
before installing the transom. The welder tracks also make a great base
for a temporary plywood floor.
Keel
13 April 2010
The keel bottom is 1/2" plate. The leading edge is 3" schedule 80 pipe.
Skeg
13 April 2010
The skeg was made on the ground and then hoisted as an assembly where it was welded to the backbone. It has three small webs that were added in addition to the existing frame webs. I am hoping that this will help distribute the flexing at the skeg-hull interface.
Cutting Table
13 April 2010
This is my cutting table that I made from my daughters' old swing set
(sorry girls). The height was chosen to allow clearance for the v-cart
which luckily also is a good work height. The cross members are not
attached so they can be shifted as cuts intersect with them. They are
completely removed when the plate is being loaded and unloaded. I have a small chain hoist that I hang from the upper cross member.
V Cart
13 April 2010
This v-cart was built by my brother out of wood about 20 years ago. We
have used it mainly for hauling wood over the years. It has worked so
well that I rebuilt the upper portion out of steel angle. The cart is
used to maneuver the plating around the shipyard and it works excellent.
Plate Handling
13 April 2010
I have had some logistical issues with having steel delivered to the
build site. Even when a supplier agrees to deliver to the area, there
are issues with organizing a means of offloading the material. The steel
supplier that I use is not very reliable at delivering on a schedule. I
decided to just pick the orders up myself; so, I purchased an old
trailer and refurbished it. The orders are grouped at about 5000lbs of
material. This allows me to pick up the order before work and offload it that night. The trailer is low so I do not need any special equipment to unload even the large plates.
Stringer Installation
31 May 2009
The actual installation of the stringers has gone fairly well; although, the first stringer that we placed cause the stem to distort. We removed it and placed both port and starboard stringers at the same time. This worked great. After both sides were tacked to the stem, we used a come-along just aft of frame 0 and pulled them together evenly. We only tack welded the stringers at the bow stem; at the frames, we tied the stringers into the slots with lacing cord. Once we get all of the stringers installed, we plan to tack weld them in place. I was not sure how this step was going to work because it seemed like the 1-1/4" steel would not bend smoothly; but it bent by hand with ease. Only a few places needed real persuasion. Unfortunately, we need to prepare more stringers for installation.
Blasting stringers
29 March 2009
03/29/09: Blasting stringers.
Blasting
29 March 2009
1/31/09: Completed blasting and priming all of the frames and have started on the stringers. The compressor works hard to keep 18cfm at 90psi. I am using an 1/8" nozzle and blasting to white metal. It is very slow going. We are priming with Dimetcote 302H Reinforced Inorganic Zinc Primer.
Bending bar
29 March 2009
10/10/08: Layed out the keel bottom and cut station 4 keel extension. We bent the aft backbone which went a bit easier than the bow did. I think we are starting to get the hang of it.
Gantry
29 March 2009
10/4/08: I completed the gantry made from scaffolding and 20' angle. It has a travel car and a chain hoist. It is moved into position by sliding it on its sleds. Also, built the skeleton of the skeg.
Cutting slots for stringers
29 March 2009
3/21/8: Started laying out stringer slot locations and cutting slots. The slots are cut by first drilling a 5/16" hole and cutting down each side of the slot to this hole. Drilling on horizontal steel bar with a handheld drill is very slow work. The straight cuts went easy with the hand held band saw. (A marvelous tool.)
Warning to innocent bystanders
29 March 2009
1/1/08: Received some help setting frames 5.5, 6, and 7. Every once in a while someone makes the mistake of wanting to see the progress of the boat.
Old equipment
29 March 2009
We were able to get the first five frames assembled with no issues. But the tig welder stopped working. The welder is so old that I was not able to find anyone who would work on it and even the factory did not have any information on how to purchase parts for it. After doing some debugging, I was able to trace the problem to one of the power diodes and with some effort found replacements. The repair job was not difficult but finding the parts was not easy. Luckily, Lincoln had posted the schematics on the inside of the access panel.
Start welding frames
29 March 2009
5/6/07: We started welding frames beginning with station 0. The frames were assembled on the floor of my shop. The shop used to be a two car garage but my wife has never had room to park her car in there.