Let the game begin!

James Dalton

James Dalton

Member
After weeks of collecting hardware, epoxy supplies, wood, tools and everything else I could get my hands on I officially got a start on my build today. I received the scarffing jig from John on Friday and scarffed all my wood today. John that thing works like a champ! Thanks so much for letting me borrow it. Its off to Brandon this Monday.

I also started lofting and cutting out templates from luan for the bulkheads. Its really suprising how much energy and work I am willing to put into this. I didn't stop to eat lunch and really hated it when I had to go pee. It was taking time from my build! I only stopped to eat dinner because my bride was hungry after her shopping trip. I'm not really sure how much sleep I will be getting tonight. Visions of scarfs and lofting lines running thru my head all night I'm sure.

My father-in-law is coming down from the Eastern Shore Sunday to take a peek at what I have done so far. He is just as excited as I am I think. He is the one who got me into duck hunting and I can see the pride and excitement in his face when we talk about the boat. He built the boat we hunt out of when I go up to his place.

Following are some pics of how well the 875 Scarffer did. Six sheets in about an hour including setting up the jig on the saw. Not bad at all.

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Can you tell which piece I started with? Luckly its a hill and not a valley. It can be sanded out with a belt sander.

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More updates to follow!
 
Atta boy Jim, Those of us who have been there know the thrill of a new one taking shape. Enjoy and don't try to tell yourself that this will be the last build. My favorite boat name is "My Next Last Boat". Keep the pics and questions coming.
 
Jim, How did you get the 8-1 scarf with the attachment I couldnt get close to a 3" cut,I had to plane and sand to finish. Did you get a complete cut with the skarfer? Is your saw blade bigger than 7 1/4"? They look great .
 
I am next in line for the tool and talked to Jim today its shipping out tomorrow. I need to build a table still for constuction and have some other projects in the way but I will get there as well. here is a quick picture of my pile of wood. I bought it 600 miles away and took it out of the truck today.

The plywood, clear pine, oak, and aluminium are all under the tarp for safe keeping. The clean plastic you see has dry white cedar carving blocks and 1" bottom boards under it as well as a health stack of dry clear white ash for a BBSB build in the future. In addition the wood not covered is the reason I have the ash I went down to buy rough sawn cedar for duck boxes and they had the ash so I bought it up. They also always have clear cedar for builds on hand. Price was more then reasonable. Could have lots of ash and cedar builds in my future.

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Wahoo... its boat building season.
 
Jim, How did you get the 8-1 scarf with the attachment I couldnt get close to a 3" cut,I had to plane and sand to finish. Did you get a complete cut with the skarfer? Is your saw blade bigger than 7 1/4"? They look great .
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Well Charlie, its like this.

I set the scarfer up per the directions. I believe it stated to set the saw at a 7.5 deg angle. Done. I even measured it using a angle/bevel gauge not wanting to rely on the gauge on the saw. Cut the first piece. I was very excited about the look of the cut and the ease of 'Gittin er done". Set up the second sheet, ripped right thru it in no time. Another perfect cut. Finished all 6 pieces and just sat back and admired my awesome cutting ability. I then proceeded to break down the jig and pack it up to be sent of to Brandon. While packing it up I was folding the directions and the section about how to deal with the blade falling short of the full cut hit my eye. A flush came over me. I'm going to have to do this all over again! After measuring the length of my joint and doing some math I found out that I made a 6:1 ratio instead of a 8:1 ratio. (2in vs 3in) Having the jig all but sent away I decided that I would go with that and put the joints toward the rear of the boat where there isn't too much bend in the ply. Plus, pride got in the way and I didn't want to admit that I screwed up.

Do you think that a 6:1 will work? I have not glued them together so I could stack them and use a belt sander to get the correct ratio. What do you and everyone else think? I want to glue them this weekend so I have a couple of days to fix my mess up. Feedback??? Thanks!
 
Congrats Jim, I wound up trying to get the 8-1 after I cut with the skarfing attachment, I used a belt sander and total skrewed them up. Cut them off and did it again. I wound up with a 2 5/8" cut the second time and left it at that.
 
Jim, Or anybody who has built a BBIII, Do you skarf the deck panels as well? The plans seem to show the deck pieces laid out on 2-8' sheets of ply. Thanks
 
I think I got a little scarf happy. Good thing I haven't glued them yet.

Looking at the plans it looks like you cut out the deck from 8' lengths. The "A" to "A" joint looks like it should fall on the #4 station or side deck knees. A butt joint with the knee as the attatch point/mender. If thats the case then I'm going to cut my deck a little long at the ends to allow for any minor descrepency in the knee placement. In other words I am going to plan on having the deck joint fall there so I don't have to worry about making another scarf. I'll just measure for the deck off of the #4 station. Maybe put a fir strip on either side of the knee to allow for more surface contact with the deck and a little something extra to grab onto when screwing it down.

Does any of that make sense? Sometimes I just write as if I am talking it out in my head. Could get me in trouble sometime!
 
I followed your thinking perfectly but then again I talk to myself from time to time.

Yep I think your on track.

Still a ways behind you on my project. Hope it rains lots so I cant work outside and am forced to work on my boat....
 
Brandon - sending a rain dance your way!

I have off until Monday so I'll hopefully have the bottom and sides cut by then. I'm a little nervous about gluing the panels together. I'll probably continue to stare at it and come up with a game plan the rest of the night and finally do it tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes and post pics. Until then here is a pic of all my bulkhead templates. Went right off of the plans but didn't draw or cut the curve into them except for the bow. I'll use a batten to create the curve when I fit them into the hull. Enjoy!

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...and of course my Rylie girl had to help...
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James,

Butt joints over the bulkheads/knees work fine. I used them on my BB2 and Broadbill decks, worked great.
No need for additional reenforcing strips as the epoxy holds fine, plus you will put a fillet on the underside that will give you more attaching area, too.

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The difference in the deck wood color is because the foward most deck is Meranti, while the side decks and stern are Okoume.

Also,
I fit the deck pieces by temporarily scewing the ply onto the actual boat and "tracing" the lines before cutting, leaving about 1" overhang for good measure. Enjoy the project and keep the pictures coming!

-Bill
 
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