Senior by dcicero - RADIO - Footy-class from Clay Feldman's series in Ships in Scale

[dcicero]

Two steps forward!

 

I finished forming the bow block.  Like I said in prior posts, this will allow me to make the compound curve at the bow and give the hull sections something to bite into when glued in place.

 

 

The hull starts looking like a hull now...

 

 

I was very careful to make two, identical, sides of the hull.  No way they were going to align on the model if they weren't the same off the model.

 

One tricky thing was getting those hull sides glued at the bow.  The bow block made a big difference, but this 1/32" plywood is very stiff and it doesn't want to hold the hull shape.  I had to re-glue it twice to get it to stick, even using Titebond III, which is a very strong adhesive.  When I pulled the clamps off and it held, I figured I'd made a big step forward.

 

But wait!

 

Two steps forward ... one step back.

 

Check out the misalignment:

 

 

That's a misalignment of about 3/32", way too big to ignore ... and the bigger question:  how did it happen?

 

Looking bow on, the bow block looks right.  The two hull sections below it were identical.  So where the gap come from?

 

I think it's just a misalignment.  Check this out.  I laid a batten on the port side of the hull and it followed the curve of the hull just fine.

 

 

And then on the starboard side:

 

 

There's the gap.

 

I think it's a little more than the bow block that's off.  If I measure to the bottom of the bow block on both sides, there's a little gap there too:

 

 

 

So here's what I'm going to do, much as it pains me.  (I was really looking forward to fiberglassing this hull and moving on to different things.)

 

1. Heat up the joints and remove the starboard side.  I might loosen up the port side in the process, but I don't see how I can avoid that.
2. Clean up the glue and re-align the side so that the bow lines up properly.
3. Glue it back in place.
4. Fill in the gap with 1/32" stock and make all the angles work out.

This is a form for the fiberglass, so it really doesn't need to look perfect, but it has to be dimensionally perfect.  That's what I'm shooting for.  

 

Anyone got any other suggestions?

 

 

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

[dgbot]

Instead of removing it.  How about jut adding to the top since it is to be fiberglassed anyway.

David B

[Mark Pearse]

I agree with David, the chine wasn't out enough to be visible so it's worth considering accepting that minor issue. 

 

There is the personal question of just how much rebuilding we are each happy to do & not be discouraged.

 

Mark

[dcicero]

I thought about building up or cutting down to make the gunwale right, but, after staring at it for a while, I decided it would probably be noticeable.  Last night, I pulled off the starboard side.  Pretty much trashed the part in the process, so I'll need to make another one, but that's no big deal.  I can use the old one as a template.  I also marked the dimensions on the frame again, to give myself a greater chance of getting everything lined up.

 

Interesting point about discouragement.  I really did want to move along and frustration is setting in, but this isn't rocket science, I'm not on a deadline and if I'm ever going to learn to scratchbuild ... well, this comes with the territory.

 

The more ship modeling I do and the more I see what other people can do, the more I realize I need to learn.  With each trial and error, I get closer to the result I want and I'm anxious to learn to do the fiberglassing of the hull and see if I can make an operational model.  I think it's worth the effort.

 

Besides, I've only ever put one other model in the shelf, a model of Stephenson's Rocket from Occre.  I made decent progress, but the kit was inaccurate in so many ways and I would have had to have done so much scratch building to get it the way I wanted it that I just moved on.  Maybe, someday, I'll get back to it.  This model I want to stick with for a while.

 

 

Dan

 

[dcicero]

As I said before, I removed the port side.  I used my heat gun as carefully as possible to avoid loosening up anything I wanted to retain.

 

 

It didn't take much to get the old glue off, just some sanding and scraping.

 

I used the old side as a template for the new one.  I cut the new one out using my jigsaw, adding a little bit around the edges.  The photo didn't turn out all that well, so I added the red lines to show where the old part ended and the new part began.

 

 

I've been thrice bitten now, so I was meticulous about measuring.  I highlighted where gunwale should be on the formers again.  Then I used a tick strip to measure from that point down to the top of the lower section of the hull.

 

 

I placed the new port side on the model and marked where all the formers were.  This is important because 1) the curve of the hull means they're not parallel to each other on the part or perpendicular to anything and 2) I needed a reference line for the measurements I made with the tick strip.

 

I marked all those dimensions on the part.

 

 

Then I just sanded the part down to the marks I'd made, adjusting as I went to make sure the curve faired with the part next to it.

 

 

I could tell I was on the right track when I lined up the bow.

 

 

Then I applied glue and duct tape.

 

(In the article, Clay Feldman makes heavy use of duct tape.  I'd never considered that before, but I'm a convert now.  It's strong, flexible, allows you to clamp difficult shapes and, when you remove it, it doesn't leave residue and comes off easily.)

 

 

And here's the result:

 

 

When I took the clamps and tape off, the bow was lined up perfectly.  I purposely left some excess on there so I could fair it in, but when you turn the model a little...

 

 

It's dead on balls accurate!  That's what I was shooting for.

