Great Grinder Skirmish 2010 Edition...

[Zach]

The war isn't over folks... Pylasteki still needs work. Some plans have changed, some have stayed the same. The dumb ideas have been set aside (Thanks for those who have helped with that!)

So, last fall I cut out Pylasteki's cockpit to gain access to the rudder tube and make the cockpit lockers water tight.

This had a good and a bad side... on one hand, I had access... On the other, her insides turned to be outside. So, no interior work over the winter.

Saturday I spent the day working re-working my plans. I've learned a few things over the winter as far as time savings go. I had planned on using marine grade plywood to wall off the lockers, tabbing to the hull like the rest of the bulkheads, one sheet of which walked away a few months ago. (Drat.)

Having spent more than my fair share of time wedged in to the cockpit lockers grinding out various rotten wooden supports, glassing, and generally contorting... The time came to break out the thin metal cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.

My reasons for a fresh start:
I have a grinder...
My back stay chain plate knee is rotten...
The cockpit lockers were to narrow to work a sail bag through, making the v-berth the sail locker.
The old lockers gave great access to the shallow end where you can't put anything, and require standing on your head to get to the deep recess where everything falls.
The athwartship bulkhead that keeps stuff in the lazarette from sliding under the cockpit isn't structural... and keeps one from being able to stash a decent size oar in the cockpit locker.

So, aside from the plywood stiffeners being rotten, and the generally goofy curvilinear shapes of the stock pearson deck mold... I decided the day had arrived to start with a blank slate.


Since I have an outboard on Pylasteki, the rear deck and traveller arrangement were tough on the rump... My minds eye pictures an alerion 28 style rear deck with cut down toe rails that taper out to nothing. Mainly because that image has haunted my dreams since I stepped on board one at the Annapolis boat show two years ago. No puddles for water to blister off the paint, no need for 2 sets of chocks to keep paint on the rub rails in the slip.

The bridge deck has to rank of a curve, which makes water puddle up at the forward corners, making the triton a wetter boat than it ought to be. I figure raising the cockpit seats an inch will make the cockpit more comfortable, give better viability looking forward, and an inch more room above the galley sink so it might stay dry on a port tack.

So... off came the curved stern rail, and off came the stern deck. This provided an interesting visual... as the transom appears 2 inches shorter now. Also curious, my deck being from the second deck mold... has a transom that runs up almost 2 1/2 inches from straight across. The Mk 1 and mk3's are much less curved. My eye likes the curve, but I will be installing a hatch on the aft deck... I am mulling over a flat (1/2 inch rise in the middle, as a truly flat surface looks concave) rear deck to make it easier to get a good seal, and give better access to the tiller on my outboard. Sigh, Pylasteki will just look like all the other tritons in the world I guess...

Materials:

I've been wanting to try vacuum bagging, so I bought a sheet of divinycell foam. I'm mocking up the various pieces with the hopes of getting all my pieces out of 2 sheets. It will probably end up being 3... It will make a little waste, but I am going to glass the whole 4x8 sheets, and cut the pieces out as though they were plywood, then assemble with epoxy and glass tabbing.

This means I'll pre-fair the panels, paint the inside of the lockers... etc, before it goes together, with minimal time spent actually wedged inside the lockers themselves.

I'm plotting two stringers that will run continuous from 1 foot 6 inches aft of the cabin top, all the way to the transom. This will be boxed off site, upside down meaning the tops will be even to one another. My footwell will be straight, at this point I'm plotting 24 inches of width... same as it is down below. This may mean I need a tiller with more curve to clear knees, and regain some steering angle... I'm after the storage, and figure that wider seats will make the Triton's overly short coamings not hit the kidneys quite as easily.

I'm a little vain when it comes to the style of Pylasteki. I really love the line Alberg drew of those coamings... pretty much perfect.

