Devlin bluebill build thread.

Cody~

Can you recommend a specific brand/model? For the pads, too?

I've been limping along with my $10 used Craftsman - but am confused by the marketplace (I'm a lot older than you.....)

Thanks very much,

SJS
 
Thanks everyone!

SJS- Its two overhand knots lined up. I glue my deke knots, it just seems to work best that way for me. :)

I am planning on getting the hull stitched tonight, bottom and sides for sure, hopefully some bulkheads as well!
 
Some marked progress last night. I am glad I am finally in the fun part of seeing this thing start looking like a boat. More pics to come

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Lots of progress yesterday. Mile marker one was opening the hull.

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After tightening up (and snapping a few) of the loose stitches along the keel line, I then sanded the edges of my sides down to the line using a belt sander, and beveled the appropriate edges, as I had already beveled the edges on the bottom of the hull at the chine. Then we stitched the first side on:

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Stitching the second side went much faster, I still could not have done this without the help of my Dad, he held the sides and moved them as I needed him to, amongst other things.

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Complete (as it will be until bulkheads are cut and fit, hopefully this weekend.)

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I am loving the shape of this hull:

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Looks good!!!!

I saw the sander polisher comment. With a good one and a good backing pad (the one Devlin suggests) they are a great tool. A lot of folks gravitate towards the random orbit and never give the polisher a try and I think they are missing out. The large disk on the sander/polisher allows for efficient sanding and rapid removal of material over a large area that makes it easy to do a nice job - but you need to practice and use a good soft backing pad. I don't use it enough, but it is a great tool once you get used to it.
 
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Paul~

Congratulations! I can feel the excitement all the way over here in the Atlantic Flyway. I just wish I had an excuse to build one....

All the best,

SJS
 
was up at four this morning and started lofting up the bulkheads. I double checked all measurements before cutting, and sure enough, I screwed up at least once on almost all of the bulkheads. usually just on one measurement. But that's why the saying exists, right? I'm glad I measured twice, or three times!

First to get cut was the bow transom:

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Next up was the forward cockpit bulkhead. Do you guys think I should cut and rout out a hole in this so I can use the space between this and the flotation bulkhead for storage? That isn't in the plans, but it sure makes sense to me...

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Here's a pic of my wonderful, very helpful dad using his AWESOME crafstman multi tool drill-o-matic thing that worked really great for a number of projects. He is cutting out the floor with the circular saw attachment.

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Next we got started on the motor well/transom

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We attached the athwartships pieces of the motorwell first, then attached the longitudinals to those, and attached the longitudinals to the transom doubler before attaching the transom bulkhead to the whole kabob. this is for fitment purposes only and this allowed me to keep the centerline on the doubler and the transom in line with the keel, which is the only way to tell if you're fitting things up straight and true, since there arent any right angles on the boat to check out LOL. all of this fitting was done so i could use my jigsaw to cut out the motor well area of the hull.

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Certainly not perfect, but a surprisingly clean finished product. lots of sanding and PBing to be done on this boat, but it will float, and it will kill ducks.

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Wow, you are really going to town on this project. I'm not familiar with the BlueBill plans but on my BB3 the foreward cockpit bulkhead was cut out so you could use the storage between it and the foreward flotation bulkhead as storage.

I use it to house a custom gas tank, fuel filter and my battery. I don't have a pic of the complete bulkhead but here are a few of a bit of it.

First pic is the view into the storage area between the foreward and the flotation bulkhead




This pic is of the port side of the cockpit bulkhead and the mounting of a fuel filter on the forward side of that bulkhead



This pic is of the starboard side of that same bulkhead and the battery wires running through it. On the forward side is a Master Control Switch that can shut off all the power from the battery when necessary.

 
It is not on the plans to do that, but it is in my plans. :D How did you go about that tank, very nice!
 
The tank was custom made to my specs by a company in Florida - I can't remember the name off the top of my head. I'd try to find it if you are interested. Seems like it was in the $240 range back in 2003.
 
Holy #%$^&*#@! Last time I saw that it was just a stack of scarf cut plywood. Great job Paul!!! Can't wait to get over there and see it in person.
 
Holy #%$^&*#@! Last time I saw that it was just a stack of scarf cut plywood. Great job Paul!!! Can't wait to get over there and see it in person.
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No idling here, full speed ahead!
 
Wow! You're cruisin'!

I've been watching this thread and you are indeed moving full speed ahead. I'm building a Devlin Snow Goose. I started 2 years ago! I remember getting to the hull pretty quickly. Then I got the bottom painted, flipped it and paused before getting the top decks on. Business and kids kept me from it for a bit. My only advice: don't stop! : ) keep crankin'!

Looks great so far. I wish you continued good luck and happy building!

Best,
Kris
 
Okay gents, I will this week be squaring up the boat, and tabbing it, and hopefully doing all the epoxy fillets and taping on the inside.


What are some tips you can give for squaring it up and making sure it isn't twisted or untrue? I'm building it on a plywood table on two sawhorses, not exactly high tech.

Thank you for the support, wisdom, and replies thus far! I am hoping to be pretty well done with it in a month or two. Plenty of time to use and work bugs out before season that way.
 
What I did was to measure from the bow to the top of both rear corners of the shear after making sure that the hull was positioned level.

You are making great progress, keep up the good work.
 
What I did was to measure from the bow to the top of both rear corners of the shear after making sure that the hull was positioned level.

You are making great progress, keep up the good work.
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Did you use the crazy looking water tube level thing devlin uses in his book? I'm sure my garage floor isn't perfectly level, so I need to level to the world, not to the garage floor.
 
No, I didn't Paul. That just seemed like a lot of work considering I didn't have help to hold the other end of the hose. The anal side of my brain really struggled with that decision too :)
 
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