 

In the end, this little problem set me back a few days, but I think it was worth it.  When you sight down the side of the model, the top of the wale is right along the marks, so'm pretty confident the hull is going to be straight and true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan

[Elijah]

Very nice solution! I'm sure you won't regret it!

[kurtvd19]

Looking good Dan.  It pays to take the time to redo something you know just isn't as good as you can make it.

Don't leave duct tape on too long or it will leave residue. 

For the time you are working on it no problem.  Just don't use it and leave the model for a week or two (or even longer) before getting back to it.  The stuff sticks better the longer it's on until all the adhesive is wicked into the part and when the stiff tape is removed all sorts of adhesive is left behind to gum up the wood.  Ask me about this at the meeting and I will tell you how I know....

My tape holders by my desk always have a roll of duct tape as well as blue painter's tape for those jobs that need a good hold that will not loosen.  I consider both as essential tools.

Kurt

[gjdale]

Great result Dan! Well worth the extra effort.

[captainbob]

Yes, it feels good when it all comes together the right way.  Well done.

 

Bob

[dcicero]

Last month, at the monthly meeting of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society of Chicago -- of which I'm a member -- Geoff Matson asked me, "Are you Catholic?"

 

Seemed an odd question...

 

"Yes," I said, "but not a very good one.  Why do you ask?"

 

"Because your posts read like confessions!"

 

Guilty.  See?  I'm at least that good a Catholic.

 

So, with this post I'm going full-on Donald Trump.  Everything's great.  Yuuuuge!  I must tell you:  you're going to be very impressed.  

 

It was time to do the fiberglassing of the hull.  This was something relatively new for me.  I did some real fiberglassing of real boat hulls back in high school, but that's a long time ago.  (I'm a proud graduate of Green Bay Preble High School, Green Bay, WI, Class of '83.  Go Hornets!)  And back then the only option was polyester resin that required personal protective equipment -- including a respirator -- and a great deal of ventilation.

 

Instead of polyester, I used epoxy resin from West Systems which I bought at Stirn's Marine in Aurora, IL.  Kurt Van Dahm warned me that this was going to be expensive, but it wasn't too bad.  I got the resin and hardener for about $70.00.  That's enough material to do several hulls.

 

I'd purchased some fiberglass cloth -- very light -- at HobbyTown and I talked to a lot of people about how I should approach this.  Here's what I learned:  everyone has a different way of doing this.

 

Kurt told me not to thin the epoxy out too much because it would run.  My dad told me to just mix it up without thinning it at all.  The guy at Stirn's told me to mix it up with some sawdust to fill any cracks or imperfections and he didn't think I really needed the fiberglass at all, just the epoxy.  Kurt mentioned that too, that the epoxy itself would be doing most of the work.  Clay Feldman recommended the fiberglass, though, and -- obviously -- I already had it so there was no reason not to use it.  I found a really great video on YouTube that recommended thinning the epoxy 1:1 with denatured alcohol.  The West Systems directions didn't explicitly recommend thinning, but suggested acetone.

 

(

)

 

So...

 

First, I cut the fiberglass.  The YouTube video recommended using very sharp scissors for that, which was good advice.  You'd think it'd be easy to cut, but it really wasn't.  Sharp scissors are necessary.

 

 

Then I mixed up the epoxy.  For the first batch, I mixed 5:1 resin to hardner by volume.  I used old yoghurt containers and the little cups you get creamer in at restaurants.  Worked like a champ.  Then I thinned by about 0.5:1 with acetone.  The YouTube video recommended about double that amount of thinning, but he also said he wanted a consistency like water, which the 0.5:1 thinning delivered.  I applied it using a disposable brush from Harbor Freight Tools ($0.59/each).

 

Here are the results:

 

 

It was yuuge!  Very spectacular.  Believe me:  it was very impressive.  Very impressive.  Everyone I talk to, they say it's just extremely wonderful and great.

 

One thing I was concerned about going in was getting the fiberglass to bend around all the compound curves in the hull.  Not to worry.  The YouTube video showed how it would go around all those curves and, if it didn't, I could stop, let it dry, cut another piece of fiberglass and fair it in.  Nothing to worry about.  And there wasn't anything to worry about.  I did the whole job with one piece of fiberglass and there were no creases in the end.

 

I cut away the excess fiberglass with an X-Acto blade before taking this picture.

 

For the next batch, I measured it out by weight, again at 5:1 resin to hardener.  I used a postal scale because I didn't want to make up as much as I did for the first batch.

 

 

And then I applied it.  This is what it looked like right after applying the resin.  After drying, it was evened out completely.

 

 

Very impressive.  Very impressive.  Everywhere I go, the people, I must say -- and I'll be completely honest with you -- they're very happy and, honestly, I am too.  Not to brag, but I must say, there are a lot of boat hulls out there that, frankly, do not look this good, so, yes, we're all very happy with this result.  Very impressed.  I hear from people all the time, the best people, mind you, Donald ... uh, I mean Dan, that's the finest boat hull we've seen.  I mean, seriously, they say that to me all the time.  I don't ask them.  They just say it.  And these are top people, remember.  Top people.

