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I just realised I hadn't taken or posted any pics of the nutshell I'm building for my daughters. So far there's been about 11 hours work done on the boat, none of which were particularly hurried

The frames are all filleted and glassed into place and the outside has been profiled, taped and had two coats of epoxy. I'm just starting cutting the cleats for the seats, then I'll mark up the templates for the seats themselves and the knees and breasthooks.

The story so far is in the gallery:

http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.p ... pby&uid=81

Very nice set of pictures. Thanks.

OK, so I've been seriously lazy and too busy to get anything done on the Nutshell, but I've got a deadline of the second week in April to take this boat to Islay for my daughters. Under pain of death and/or divorce



So time to get cracking. Not much change since the last time, hull is filleted and taped, waiting on the seats. The cleats for the seats have been cut and temporarily screwed into place, awaiting glueing.



Got the materials in place to finish the build. I'm going to use Gelmagic to glue the cleats in place. I previously used EZ-Fillet to tab the hull and make the fillets and Silvertip Laminating Resin to laminate the tape and saturate the hull.




Gelmagic comes in a cartridge format now that you stick in a caulking gun. The mix tip mixes the two parts in a matrix, properly mixed epoxy comes out the other end. I haven't used these yet, but it looks cool and saves a bit of mixing



Afer fairing, I'll paint the boat with yacht primer and I think I'm going to go for Lopez Blue for the outside. I'm undecided about the inside right now. Thinking about an off white like Bainbridge or maybe San Juan Tan. I like the look of bright white interiors, until A) its sunny or B) it's dirty...

Out into the boatshed. Should be enough room for a TW28 build



My other project boat...er...yeah, the one in front



The interior is ripped out waiting on a new carpet. The outside will be getting a Lopez Blue paintjob from the top of the blue above the rubrail down to the boot stripe.




That one needs to be finished for April as well

I didn't have a caulking gun here, so a quick trip to the builders merchants and back got us to here:



Unscrew the collar on the Gelmagic catridge and remove the plug on the end. Inside there is the blue resin and the yellow hardener.



Attach the mix tip. Don't do what I did and forget to put the collar back on, since the mix tip happily gets pushed out, leaving a large blob of unmixed epoxy on your boat

Squeeze the trigger and the epoxy and hardener gets pushed through the mix tip matrix. You can see the blue and yellow start to turn clear half way through the tip. The bead that comes out the end is properly mixed.



I did all the cleats for the front, middle and stern seats in ten minutes start to finish, including unscrewing and refitting the temporary screws.



There's just a bit of ooze on the top of the cleat here. I got a spreader and smoothed this out before the resin set.

Very nice! I believe that's the lowest boat size to workshop area ratio I've ever seen.

That's only a little bit of the workshop It's our trade counter and warehouse at the marina, so we've got loads of space. I've sectioned out part of the space for builds. The rest is used for product storage.

There are double doors just to the left of the boat in the pictures, go through that and you are in the boat shed in the pics. Its one of the reasons I've been looking at the larger boats such as the TW28 and 34. I can cut the panels in the workshop and have them ready to go, then just build the strongback and put th hull together in the shed. The shed should be mostly empty over the summer, so I can grab space outside the office and workshops and get on with the build while someone else answers the phones

jeremy wrote:Very nice! I believe that's the lowest boat size to workshop area ratio I've ever seen.

My envy level went off the scale too.

Mad Dog, I thought everything was bigger in Texas?

Hi Paul,

Definitely another case of workshop envy here. I can just fit my current project in the garage (FS14). I'm on the lookout for building space for my next one. (Panga 22?)

How do the GelMagic mixing tips cope with multiple building sessions? I assume you have to use a new mix tip every time?

Cheers -Steve

Hi Steve,

I'll tell you for sure once I get back in the shop in the morning, but yes, I'd assume the mix tip will be dead when I get in. However I reckon if you have a large job on, one tip would last a while because the mix is constantly being pushed through the matrix. I'd need to test this though, it's possible that the tip would start to clog up after a while.

The hardest part about using this method for me is the fact that after years of computer use (I used to be a programmer and consultant) I developed RSI, or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my right wrist. This occasionally gives me pain and I found it a bit sore when pulling the trigger on the caulking gin. But that's an issue specific to me and one which I think would be less of a problem at higher temperatures that I was working in today.

But the speed of the job was great. When you factor in measuring out the epoxy, mixing it for two minutes then add wood flour in the correct ratio to form a glue, it's night and day. Unscrew the cap, remove the lid, fit the mix tip and run the bead of epoxy. It's just much less hassle. And yeah, fine, I sell the stuff, but I thought it was brilliant to use and had fun glueing the cleats on. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's tasks

PaulMcClure wrote:Mad Dog, I thought everything was bigger in Texas?

Yep! For a bicycle garage its huge! ... or ... The garage is big but the boat is bigger?

Oh, who am I kidding? The Scotts got one on the Texan.

A couple of pics for you guys with shop envy





Took the screws out of the cleats first thing this morning. The GelMagic wasn't completely cured since the shop was colder last night, but cured enough to keep working.








Then I cut out the stern and mid seats.



I'll do the bow seat later. The ply got a bit damp so I'll wait for it to dry before marking that up. I need to head back up to the house to find the bits of mahogany I planned to used for the knees and breasthooks. Total time of build so far, about 11 hours from the pile of plywood. Despite the two year gap in proceedings, I should be on target to have the hull complete and ready for fairing, primer and paint by the middle of next week.

Paul... the Nutshell is a bit small for that shop! You may loose it in all that spaciousness. I prefer having to squeeze between my boat and the wall in my basement!

-Dave

From one extreme to another - the next one will be too big to build in the shop - well, if not to build it, to get it back out again

I know exactly how Stevet feels, I have the same problem. I'm building my FS 14 on the diagional in my garage.

Enjoy Paul.

don

Here I am squeezing around my hull.............& you have all that room.
I hate you
steve

I does make a nice change. I previously built boats in my garage and there was no space at all. It's a novelty to be able to step back and see what the thing actually looks like before launch day

Not only does Paul have more space than anyone else on the planet but the whole place is spotless! My garage is in for an overhaul when my project is done. Its a cramped, crowed, mess.

Mad Dog, to be fair, it's not my garage - I can't even get into that with the amount of junk and kids bikes that litter the place. It's my trade counter so I need to keep it clean, since customers come in. Actually, I need to ask Jacques for a royalties price in this boat, a guy came in earlier and asked if I would build him a tender for his boat

It's a bit messy in this picture, need to go and sweep up.




I cut out and test fitted the stern, mid and bow seats. The "ears" on the bulkheads were too high, so cut those and shaped them to fit. A bit of sanding to the seats and hull ready to roll a couple of coats of epoxy inside the seat compartments, but that can wait until Monday.