Share your screw ups - minor and major

Anthony A

Anthony A

Well-known member
Hello all,

I made a serious mistake last night while working on the Kara. I was nailing in the bow upper decking (1/4 inch plywood) and realized belatedly that I did it wrong; a "wave" had formed from pressure on the plywood due to the curvature of the boat and the way I nailed it down. I had to rip apart the plywood and take out 30+ nails. I was afraid the frame would be damaged! I was upset and kicking myself that I didn't put more thought into the nailing process, not seeing which way the pressure on the wood would go as it was nailed and curved around the frame. I also used way too many nails and they were a *insert inappropriate words here* to remove. Will do a second try tomorrow night.

Please share your mistakes, both minor and major! Perhaps it will make me feel better :) Has someone had to start their project from scratch at a late stage in the building process? That would suck...

Have a great week guys, and may you you make no errors.

Anthony
 
When I was building my BB3. It took me along time to build mine because I was constantly measuring so I didn't screw something up. Towards the end I had to run to the lumber yard for a piece of ash (I think) for the gunnels. I had everything measured, ripped to the proper width, etc. I started at the bow drilling and screwing as I went UNTIL........................I got to the aft end of the boat. WHAT??? How could I be 14 inches SHORT!! I still don't know what happened with my measurements but there it was - short. After stewing on it all night long and kicking myself I went out the next day and scarfed a piece on the end while it was half on the boat. Of course I had to do the other side too but was able to scarf the extension while it was on the table. To this day I can't see where the scarf is and it hasn't made any difference. Epoxy covers a lot of sins.
 
Anthony:

As Homer Simpson once said..."DOH!"

I warned you about nailing down your plywood earlier this year...

The second tip involves how you can spread the load when fastening your ply sheets to the frame. It's important not to fasten everything in one particular direction (like everything next to the cockpit first or down the longitudinal from cockpit to nose) because you'll end up with a bubble in your sheet that is impossible to fasten down. "Spread" your fasteners from the center of the sheet out to the edges in all directions a few at a time to minimize bubbles and wrinkles in the plywood. You'll see what I mean when you fasten the first plywood sheet on an end - especially the top two.
Click to expand...


Take heart. I only knew this because I did the exact same thing...and I used a lot of glue when I did it! The rest of your build should go much smoother..you're on the home stretch!

Kevin T
 
first duck blind i ever built i used palettes for the ends. i nailed the cedar posts that supported the blind to the palettes on one end instead of the blind floor. opening morning the three of us climbed in and waited for shooting time to come. about 10 mins til shooting time we heard something sounding like nails pulling out of wood. into the water we went with guns shells bags and dog. the dog swam home about 800 yrds to shore. we managed to shoot our 3 limits of ringnecks. since then i have made better blinds.

eddie
 
I did not "measure twice cut once" when setting my transom in my BB3. The plans clearly said 20" so I placed my transom at that distance from the end of the hull sides. When it came time to fit in the sponson parts they were hanging 4" past the end of the boat. What the.....?

I reviewed the plans and noticed that they actually showed 2' 0" 0" ...the plans were just light in color and I did not see the foot mark, just the inch mark. No other measurement in the plans is depicted in inches. Everyone of them is in feet-inches-eighths, so the mistake is all mine.

The good news is that my BB3 did not porpoise as bad as other builder's boats due to the engine being 4" further back than the design calls for. I also did not have to grind off the corners of the sponsons to work the motor on tilt.

Bad news is that the rear of the boat is missing about a cubic foot of foam floatation.
 
Laminating a mast for one of Phil Bolger's designs and used epoxy for the glue.
I put the epoxy between the wood and nailed one end together, then tipped on edge
so I could clamp the rest. After tightening the clanps to get a "squeeze out" of extra epoxy, I left it to
set for the weekend.
When I returned, I had to cut it off the concrete floor with a sledgehammer. Epoxy works real
well on concrete also.
 
Goeff,

Reminds me...........when I was done with my BB3 I thought I would clean up the garage floor of the gobs of epoxy. Got out a cold chisel and a hammer. I stopped after a few of them because I was creating divots in the concrete. The epoxy came up just fine along with a chunk of concrete every time. Finished the rest with a sander.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top