The stock cockpit seats run at the same curve as the bridgedeck, which is fine when underway... I'm going to square off the cockpit sole, minus a few degrees, not so much that its even visible. I sat in (on?) a Herreshoff named Margaret over the summer last year, she was comfortable... mainly for the flat, wide, seats. So long as she doesn't list, the water should burn off the seats in morning sun...

My bridge deck is going to be 2 feet wide, reason being... I'm moving the cockpit locker bulkheads aft to make more storage inside the boat, the cockpit was being shortened... primarily so I can run my drains overboard above the waterline, out each side in the boot stripe. If one hose pops, it won't sink the boat.

That's all for now!

Zach

[bigd14]

Glad to see you're back at it. I enjoyed reading your 2009 Grinder War posts! Looks like a great new phase of the project, I'll be interested to follow your progress.

Doug

[Rachel]

Let the grinding begin!

Oh wait, that looks done. I mean, "Let the rebuilding begin!"

I love following along - this should be fun :)

Rachel

[Triton106]

Zach, you are an inspiration. I cannot wait to see how you put it all together. Before you and Tim cut up your respective cockpits I could not fathom projects like that was possible.

[earlylight]

Just one question.....Are you and Tim going in the business of selling used and slightly abused cockpits? :-)

[Zach]

Slightly abused cockpits... I could crate my old one up, but its in a pile...

Today: Pictures on the blog.
Today I took off work around 3:00 and went till 7...

I started out with a template of the stringers that will become the cockpit sides.
The easiest way I've found to start a project that hangs in space... Is to build a 2 dimensional outline that can be hung in space, defining a few planes.

In this case, I have some very straight 2x4's that are marked out in 6 inch increments from the aft end of the cockpit back. In addition to this, I have lines drawn square to the faces... so I can measure down with a tape measure or folding rule (folding rule gets a better fit) and jot down the measures on a notepad. The easy way is feet, inches, 8ths. When you go to warp a batten around something 16ths don't matter very much.

Good batten material: buy a #1 kiln dried treated 2x4 that is perfectly straight, no knots around 10 feet long... Rip with the grain... Feel around for hard spots and thin it down if there are any. Its not so important for lofting lines that it be perfectly the same width, as it is that it'll bend to your marks evenly. If you are jointing with a table saw... rip off one side, put your ripped side to the fence... rip again... then take your pass. I like around a 1/2 inch thick for big boat stuff... Rip a bunch of them, as they age some turn to hockey sticks/firewood.

From here, I marked out a piece of flat birch plywood... doesn't do you any good to make a template out of scraps that aren't straight and flat. I used a sheet rock t-square and made lines every 6 inches, then laid a piece of brown contractors paper across the plywood, and remade my lines. If it fits right the first time, I have my template for the other side... but where the paper comes to shine, is doing what I did here. See the tall section at the far end? I measured down from the underside of my 2x4's... You can either do the math to add a few inches to every measure, or just slide the paper to where it looks right... and or, find a piece of scrap that it lays over but didn't have a factory side to loft off of...

Next, take a screw and lay it on your marks... smack it with a hammer. Your mark is transferred from the paper to the plywood quite nicely. Now warp a batten around and play connect the dots with a pencil. Let it fly where ever it runs natural... this is just a template.

Take it to the boat, screw it to your bridge... now take a compass with a pencil, lay it on the hull and scribe the line. 3/4 or 1 inch is a good setting... measure it and jot it down on the piece. Go back and cut it out with a jig saw (or a circular saw like I did here... it's faster.)

If you are doing a bulkhead that has a sole that is flat... I build a carpenters square that stands on its own... a 1 ft square piece of 3/4 as the base, and two 2 foot tall by 1 foot wide pieces screwed together. Now if your floor is square you have something to align to, something to screw a piece of luan to for a joggle/tick stick...

Anyway, next up I cut the transom flat. I said yesterday I was going to loft a 1/2 inch curve into it... I decided today that flat will work just fine. A Triton's transom curves out 5 inches from square, per the plans... 3 1/2 inches at the top by my measuring. Mine was 2 1/2 inches taller than flat, so you have options. Either warp a batten around it, or take a piece of doorskin and roughly scribe the transoms curve on it. Then transfer that to a piece of 3/4 plywood that is wide enough not to lose its flatness... then come back and lay a pencil on top and scribe your line. If you like it... come back with a sharpie.

