Structural Filleting, Part 1

Been a while since I updated this site.  Had some family issues that kept me from doing much for the last 3 weeks.  But I'm back to work now.

When I left off I had masked the area between bulkhead 8 and the transom for filleting.  Got those done and they turned out pretty nice.

I filleted the center section under the footwell with one big fillet instead of two smaller ones.  It was work to get it right but it turned out nice.

Moving forward I did the next bay.  Since the center area is wider here I used two smaller fillets on the keelson-hull joint

I've masked the area between bulkhead 1 and 2 and removed the stitches in preparation for filleting.

Next up:  Continuing the process of structural filleting.

Hours this session: 8
Hours total: 118
Hours remaining: 284

Masking the Water Tight Bulkhead Area for Filleting

I finished the tack weld step.  Gotta be kinda a contortionist to get to all the places.  I've got aches in places I forgot I had.

In preparation for the final filleting I masked off the area behind the watertight bulkhead.  This was done by:
1.  Removing the stitches in this area.
1.  Deciding what radius I wanted to use on a specific seam.
2.  Inscribing the radius on the seam using a compass.
3.  Taping to the radius lines.

The idea behind this is that it makes the fillets much more even, reduces sanding and overflow cleanup.  I've done this before on other boats I've built and I think it is well worth the time.

Notice that the vertical corners of the transom have not been taped off.  I ran out of tape!  So time to take a break.

Hours this session: 4
Hours total: 110
Hours remaining: 292

First Tack Welds

The two steps that I tackled today was to glue bulkhead #7 and floor support #4 to the centerboard trunk and to create the tack-welds.

Bulkhead #7 was no problem since I hadn't stitched it in completely to allow for the temporary screws.  I masked off the edge of the trunk and the mating edges of the bulkhead to keep squeeze out to a minimum.  That part worked perfectly.  I then finished the stitches and all went easy.

Floor support #4 was another manner.  It was lightly stitched in and wouldn't pull out very far which made it difficult to get epoxy behind it.  In the end I prevailed and while I was there I created the fillets for this floor board on the C/B trunk.

Now that everything in the lower hull is in final place I started to do the "tack weld" step.  The idea behind this is to run thickened epoxy between all the stitches.  This glues everything together so that most of the stitches can be removed (crap... I just got them all in!!!).  These tack welds must be made small enough that they will be completely covered by the final structural fillet.

My first attempt at the "pastry bag" method was a minor disaster.  I cut the corner too deeply and thickened epoxy gushed out much too quickly to create the small fillets.  When I realized this, I immediately transferred the unused epoxy to a new zip lock bag and cut a much smaller hole.  This time it worked perfectly and created fairly nice tack welds.  I smoothed out and cleaned up the areas where I didn't get it quite right.

I repeated this process and did about 1/3 of the boat before I had to stop and take the wife to dinner.

I'll let this dry and get on it again for the next session.

Hours this session: 6
Hours total: 106
Hours remaining: 296

A Little Problem

If you check out this link it'll explain the problem that I found.

http://www.pocketship.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=207

Basically all but the floor support at bulkhead #2 line up perfectly.  However, the pre-glued support at bulkhead #2 is about 1/2" too high.

It doesn't seem like I've made any measurement or assembly mistakes.  I have an idea of how I can remedy this situation, but I'd sure like to know what went wrong.