Bulkheads, Perimeters and more

(I sent this before, but something with our email server messed up the message... so posting again here)
Another productive weekend. Not a lot of time, just a few hours overall, but got a lot done on Shan Skailyn in the time that I did have. Last week, I did manage to squeeze in little bits of time for gluing here and there, to keep the process going. Again, 15 minutes one day, 20 minutes another... it all adds up.
So this weekend I was ready to finish cutting the station 1 bulkhead perimeters. I did manage to finish gluing up all the perimeters as well. I ran out of my 3/4" brass ring nails before I could finish gluing up the station 1 perimeters so I had to settle for using my brad gun. I'm hoping to get more nails within the next couple months when I can then reinforce these perimeters with them. The struggle for me, is going to be NOT going ahead and gluing the hull together. It's a major milestone! Can't wait to begin to see Shan Skailyn's form emerge from all this work! And the only thing holding me back is not being able to reinforce my bulkhead perimeters! Ugghhh! There is plenty of other stuff I can do in the meantime, like working on the hardware, or gluing up timber for the kick up rudder and/or leeboard, building the motor mount bracket, etc.
One goofy problem I had, from which I hope someone else can learn, is when I was drilling my 5/16" bolt holes through the station 2 bulkheads, I ran into an easily avoidable problem. I kept hitting nails with my drill bit! Now when I was nailing the perimeters on, I thought briefly, "What if I put these nails right where the bolt holes are supposed to go... Eh, what are the chances!?" Well as it turns out, the chances are pretty good! About half of the holes I drilled happened to intersect with some part of the ring nails! Wasn't too terrible, except it messed up my nice precision point drill bit. I did manage to make do pretty well though. Once I heard the familiar nick-nick-nick of the bit hitting metal, I backed off. Then I came back with a harder drill bit to slowly cut the rest of the way through the nail, making a clean hole. One of the holes, however, had something go wrong. All I can figure is that a piece of the nail came out, swirled about in the hole like shrapnel and opened up the hole considerably. I don't think it's going to be a huge problem. But I am thinking about maybe filling with epoxy and re-drilling that one. The inside of the hole is all 'fuzzy' since it wasn't actually cleanly drilled. What's the lesson learned? Mark your hole placements before you drive your nails! Chances are good you're going to put one right where you need to drill!
One other problem I realized this weekend. I messed up on the measurements of the bolts for connecting the bulkheads. They're too short! Had to order more. Now I have to find an inexpensive way to get them over here in the next couple months... along with more brass ring nails.
At this point, my focus is going to be to continue finish getting everything ready to get glued. Not quite there yet. But I did manage to get the notches for the chines cut out of the bulkhead bottom edges (see pix). Got all the bulkhead sides planed and matching very closely to each other. Need to round a few edges here and there, mark up the sides for the station placements, cut the miter on the chines at the stern and bow, along with some other smallish tasks. Once everything is ready, I need to wait for my nails which I probably won't see till September. Can't just go to home depot and buy stuff out here!
As I mentioned before, I've got some of my own hardware I'm going to have to fashion. One is, per Gary's plan, I need to make the leeboard 'plate' out of 1/8" out of aluminum (or 'aluminium' if you're Aussie!). The other thing that I just figured I could make easily enough is the hinged rudder brackets; the brackets on which the rudder pivots for steering. We have an old, broken washing machine tub made of stainless steel. I did manage to cut a sheet of this stainless steel off the tub this weekend. It's from this sheet that I'm planning on cutting and forming the brackets. Need to draw up plans for those and get cutting and shaping. Tin snips and a collection of files, along with various drill bits will be my tools of choice for the brackets.

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The Hull Story

On Saturday I was able to put several more hours into Shan Skailyn's hull. Things are definitely progressing along. But it's little bits at a time. One thing I'm reminded of is just how much work goes into all the cutting, planing, and preparation for a project like this, before you start putting anything together. I've done carpentry on and off for years and I always have to be reminded of that in each project I do!

So this weekend, I continued gluing more of the gunwales and chines onto the sides. Most people think of Papua New Guinea and think 'hot and humid'. But we're up high in the mountains, about 12 miles off the coast. Our weather here is cold, down in the low 50's in the morning and evening. Maybe tipping into the low 80's on nice days. Lately though, we've been in the 70's during the day. All that to say, I've learned that epoxy is going to take a LONG time to cure in these temps. It's taking about 24 hours to harden enough where I can barely push my fingernail into it. Then another day before it's fully hardened. Apparently gluing stuff together is going to take a while since I'm limited on clamps. I think once I'm done with the chines and gunwales though (only enough clamps to glue up 2 long pieces at a time) then things will probably pick up a bit. So far, I've managed to finish both sides for the middle section and I just finished gluing up the last of the chines and gunwales on one of the end pieces this morning. Usually only takes about 20-30 minutes of work to glue up two pieces, so maybe I can piece the rest of it together sometime during the week. Time will tell. I have a busy work week planned this week.

I cut all the pieces for the bulkhead perimeters. All that's left to cut is the lengths, angles and curves for the two station 1 perimeters (see pic). All the perimeters were cut from scrap pieces of tongue and groove flooring. It all worked out really well. I also managed to get station 3 (from Gary's Wa'apa plans) all glued up (see pic). I think for gluing my bulkhead perimeters, I'm going to take the easy way and use my brad nailer to get everything solid in place. Then I'll come back around with my bronze ring nails for the real support.

Also cut my stems. However, I realized that I put the 10 degree taper the wrong way; going narrower than the planned 3/4" width at the bottom; The wrong way! Debating whether or not I should recut those. Will that small thing make a big difference? It'll make the bow and stern narrower by a little more than 1/4". Maybe that'll be a good thing. Any thoughts? Any reason that that much of a difference in the stem width (at the bottom end) would cause serious problems? All I can think of is that the wood might split when I nail it. If anyone knows better, I'd appreciate some feedback here.