Ready for Interior Finishing

Before starting on the interior epoxy and varnish I decided to do one last thing. I extended my floorboards a bit so I made a couple of extra floor timbers to support them. 

The Glen-L plans suggest that some extra supports be made at the end of the floorboards but they don't specify how to do it.

I took a look at the plans and realized I could get the necessary contours to add two extra supports by using the closest station forms as a start.  After finding the nearest forms I traced them onto some cedar scraps and then hand profiled them until I had a nice fit that was level with the other floor timbers.  Check it out above.

In the picture above I have the entire interior of the boat stacked up and ready to finish.  It may be a few days before I have an update because of many coats of epoxy and varnish necessary for a hard durable finish but hopefully it will all be worth it!

Thwart Dowels and Floorboard Clearance Clarence.

Before I could finish the floorboards I needed to put some supports under the thwarts.  I don't have too many pictures of that part but it basically entailed transferring some measurements from the placement of the seats (thwarts) down to the keel.  Then I drilled for a dowel at the keel and the bottom of the seat and mounted three 1 1/2" round poplar rods which I will stain a darker color than the cedar.  

Once the supports were in place I decided I didn't like the look of the big gap in the floorboards so I measured the central floorboards and set up the jig below to get a nice round hole that would also leave an aesthetic space between the boards and the hole around the dowel support. Check my jig set up below.

As you can see I marked where I wanted the hole and placed my two central floorboards on either side of a spare piece of planking I had left over from stripping the boat.  Then I cut it out with a hole saw. 

Here they are temporarily set up around the supports to check for fit. 

You could just use long one piece floor boards for your boat but then it would be difficult to remove them for inspection at a later date without also removing the thwarts so I made my floorboards meet up at one of the floor braces which I made extra wide for this purpose. Here they are just set in place to have a look below.

Rub Rail

The rub rail runs along the length of the boat from stem to stern on the outside of the planking and along with the inner shear, sandwiches the planking to make a nice sturdy rail. 

I was hesitant to dive into this part of the job because the rail was a fairly stiff piece of wood. It not only needed to follow the curve of the boat but also had to start high at the bow then dip to the middle and then curve back up again to the stern.  However, with enough clamps, anything can be done!

I made a test fit by clamping the rails to the boat then I marked the ends for cuts plus made an alignment mark in the middle so I could easily duplicate the placement again.  Once my cuts were made I roughed up the area where it would glue to the hull and applied a layer of epoxy and clamped 

it up again.  

Once it was back in place with glue I drilled a pilot hole every six inches and put a slight countersink on each hole.  Then I screwed through to the planking and inner shear for a nice tight fit.  The next day I mixed up another batch of epoxy with cedar wood flour until it was the consistency of peanut butter (but looked more like Fig Newton filling) and filled all the holes flush with the rail.

I also added a bronze bow eye for the painter line by drilling through the stem and bolting it on from the back side. Check it out below.

Rear Bench and Thwarts

The rear bench starts with a support for the front of the seat and a brace will also need to be added between the risers at the stern. I used the Glen-L full size drawings for the station mold closest to that brace to get the correct contour for the hull.  I took the lid from a barbecue and traced the radius onto the bottom of the brace to give it a little style.

The bench needed several laminated parts that would end up being cut into a "fan" shape to make up the stern bench for my Whitehall.  I started with cedar blocks cut and planed smooth then clamped them together utilizing pipe clamps until the glue dried.

I ended up with several pieces like the one above. I placed one of these on two bricks then jumped on it to test it for strength. GOOD!

The stern bench has a large radius cut into the seat and I made that by temporarily attaching the seat planks before scribing a large radius using a divider I found in an antique shop.

After I cut the radius I asked my wife to sit in the boat to make sure it's comfortable.  She said it felt great and I was impressed with how strong this boat is.  I was expecting to hear a few noises from the boat since the stern bench was cantilevered out from where the boat was being supported but there was nothing.  There was not a squeak or a groan and it didn't budge a fraction of an inch.  This design is SOLID!

In this picture you can see the way the seats will look. It's starting to look like a boat!

  

As you can see I've also started work on the floorboards.  It's getting there!!

