West Coast KDI

[stromborg]

Now I have small steam cabinet.

Small pile of parts from the local hardware store. I had an idea of what I wanted from stuff I'd read here or elsewhere. What we're looking at is a section of 4" plastic pipe about 5 feet long (it was an off-cut at the store, very handy) and an assortment of fittings. The end cap got drilled out for the slip fitting as did the lid of my crab pot. I put the shut-off valve in there just because I thought it would be nice to stop the steam from entering the system without taking the lid off. The open end got a threaded "clean-out" port.

The business end. I will probably replace the 1/2" pvc with a length of copper pipe from my stash, it got soft very fast.

The whole thing. A series of holes got drilled about an inch about the bottom for some short dowels to get the wood above any collected water.

Hit 212 at the far end pretty quickly after the water came to a boil.

Test piece heating up.

It worked really well, the test piece bent into about a 15" diameter bucket after 10 minutes of steaming.

It'll work for this project and I'll probably tweak it a bit before the next. With the exception of the shut off valve nothing got glued together so it can come apart and get extended if I need to steam something longer. I think I spent longer rummaging through the bins at the hardware store than on construction.

Steve

[StevenBauer]

1" automotive radiator hose is good for connecting the box to the steamer. looking good.


Steven

[Clinton B Chase]

The steaming is one way to do many parts on the KDI: because of the quick curvature aft, the sheer clamps, deck carlin, coamings, are all parts that can be steamed. This is a good resource provided by Steve out West on how to set it up. Exhaust hose also works well and a plywood box is fine, too, for a steaming vessel.

The laminations made out of Doug Fir should be flat grained. It is amazing how much easier it is to bend flat sawn wood...if the grain is running perpendicular to the faces of the lams, it will be much stiffer. It is also important to make sure there is no grain runout in either case. You could also find wood with larger growth rings, which have more earlywood than latewood. Earlywood is easier to bend and larger growth rings means fewer rings of dense latewood. Get those rings to run flat in the laminations, and you can bend the strip into a full circle.

[stromborg]

30 minutes in my steamer and the stern is starting to take shape. Having an assortment of ratcheting straps hanging around is proving very handy.

Got the forward outer stem on today too. This is it after a lot of work with the plane.



And the final product, epoxied in place.

The plans a a little vague about what shape the outer stem takes so I played around with a batten to get a decent looking curve. On the KDI the garboards are the keel so the stems just curve around onto the relatively flat centerline area.

Despite trying to be aware of where I put my epoxy covered (gloved) hands I came very close to losing one of my screwguns in the process of glueing up the outer stem. When I went out to pull the screws I used to hold things in place while the epoxy set I found the gun was stuck tight to the workbench and in forward drive mode. Fortunately the epoxy didn't stick too well to the plastic of the screw gun so I was able to salvage the situation.

I'm hoping to get the aft stem glued up tomorrow. Peeking at my calendar I may be looking a turning over by next weekend.

Steve

[John How]

Despite trying to be aware of where I put my epoxy covered (gloved) hands I came very close to losing one of my screwguns in the process of glueing up the outer stem. When I went out to pull the screws I used to hold things in place while the epoxy set I found the gun was stuck tight to the workbench and in forward drive mode. Fortunately the epoxy didn't stick too well to the plastic of the screw gun so I was able to salvage the situation.
Steve

That kinda reminds me, once I was doing the first build of a new acoustic guitar design and I had made the spreaders too large to take out thru the sound hole. I didn't discover this though until I had glued on the top and back. I had to remove the top which is a painful experience on a new guitar. It is quite humbleing, when found out and one of those mistakes you only make once hopefully.

[Clinton B Chase]

30 minutes in my steamer and the stern is starting to take shape. Having an assortment of ratcheting straps hanging around is proving very handy.

Got the forward outer stem on today too. This is it after a lot of work with the plane.




The plans a a little vague about what shape the outer stem takes so I played around with a batten to get a decent looking curve.
Steve

Using a batten, playing around to get a fair curve??? Now you are becoming a real boatbuilder!!!
It looks excellent, nice job.

[maarten]

You're on a roll.

[stromborg]

Putting my new toy to good use, I steamed, bent, let dry and then glued up the aft outer stem.