Once I scribed my line, I measured it out... 32 inches from the bottom of the heart to each corner, and 21 to the middle.

I cut the transom with a thin metal cut-off wheel (1/8th inch) on a 4.5 inch grinder. I always cut this kind of thing at an angle, where the back of the cut is much higher than the line, in case of goofs. If you try to hold it perfectly level, and things go awry you have to make it grow back.

I also advise cutting a 1/4 inch higher than the mark. It doesn't take long with 40 grit on an 8 inch grinder to turn a whole boat into dust. I came back with a straight edge and played with it till it looked right.

After that the weather started going south, so I fired up the grinder and attempted to burn off all the gelcoat on the port side. Didn't make it all the way... but total time invested hit 16 hours for the port side. She has an 1/8th inch of white, on top of the black tooling gel... It's about like firing up a grinder on a parking lot.

[Zach]

Pictures from yesterday

[Zach]

Two nights ago I laid up a sheet of divinycell with a layer of 1708 on each side. It was set up and pretty this morning...

Last night It was raining, but not blowing very hard so I could work inside and stay dry. I went from around 5:30 until 9:30.

I cut out the starboard settee with a skill saw and rode along side the tabbing. The face came out in pretty much one piece. Then I ground down the top tab to the plywood where I could see the seam, and got the aft end freed up off the lower tab with a pry bar. Once the ply was out I used a cutoff wheel to slice off the part of the tab hanging out... Saves on dust.

Then I cut out the aft shroud bulkhead, if she was still fitted out... The hanging locker bulkhead.
I used a cut off wheel on the angle grinder, cut through down to the plywood right beside the hull, then came back and ground it with some hard backed Norton 36 grit on the angle grinder. (4.5 in) I chopped the bulkhead in half with a sawzall to make it easier to remove. Geometry wants to hold a tightly fitting bulkhead in place. It won't be going back in the same spot... so no need to keep the old as a template.

Most of the plywood was in pretty decent shape, except the outer edge of the bulkhead. 4 layers thick in some areas, 1 mat, 1 roving, 1 mat, 1 roving... then finish cloth. Beastly strong... I went down to the first layer of mat, I'll come back with an 8 inch pad sander to keep everything smooth.

Took a dinner break, and came back to do some more grinding. I burned down the tabbing... Still have a few feet to go before its a fresh start on the starboard.

Pylasteki looks like 25 pounds of powdered sugar was dumped inside of her...

Today I cut out the port settee, and most of the head bulkhead. It too was full of water... I switched over to 16 grit Norton (bought another box...) and have been using Nortons hard rubber backing pad instead of the flexible black plastic ones you find at the hardware store. They will grind up into a corner and leave a rubber trail... instead of getting caught on something sharp and getting jagged. I like diamond flap discs when I'm working with all fiberglass, as they last forever... they get loaded up with wood, so cutting out bulkheads they aren't so great. The hard paper backed discs run about 2 bucks a piece... I've used 6 or 7 so far.

Tonight I went from around 5:00 till 6:30 laying up another divinycell panel, and grinding off the edges/prepping the face of the one from a few days ago. Should be ready in the morning. I'm planning to mock up my cockpit in the morning out of plywood, get all my templates made and then start assembling the pieces. It is supposed to rain sunday, so I will switch back over to grinding later in the evening.

Picture will come after I'm done grinding and get all the dust out. Today I scooped up a lot with my dust pan off the sides of the hull where little avalanches were forming...

Zach

[One Way David]

My reasons for a fresh start:
I have a grinder...
Zach

You really didn't need to go any farther.

I am going to have to follow this because I am conceptually challenged. I have to see what you are doing.