Knees

In a previous post I showed how the knees are laminated and today I'll show how I shaped them to custom fit my boat.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made some templates from the boat itself so I could eliminate a lot of trial and error cutting and sanding. In the picture above I've got my template on top of one of the knee laminations to get it ready to trim for the boat.

Here is the stern knee clamped in place to check for fit.  I don't want to finish it yet until after I have the stern bench finished and can get my wife to sit there and make sure it's comfortable.

In the pic above you can see what the thwart knee looks like after first using a template to get the general shape then trial and error fitting.  Once I had one that fit perfectly I used it to quickly make its duplicate for the other side.

Here's how it looks mocked in place.  By the way, I made the knees out of red cedar and I tried to alternate the colors so that I got this striped effect.  I hope it looks good once it's epoxied and varnished!

Breasthook

In the picture above I have a bunch of 1" wide cedar strips cut about a tenth of an inch thick.  I found that this thickness allowed me to bend them pretty easily around the form without them breaking.  As you can see I have them on top of a sheet of parchment paper ready to be wrapped up after brushing each stick with a coat of epoxy.  Once I had them all stacked up I started clamping them to the form I made from the Glen L plans.

I always put the center clamp on first then slowly tightened the outside clamps until it's tight like below.  Btw, in the background you can see one of the thwarts being glued up.

Before you give it the final squeeze it's a good idea to tap them lightly with a hammer to have them all aligned which minimizes sanding later.

Once that is all set up, the next step is to add a piece of wood to fill in the point of the bow and then bevel it to fit in.

Here it is temporarily clamped in place and ready to be glued in with epoxy. I think this bow will end up being very strong. I'll have to be careful not to T-bone another boat because that boat will have a hole in it!

Interior Planning

Now that the boat is upright it's time to figure out the interior.  We will need four thwarts, (which will be the seats),  a rear bench, a bow breasthook, ten knees and floorboards.

My plan is to fabricate and fit into place temporarily, every part I need for the interior on this boat.  Once that is done I will take it all apart and finish each part individually and have them ready like a kit. This should result in a nice looking interior.

I decided to use laminated thwarts and in the picture above you can see some of the cedar boards cut for the four seats.  After I cleared out the leftover debris from the destroyed station molds I was happy to see that the interior surface of the boat was pretty smooth already and would only need minimal sanding.

The breasthook and the knees are made using the form patterns in the Glen-L plans but you will need to custom fit them to the contours of your boat.  In order to eliminate a lot of trial and error cutting I made some templates from the work by taking a few scraps of wood, setting them in place with a drop of glue at the joint and letting it dry. 

In the next post we'll see how the breasthook and knees are made.

Off the Mold!!!

Today I removed all the screws holding the molds to the strong back and my son and I lifted the boat off and set it down on some moving blankets.  The picture above is after the mold halves have been removed and as you can see, it was necessary to use a hammer to get everything out of the interior. (Leave the floorboard supports of course).

I had to remove the top of the strong back and made some supports for the bottom of the boat by utilizing the forms obtained from the full sized Glen-L plans.  I found the corresponding mold station forms and traced them onto new 3/4" plywood then cut them out to leave a cavity that the boat would rest on perfectly.  I added a moving blanket to make sure that nothing gets scratched.

Now I'm ready to start on the interior.

Varnish!

The day before varnishing I washed it out in the driveway to give it one last check to see if there were any areas that needed attention and everything looked good.

After a couple coats of varnish the shine started coming back.  I let it cure for a day and lightly sanded by hand between each coat.  I used a foam roller to apply a thin coat of varnish and then after a section was covered I tipped it with an almost dry brush to smooth it out. This method works pretty well.

It has been said that, "A man once drank a quart of varnish. He had a terrible end but a beautiful FINISH!!"

After all that scraping and sanding it was a relief to see the shine come back better than ever and now the epoxy layers underneath will be protected from UV rays.

Time to flip it over and get to work on the interior!

Getting ready for Varnish

We need a coat of Varnish!

After two weeks of curing the Whitehall has four coats of epoxy over fiberglass cloth and is looking pretty good but it's not finished yet.  Even though the weave of the glass cloth was almost gone after two coats there is a reason why we continued to add the additional two coats of epoxy, the surface was not ready for varnish and will need some attention before we can get a nice glossy finish.

