Sheer clamp 1

I picked up the wood for the sheer clamps last night, some nice cedar.  It isn't totally clear, but the knots were pretty small.  I ripped 4 strips out a 10' long  by 6" wide board, cut some quick scarfs, and epoxied them them together to get 2 almost 20' x 1" strips.  The best part about working with cedar is the wonderful smell, every time you cut the stuff, it smells great!  Anyway, after letting the epoxy set for ~12 hours, I got the first one glued to the boat.  I can only do one at a time because I have a limited number of clamps.  I am using all of my spring clamps and a few G clamps and ratchet clamps too... and this is AFTER I bought 8 new spring clamps last night (all they had at Menards)!  As I have said many times before... you can never have too many clamps!!!

Bulkheads and frames stitched

Quickly... panel 4 removed; bulkheads and frames removed, notched for sheer clamp, and re-stitched... pics:

Half step back, then forward!

After getting panel 4 stitched on last night, I am planning to remove it tonight.  Really the only reason I put it on was to make sure everything was still fitting together nicely before I permanently glue the panels together.  As you can see from my list of next steps above, I will be temporarily stitching in the bulkheads and frames and then "tacking" the panels together with thickened epoxy.  Once the tacks are in place, I can remove the stitches, which is great because working around the boat is kind of like working around a huge cactus; lots of sharp prickly points looking to grab at skin or clothes.  So far, only minor scratches... :)

I am also going to take the strongback + boat off the saw-horses.  The whole assembly is just too high; the sheer is about at my sholder level.  I have been getting by standing on a milk crate, but that just isn't going to cut it, especially one glassing starts.  I am going to throw some shorter supports together from the chip-board I have left from the scarfing table.  This should make working on the interior a lot easier.

Quick pic update

Too lazy to write now, but here are some more pics from tonights work:

Panel 3 stitched

Just pics tonight...

Panel 2 stitched

I took advantage of the kids taking a simultaneous nap and got panel 2 stitched.  This is the best part of stitch and glue construction, the boat takes shape very quickly.  Everything is fitting together nicely so far, at this rate, I'll be done in no time!

First Panel Stitched!

I made some real progress last night.  I finished pre-drilling stich holes, and cleaned up some of the glue "squeeze-out" around the scarf joints.  I figured it would be a lot easier to sand the joints flat on a table than while on the boat!  After the joints were squared away, I moved all the panels back under the table and removed the extra cross pieces I had added for scarfing and layout.  Then, I mounted the three building forms that I had previously cut out.  I took my time getting them mounted to the strongback, making sure they were square, centered, and properly spaced.  

At that point I almost called it a night, but I really wanted to see what the first pair of panels looked like sitting in the forms.  I pulled the panels out and arranged them on the forms, where they fit very nicely.  Then I thought, "maybe I'll put in a couple stitches, just to see what it looks like."  A couple stitches eventually turned into the whole centerline joint.  One tricky part was getting the stitches up through the holes.  After getting a foot or so in from the ends, I started having the stiches come from the bottom up, that would make it easier to tighten and adjust them.  I finally came up with the idea of using a flashlight to shine light through the stitch holes from above, then I could push the wire through the hole from below.  Once I got my little process down, the stiching went pretty quickly.  I can't wait to start adding more panels!