[Zach]

Today... Finished grinding out the tabbing for all the settees, bulkheads, and starboard shelf. I took those down too... New ones will run full length.
I pulled out the port aft lower chain plate and knee. It too, was full of water... though surprisingly not rotten.

I goofed. I was grinding with my 8 inch Makita (9227c... just get one...) full tilt with a piece of hard backed 36 on it, when it dug in... tore the paper and ran down to the bilge. On its way, the flag of torn paper took a pass across the back of my left hand. Just as an FYI... If you work with your hands and get scuffed up... put down the tools, clean it up, and hold your fingers closed in a fist and wrist bent down till it scabs up. That way you keep your range of motion without it popping open and scarring up. I took a lunch break, and waited for it to scab... then went back to it.

Finished up around 6:30 today.

I'm kicking myself however... Pylasteki got moved to the back row a few months ago, and I didn't think much of it till I grabbed a flap disc for my grinder. I use an 8amp (really should be a 10 amp...) 4.5 inch grinder. It dragged down in speed. Hmm... Suffering from some voltage drop. I haven't done a whole lot with hard backed paper on fiberglass so I just figured it was taking a bigger bite. I went and pulled out my heavy gauge cables and ran them to the boat. Easily bumped up the cutting speed by a 1/4. A eureka/ duh moment. I have good luck with yellow jacket brand extension cords...

In case you are wondering about grinding speed... its pretty much directly related to RPM and Amps. The greater the amp draw of a tool the more steady the rpm stays as you use it... beefier motor. You have a lot more control of a tool that doesn't change its speed... if you hit a patch of resin that was undercatalized and gooey and it drags down... you have to let off pressure, which loses control of the angle the tool is held to the work surface, that chatters up the surface. I like the makita because it doesn't matter if it is grinding a nail, wood, and fiberglass all at the same time it has a constant speed controller.

I use a 6.5 amp 4.5 grinder for my cut off wheels because it does bog down. With thin cut off wheels, they are the weak link... I don't much care for flying shrapnel.

I used .4 mil plastic for the last divinycell panel... it pulled off! I brain farted while laying it up and used some real thin polyethelene drop cloth... Generally making a layup table you want 3-4 mil stuff. I got lucky... Tape it down tight and smooth out the wrinkles so the resin can't work into it. Grocery bags don't work very well... Pylasteki had a Target label embeded in her bridge deck for a while.

Cheers,

Zach

[Zach]

I think more dust was made in the last 2 days than the entirety of the great grinder war of 2009.

Settees removed, head bulkheads removed. Chainplates pulled, galley bulkheads removed... Salon shelves removed...

Then all the tabs ground down. I ground down to the first layer of mat against the hull with my 8 inch makita grinder, and made a lot of dust. Pretty much everything was tabbed in with 5 layers. 1 layer of mat against the hull, 1 layer of roving, another layer of mat and another of roving, then a last layer of mat. I swept up close to 30 lbs of dust by the old calibrated elbow... lifting the cardboard box over the side.

I removed the paint using a 4.5 inch grinder with a twisted wire wheel. (not a cup style)
I held it perpendicular the hull, and moved it up and down following the angles of roving, then held it upside down and blasted the other side of the roving. Fastest way I've come up with for paint removal... Though it has crossed my mind that it'd take all of a half hour to grind the inside of the hull smooth with 40 grit on an 8 inch... But that would sacrifice some strength, and I'm not into that even though the Triton is built sturdier than the temple mount...

As far as order of operations go, take out the shelves and top of the bulkhead and grind it all flush before removing the settees. I wasn't thinking straight when I started from the bottom up... Ended up twisting and contorting to make it all happen... cest la vie. Small boats are not as easy to work on as big ones, though a day of grinding does noticeable things.

Cheers,

Zach

[jeffwagnpete]

This took me since July 4th 2009 to do. Looks like were pretty close as to where we're at on our boats. Today, my porter cable random orbiter sander burnt out. Was 2 hours into sanding and it crashed on me, wasn't happy. Are you going to fill in those voids where the old bulkheads were? If so, what is your technique to do that?