The slow hardener combined with the cool temperatures sure helped to maintain a wet edge as I applied one batch of epoxy after another but it also meant I would have some runs to fix.

That's where this handy tool comes in.

This is a cabinet maker tool called a scraper and it's made from spring steel. It comes with a very sharp edge that can be used to scrape off runs without damaging the flat surface. In a very short time I had all the runs removed from the boat. Here is a picture of the boat after scraping it.

It's looking pretty rough after scraping and with some sanding the surface will become dull again but smooth!

Before sanding the hull I washed it in the driveway with soap and water to start with a clean surface.  Then I rolled it back into the garage and spent the next few days sanding the hull smooth with 120 grit paper then switched to 220 and finally wet sanded out in the driveway again with 320.

We are now ready to varnish!

Applying Epoxy Resin to the Cloth

Since it will require a fairly good quantity of resin, a project like this will have to be done in small batches that are applied quickly.  I was hesitant to dive into this part of the build but here goes...

Epoxy is a two part system consisting of the resin and a hardener.  The length of time it takes to set up can be extended by using a slow hardener so that is the route I took.

The "pot life" or amount of time you can work with the resin depends on the temperature in the work area plus the hardener you use.  Even with a heater in my garage the temperature was hovering around 65 degrees while I was doing this and with the slow hardener I could easily mix and spread a cup of epoxy onto the glass cloth saturating a section then moving on to the next before the previous area had started to set up.

In this way I was able to do one side of the boat in about thirty minutes by pouring on a little epoxy then, by using a plastic spreader, I would move it around until I had an even coat and the cloth disappeared.

In this picture you can see how the nearly opaque fiberglass becomes transparent as the cloth is saturated with resin.  However, after one coat the weave of the cloth will still be visible so you will need a few more coats.  Try to keep it smooth and even while minding the way the cloth is getting pushed around.

Here's how it looked after one coat and you can see I chose to leave the cloth a little oversized and trimmed it back later.

The Whitehall is beginning to shine after two coats of resin and the weave of the cloth is nearly gone.

Here we are after four coats of resin.  Between coats, the resin needs to cure enough so that the surface is not too tacky but not so dry that you need to sand again.  If you apply the next coat before it dries completely you will achieve a chemical bond but if it becomes too hard then you must sand and go with a physical bond.  I was able to get a chemical bond between all coats.

Next up-preparing for varnish.

Fiberglass Cloth

At first glance it seems a shame to cover up that beautiful wood with anything but don't worry, that 6 oz cloth will practically disappear when we cover it with epoxy resin.

Originally, Whitehalls were painted white with a colored strip along the shear of the boat but I've decided to leave mine with a natural finish.

The cloth comes in a big roll and it will have a few wrinkles as it is spread onto the boat so it will need to be brushed smooth as you see in the next photo.

It's a mess at first but eventually with enough brushing it will get like this below.

Sometimes you will have a hard wrinkle in the cloth but you can usually get them to go away by using a circular motion on the weave.  BTW, the first picture at the top of the page is after the brushing is done and the cloth has been allowed to sit overnight.

Tomorrow I will start gluing it down with a layer of epoxy resin.  It's best to put the epoxy on when it's not too cool out and with low humidity which is not a problem for me because I have a heater in my garage.

We're Missing Something!

We need to add an outer stem!  See that notch in the keel?  That's where the outer stem fits against the keel and follows down the inner stem to the top (remember it's upside down) of the boat.

The outer stem, just like the inner stem, is made by laminating strips of cedar and then bending them around a form that matches the inner stem perfectly.  In the photo below I set it in place to see how everything lines up and the next step is to use epoxy glue and 1/4" stainless bolts to fasten it permanently to the keel and inner stem.

In the next picture I have the front stem attached and it's been shaped to come almost to a knife edge except that I've left a flat where a half oval brass molding will be added.

I used a countersink to put the stainless bolts slightly below the surface and filled them back in with epoxy mixed with wood flour.  Wood flour (from sanding the hull) was mixed with epoxy until it was about the consistency of peanut butter and filled in the holes. I also used some of the epoxy/wood flour to fill in a few low spots and faired it back later.