 

And so there you go, Geoff.  A whole post without one confession of error or failure of any kind!  (I'll go over that stuff at the next meeting...)

 

Next steps?  I'm going to give the whole hull a light sanding and another coat.  That ought to do it.  Then I can detach it from the building board and start working on the interior.

 

 

 

 

Dan

[Nirvana]

Dan,

Please look at this link, I think it could be very helpful for you, besides there are plans available to.

[dcicero]

It's been a while since I posted anything about my little footy.  I've actually been working on it, but fairing the hull took a lot longer than I anticipated.

 

I primed the hull with some spray primer I had laying around.  That was a bad move...

 

I used Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty to get rid of any imperfections in the hull, stuff that showed up when it was primed.  The problem was that the spot putty took off the primer!  (Okay.  It's not automotive body work, where you use putty then you prime, but I think the problem would have happened either way.  The primer and putty were not compatible.  This was easily fixed by using a proper automotive primer.

 

 

I used several primer coats, finding imperfections each time and correcting them with putty.  Then I started putting down some final color (white), again from a spray can.  It's Ace Hardware Interior and Exterior Enamel.  I'm really pleased with the result.  It's smooth and the the finish is tough enough for outdoor use.

 

 

And now on to the interior.  Clay Feldman recommends leaving the hull on the formers while the bulkheads are fabricated.  I did that, but I really want to cut the hull off and see what the interior looks like.

 

Anyway...

 

I scaled the diagram in the magazine up to full size.  (If I remember right, it was about 123% of the original size.)

 

 

Then I used spray adhesive to attach the plan to 1/16" plywood.

 

 

Clay recommends cutting the bulkhead out 1/8" oversized, so I drew an outline 1/8" from the bulkhead lines.

 

Then I cut the whole thing out with my jigsaw.

 

 

I got the second bulkhead cut out, glued to plywood and the guidelines drawn on last night, but it was getting late and I didn't cut it out from the plywood.  Maybe tonight.

 

Up at the Manitowoc Maritime Museum last weekend, I got to talk to some guys who've built and raced footies, including  Jim Knorr, who runs the Maritime Bay Model Sailing Club.  My two sons had a good time running them around in the pond, too.  Looking at his models, mine looks a little over-built!  His were real racers.

 

 

 

Dan

 

 

[Nirvana]

Dan,

Unless you are intending of racing it doesn't matter if you have extra weight.

Otherwise, light as possible within class regulations.

​

[dcicero]

I finished off the bulkheads last night.  Here they are!

 

 

And then I popped the hull off the formers.  You can see a little bit of the resin that made its way between the hull sections, but the waxed paper I'd put on the formers kept the hull from sticking to them.

 

 

The edges were pretty rough because there was some resin globbed up there.  It was easily sanded off with my little belt sander.  I made sure to wear a dust mask while doing this as there are glass fibers in that resin.  Don't want to be breathing that...

 

Here's the result.  (The transom is still high.  More on that below.)

 

 

As you can see in prior photos, the bow was right down close to the building board.  That gave me very little room for a saw blade to cut it off the formers.  I ended up clamping the building board in my machinist's vice and cutting the hull off with the thinnest blade I had:  a hacksaw.  It worked just fine.  The stern was easily taken off with the proper tool:  a coping saw.

 

From the article:  "Note the deck camber, just over 1/8" midships, which needs to be applied to these bulkheads and also to the existing transom and to bulkhead #1."  I'm going to have no problems with the transom or the bulkheads I just cut, but, because the hull was so tight against the building board forward, I had no choice but to cut the forward bulkheads almost flush with the gunwale.  I may have to make a curved piece of plywood with the proper camber and add it to the forward bulkhead to get the right camber there.  Need to do some measuring tonight.

 

I'm also going to need to sand down the sides of the boat a little bit to get rid of some excess resin globs.  I tried that a little last night and I doubt that's going to be a big deal.  It is going to screw up my super-nice paint job though!

 

 

 

 

Dan

[kurtvd19]

Dan:

Looking good.  To avoid chipping the paint make sure that you file/sand on the hull only on the inboard stoke - lift for the outboard stoke.  Should be able to avoid and chipping.  You might want to apply some masking tape at the edge, mark it and sand to the line - again sanding only on the inboard stroke.  For the fit of the deck you might want to bevel to top edge of the hull, when sanding it, to fit the angle of the bulwarks/deck camber.  Also. I am sure you are going to put some sort of deck / hull clamp at the top edge of the hull to provide gluing surface for the deck - you might want to add it first to stiffen the hull edge and then do your sanding so the clamp's top edge is sanded to fit the deck camber at the same time you clean up the hull's top edge.

Kurt

[dcicero]

Thanks, Kurt! I'm going to use your masking tape tip. That'll protect the paint as much as possible.

 

The article recommends stiffening the sides of the hull too and I have some stock that should work for that. Good tip on beveling the edges too. Hadn't thought of that...

 

 

Dan

Edited May 28, 2016 by dcicero

[Nirvana]

Dan

Have you weight your yacht yet?

Some designed displacements are around 300 grams.