[Zach]

Caught a cold today so after work when I pulled into Pylasteki's spot, I couldn't bring myself to hop out of the truck...

On the main bulkhead I ground all the old mat tabbing out. Since this stuff runs along the length of the boat, I'm just going to add a little thickened epoxy (cabosil more than likely) to fair out the low spot after wire brushing it and an acetone wipe. I'll go back to the roving in spots that will have something tabbed in on top of it. On my main bulkheads I laid a 12 inch wide piece of 1708 from top to bottom and then set the bulkhead and tabs in on top of that. Probably not necessary, but I've got a thing for making stuff stout. Followed up with a layer of 6in tab (12 inch wide) and a layer of 8 inch tab (16 inches wide) on top of everything. Takes a lot of resin to do it... Weigh the cloth before you start, and that'll get you close on the amount of goo required. 50/50 cloth to resin.

For the most part the old tabbing was well done, but where I found yellow spots that indicated dry glass that flakes up... I ground off the loose stuff. A twisted wire brush on the old 4.5 inch grinder does a good job at pulling it up while leaving the well adhered stuff well enough alone. Even where there were dry spots and such, it still lasted 49 years without failure other than the bond to the plywood in places.

Every bulkhead I've pulled out of her has been wet... most of the rub rail screw holes line up with bulkheads... The reinforcing stringer that my starboard shelf rested on was rotten, water is amazing stuff.

I've been mulling over building everything else from here on out with foam and epoxy. It might delaminate, might even take on some water... but it'll never turn to total potting soil. Sigh.

Zach

[Zach]

Just for Rachel... Grin.

The shame of walking through a boatyard lunch room to scrub up after you've sprung a leak... "Pad sander" get that knowing sigh...

Takes three things to build a boat: Time, Money, and Blood.

Grin.

Zach

[Zach]

Yesterday after work I cut some out the rest of the cockpit templates I had been drawing up.

Just 1/2 inch birch plywood, good enough stuff to hold a straight line without much help.
I spent some time re-leveling Pylasteki, as I noticed a little air under one of the once tight jack stands. Hazards of working in a boatyard with a sand lot... Just used a water level and marked the scribed waterline.

I'm calling the cabin top/hatch sliders level, which is pretty close to the scribed waterline. Most of the time I measure top and bottom of stuff that runs athwartship (from one side to the other) off of a known true plane... Or something that isn't going to get changed. So, while I could hang a plumb bob to see if the vertical faces on each end of the cockpit are inline with gravity, what matters more to your eye is that they are inline with the rest of the vertical lines on the boat... So if the companionway bulkhead mirrors the main bulkheads, thats what I'll build to. Otherwise with the hatch boards out bulkheads will run at a different angle than the cockpit.

Not to say that is something even worth thinking about... but if you have a boat set up in one spot and steady you can pick a bulkhead to work off of and build a whole boat that looks right, or try to trust a plumb bob and level and build something that doesn't match. The trick is to take a level, and cut a wedge off one of the bulkheads so everything is evenly out, to the center of the earth, for the entirety of the bilge.

I'd probably change my tune if I mostly built boats on land, but the big one floats... so my brain wraps around thinking the boat is in its own little world.

In other news, my 24 inch wide cockpit won't work. I had a boat in the past with straight, narrow cockpit seats... but it had a transom hung rudder. Pylasteki's tiller sprouts up from the cockpit sole (floor) and needs a greater swinging clearance for knees and other things. Because of this you have to be far enough away from the tiller to make a tight turn, but also close enough to push it over the other way past center and gybe... The close enough in side of things, means I'd need to shove the coamings in about a mile to make it comfortable to push a the tiller past center.

The reason for the Triton's tapering cockpit is so when seated, your forward knee has somewhere to be. It tapers wider at the front than the back from 26 inches to a hair over 37.... at the forward end... at least at the top.

