Boat Repair, Restoration, Building
Last time, I talked a little about cutting the flat along the keel so I could put a cap over it to keep from having exposed end grain there. My friend Steve asks, “Well, exactly how did you do that?” (or words to that effect). It did, in fact, take a little bit of doing. So I decided to explain myself a little better in a follow-up post. Continue reading “Cutting the Flat”
Mr. Zimmer called for steam bent intermediate topside frames in his plans to join up with the intermediate floors. We could steam bend these, but I’m more inclined to laminate them. So off to the table saw we go to start cutting strips! I found that I could get the curve I needed at the chine with a 1/8″ thick strip of Douglas Fir. These frames are 1″ wide and need to be 1/2″ deep with 1/2″ blocking added between battens. I milled my strips a little oversize so I could clean them up and plane them to final width after gluing. Continue reading “Laminating the Intermediate Frames”
First, what is the sheer clamp? It’s the longitudinal piece to which the deck and topsides are clamped to make the hull-deck joint. As you might imagine, it’s position is at the sheer line of the boat. The finished dimension called for in the plan is 5/8 x 2-1/2 inches. Continue reading “Laminating the Sheer Clamp”
I’m back at work on the Palm Beach 22 mahogany runabout and glad to be making progress again. Today I want to talk a little about using the boat itself (or what we have of it at this point) as a form to make more parts for the boat. We’ve got all the frames in place, so now we can use that to make some of the parts for the boat.
The chine is a continuous piece that runs the length of the boat. It has curve and twist to it, so it used to be made to fit in a wooden boat by steam bending. But we’re laminating pieces together to make that curved chine log. The forward section presents a particular problem in that it has considerable curve and twist. Continue reading “Using the boat as a form–Laminating the chine”
In my last post I said I would tell you more about making the hatch in the waterproof bulkhead, and finishing it. Well, I’m still waiting for some of the hardware, so it’s time to move on and we’ll come back to the hatch later.
Time to build the Stem of the boat! I decided to laminate this stem because it’s easier and stronger than the traditional method of sawing it out of solid lumber pieces and bolting them together. Laminating is just gluing together multiple layers to produce a larger piece. It’s also used as an alternative to steam bending wood. We’re going to do a lot of laminating on this boat. So let’s get started.
The transom bows are the curved top and bottom pieces that give you the shape of that beautiful transom you see on classic runabouts. Nelson Zimmer’s plan calls for a 5 foot radius curve. He also calls for a deck crown or “camber” of 2-1/2 inches at the transom.
So we’ve got two pieces to make, bent to a 5 foot radius. And the top one has to have a curve cut on top of it to support the crown of the deck as well. Continue reading “Making the Transom Bows”
It seems like forever since I talked about working on the Palm Beach 22 in this space. Intervening boat repairs do have a way of taking up time here at the boatworks! Anyway, when we left off I was talking about the plan for framing the transom. I had made up 2 blanks with the curve of the transom cheeks. You can read about it here.
You can see the blank laminated to the curve here. Now it’s time to cut the compound curve out of this blank. Remember this piece not only curves inboard, it also curves aft when you look at it from the side. Take a look at Zimmer’s drawing again. It’s at the top of this post. Continue reading “Cutting the Transom Cheeks on the Palm Beach 22”
We’ve got all the frames built and set up. But we’ve still got to frame the transom of the Palm Beach 22. We’ll build the framework and add it to our setup so we can begin planking. The picture above is a rendering of what our framework should look like. Note that I’ve pointed out a particular piece I call the transom “cheek”. You can see the transom curves inward at the top (called “Tumblehome”). This is part of the signature look of a mahogany runabout. Continue reading “Framing the Transom of the Palm Beach 22”