Building the frames (finally!)

Now that all the frame parts are built and finally ready to assemble, it really feels like I’m starting to make progress.  I made a full size paper plan for each frame, which I taped to my layout board, covered in clear plastic so the epoxy wouldn’t stick, and screwed down cleats so the frame wouldn’t move when I nailed the gussets.

I started with frame 3 since it is in two pieces and therefore had the fewest gussets. I had almost a gallon of extra Raka epoxy from the pair of paddleboards I built last summer that I used here.  I used a chip brush to coat the area under the gussets with epoxy to seal it, then mixed some fumed silica into the remaining epoxy to thicken it and coated both sides with the thickened epoxy, and lastly nailed the gussets in place with the silicon bronze ring nails I ordered from Glen-L.

I repeated the process for frame 2, which also had only 2 gussets since the bottom is one piece:

And then built the remaining three frames which had two gussets and a floor timber each. I noticed that the nails were splitting the frame members, so after the second frame I started pre-drilling the nail holes which made assembly much easier (especially since I could drill the holes before the epoxy made everything slippery and hard to hold in place).

I spent a little time cleaning the epoxy drips and glued-on blue tape off the the frames and laid them out so I could admire them:

I couldn’t resist making a temporary setup jig so I could see everything in the approximate final position to get a feel for the size and shape of the boat: 

Last thing I did was brush on another coat of unthickened epoxy to encapsulate the frame and make it water proof.

All that I believe is remaining to finish the frames is to install the gussets and encapsulate the other side of each frame.

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Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 22, 2022 at 1:21 PM

    Looking great so far! You are being much more precise than I was on the Squirt and it will pay off later for you.

    ReplyDelete

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