If I were not building a blue water boat, it'd be easy to square everything off and do away with the bridge deck, gaining the clearance to make things work. But, I'm not... So, no matter how much I like the aft end of a Herreshoff Alerion 26, things will go back more stock than not.

I also fired up the pad sander and started on the starboard side gelcoat removal and stopped as the sun was setting. It's not real smart to plow around with 40 grit after dark, at least in my book... as the fairer and flatter you can keep something while chewing off the old finish, the easier it is to arrive at an end product that is smooth and fair..

[Zach]

Update:

Last week I pulled out some of my divinycell, and converted my plywood template into foam. I had to call it quits, as the boat yard is destroying an old wood boat beside mine... as well as sand blasting, then painting a big steel trawler. The smell was over the top. It is mostly gone, so I'm back in the clear for safe habitation without carbon filtered respirators.

I spent the better part of an hour de-sanding Pylasteki. I'm sitting North of the railway, and all summer they've been sand blasting in south east winds. Her bilge was nearly banked over... (at least it seemed that way!)

Tonight I started prepping for another skirmish... taking tomorrow off work, and going to install the tabbing and cockpit bulkhead, as that epoxy is sitting out in the sun... time window before UV light eats it!

Pylasteki is not forgotten, Noel has just been throwing many curve balls and long hours. Takes away the desire to work on a boat, after working on a boat all day...

Zach

[Zach]

So, I tried for three days to get away from Noel at a decent hour and do some work on Pylasteki without any luck.

Today, I got away around 2:00, and worked till 7.

I took out the old bulkhead under the companionway, with a 4.5 inch metal cut off wheel on a grinder by laying it flat against the hull and grinding until I saw wood dust on both sides. Then I slid a long wood cutting sawzall under the bulkhead bending it into a j shape so it didn't dig into the hull and ran it from the bilge to the deck, and the bulkhead fell out. I ground out the old tabbing with a hitachi 7 inch grinder, and a norton 24 grit grinding disc or two. It is about the fastest way I have found to remove old tabbing...

On a fiberglass boat, it is worthwhile to remove the old tabbing as it is a secondary bond to the polyester fiberglass on the boat. Fiberglassing the new tabbing that holds the bulkhead in with epoxy, on top of a polyester tab doesn't make a whole lot of sense... while it will grab the wood, foam or coosa board better than the polyester resin would... it can also grab the hull better than the old tabbing can. So... I made a lot of dust.

After that I screwed a piece of luan to the old lip of the cockpit I left to stiffen the bridge deck while working... and used a tick stick to transfer the shape of the hull to the luan.

A tick stick is a piece of thin stuff, 1/4 inch or so by 1 1/2 wood with a few shapes cut in it. A lot of people use a tick stick with a few notches, number 1 2 3 or a b c along the notches so that it can show a long mark with a 3 and a short one with a 1.

I take my tick stick and cut a few hills and valleys, squares and rounds in it so that it can only be marked one way, and anywhere on its length is unique enough to be idiot proof. With a few V notches and a 1, 2, 3... I turn into an idiot...

With that done, I laid the luan down on a piece of junk 1/2 inch plywood, and laid my tick stick on each of the lines, marking the sharp end point with a pencil. Once the marks were there, I took a thin steel rule and used it as a batten (Traditionally a thin piece of wood with a clear straight grain and no knots so it bends uniformly...) I connected the dots, and cut it out.

Then I fit it to the bulkhead plywood to the starboard side, plumb to the world, and perpendicular the centerline of the boat. With that done I laid the starboard bulkhead on the port side, and noted the changes that needed to be made, by laying a scrap square of 3/4 inch plywood about 1 inch by 1 inch and marking the spots where it sees air.

Then I took the two bulkheads, and set them side by side in the boat, and scribed the overlap. (I purposefully left one just short of centerline, and the other real long...) and cut the overlap off the long one. I then set them together, and screwed a backer block of another piece of 1/2 inch plywood over the seam.

With that done, I took the full width plywood template out of place and laid it on top of a piece of 3/4 coosa board. Coosa board is a fiberglass filled polyurethane foam board that serves as a rot proof plywood replacement. I cut out the coosa with a jig saw, and then laid it on a piece of plastic.... on top of a piece of 3/4 plywood... on top of my table saw. (The only surface I have at the moment that is flat...)

I then cut out a piece of 1708 fiberglass, and laid it over the coosa and marked it out with a sharpie and cut it, then fiberglassed it with west systems epoxy using 60 ounces...

Tomorrow I will fit the bulkhead, relevel the boat (as it is on a sand lot and shifts with a lot of rain...) and glass it in place.

[Zach]

Leveled the boat...

Met a new friend named Rob today...

Fit the new Coosa bulkhead in place and tabbed it in place with two layers of 8 inch wide 1708 on the aft side, as I glassed the entire aft side, and will do the forward side... but did not want to add another sanding cycle tomorrow.

I goofed when I cut out the bulkhead... and cut the outside the line I scribed from my pattern... so it took a bit of time to fit, in addition to being 3/4s thick rather than just

I then ground out the old minibulkhead tabbing behind the rudder, and the old back stay knee...

Then I vacuumed out the interior and filled up a 6 gallon shop vac with fiberglass dust. Still have more to go but I ran out of light.

Tomorrow: Cut out the bridge deck and square the top edge of the coosa to the world... and everything. Grin.
Then, I'll take a piece of divinycell that I've already glassed, and place it on the new bulkhead leaving just a bit of the old cockpit seat as a cleat to epoxy it to. The seating height will actually be an inch higher finished, but the center of the bridge deck will go down an inch and change.

I have a piece of 4 inch wide 3/4 inch plywood that is doubled up that I use to keep things straight that take a good pull. A few screws through hold things straight, that will warp a piece of 3/4 plywood on end.

I put two pieces of 3/4 plywood 3 inches wide on the back of the coosa board to hold it flat while the glass is setting up, otherwise with foam and things glassed on only one side, it will be locked in as a potato chip. This is important if you are trying to make something that will be finished for paint, or will be a single wall thick with a door...

I was to dusty to get a picture...

Zach

[Zach]

So today I pulled off the stifflegs from the back of the bulkhead, prepared a piece of glass to skin the front side...

And then I backed up to the main bulkhead and looked at it. Something went wonky...

So I screwed my two 3 inch wide plywood straight edges together and made a go - no go gauge to go between the main bulkhead and the cockpit bulkhead.... (Straight stick 120 some inches long...)

Turns out the back wall of the cabin is out 3/4s of an inch from one side to the other, and I used the back wall of the cabin and bridge deck to align the cockpit bulkhead across the boat.

So, I cut out my perfectly flat, perfectly plumb bulkhead that was straight to the deck but not the hull. Then I cut out the bridge deck and started getting everything lined back up as it should be.
The reason for removal: The galley and cockpit are built off the hulls line, not the decks... so if I can keep it all symmetrical and be able to use a square to define fore and aft things speed up quite drastically. Noel taught me that one long ago... If its not right, pull it out or forever hold your peace...

I went ahead and ground off the tabbing to the hull, since the epoxy hadn't post cured from yesterday... The first 24 hours its easy to work with, after 3 days it gets mighty hard...

I won't be able to goof around with it anymore till tuesday night, so back to the beginning all over again.

[Rachel]

So, I cut out my perfectly flat, perfectly plumb bulkhead that was straight to the deck but not the hull. Then I cut out the bridge deck and started getting everything lined back up as it should be.

Augh!

Noel taught me that one long ago... If its not right, pull it out or forever hold your peace...

Isn't that the truth though! It's a bummer at the time, but worse when you then have to work around whatever it is for eternity.

[bigd14]

Ouch! Seems like its always two steps forward one back. Keep it moving forward!

Doug

[Zach]

Indeed...

Next tuesday... rainy stuff and family health intervened this week...