After a some trimming and planing:

And this is where we sit as of tonight:


After all that steaming there was little to no spring back in the final piece. A couple of screws are holding the stem in place while the epoxy sets up, mostly to keep it centered.
Clint sent over a drawing of what the stem is supposed to look like, after drawing it out I compared it against a pattern for the rudder assembly that was included in the kit and they didn't match up very well so I went with matching the pattern because I liked the curve better. There is a bit of extra meat on the stem to fine tune everything once the screws are out.

I think next up will be an afternoon of scraping and sanding followed by flipping the whole thing over and getting the interior going. Who knows if I'll need to poke a hole through the hull at some point before it's all done and I'd rather not have the internal discussion about whether or not to screw up my paint job before doing it.

I'll be talking to Sailrite about the sails next week. There are a few sail plan options available, balanced lug and either balanced or standing lug sloop. I'm leaning towards the standing lug/sloop option right now. I just like the way it looks and at this point pretty much all my experience has been on single-sail rigs. Time to add a jib to my repertoire.

Steve

[maarten]

Great progress!
Love to see her right side up.
Have you chosen a name for this fine vessel?
Every time I see progress here, my fingers start itching.
Maybe I'll start with some blocks and cleats.

[stromborg]

I'm looking forward to seeing her rightside up too. Tossing around a few ideas for her name but I'm not quite ready to go public yet.

Steve

[Clinton B Chase]

And this is where we sit as of tonight:


After all that steaming there was little to no spring back in the final piece. A couple of screws are holding the stem in place while the epoxy sets up, mostly to keep it centered.
Clint sent over a drawing of what the stem is supposed to look like, after drawing it out I compared it against a pattern for the rudder assembly that was included in the kit and they didn't match up very well so I went with matching the pattern because I liked the curve better. There is a bit of extra meat on the stem to fine tune everything once the screws are out.

Steve[/QUOTE]

Another way we can laminate the outer stem is to glue up laminations around an external laminating jig and glue up half the lams of outer stem/sternpost then the other half. The stem and sternpost molds can act as the laminating jig in the kit!

Steve, the standing lug option does look good to me too. I think it has the most performance potential as well especially to windward.

[stromborg]

I think she looks fast...

Got a bit of clean up to do tomorrow

Somebody was asking how the lines came out on the final design. Pretty nice I'd say

Snuggled back into the shop.

Though I was able to do the actual turn-over part myself, two people can easily move the hull around right now. The whole assembly is quite stiff, no noticeable flex picking it up by the stems even with no interior pieces or decking. I ended up saber sawing most of the chipboard pieces into pieces just to get them out of the way when I went to pull the hull from the jig, it doesn't take much epoxy to really stick things together.

Tomorrow I'll go in with the heat gun and scraper to get things tidied up before applying fillets along all the bulkhead to planking joints. While I tried to get them right the first time, rather than have a glue-starved joint I erred on the side of too wet with my epoxy so it sagged a bit in places.

From Clint: "The stem and sternpost molds can act as the laminating jig in the kit!"

The Bauer's have this option but my version of the kit had the plank lands marked by teeth that needed to get planed off as I fit each plank. you can see them on the aft sternpost in the photo below.


If I were to do this again, I'd use the supplied stems to make patterns before I started assembling things. Also, see the last two aft bulkheads? Once all the planks were on I couldn't get my screwgun in there to pull the screws out of the blocks but managed to get in there with a stubby screwdriver and get them backed out.

Steve

[maarten]

Hi steve,
could we see a bow shot, from a bit higher, to see the plank lines?
Like so:
4808073333_9e9988618a_z.jpg

Love the saw horses, might copy them.

[stromborg]

How is this?
As I recall the two original boats were planked differently, the one you posted has those droopy looking planks, the green one doesn't. Neither does mine...

Steve

[Clinton B Chase]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Now that is what I'm talkin' about. Yeehaw!

[StevenBauer]

Great pics, Steve! Wow! You must be so psyched. She looks great. We didn't work on the boat this weekend as we were all up to Middlebury for my son's graduation. We'll try to catch up to you soon, though.


Steven

[Yeadon]

Nice shop. Boat looks good, too.

[stromborg]

Thanks Tim. It's amazing what you can do with a two car garage when you kick the cars and motorcycles out.

Steve

[StevenBauer]

Two cars? Well that explains it.


Steven

[Tom Painter]

Looks great, Steve. Just out of curiosity, how much was the kit?

Are you building a Wee Seal II as well??

[seedy]

Lovely work. Nice lookin' shop. What kinda bikes you got?

[stromborg]

Thanks Tom. I will direct you to Clint Chase about what the kits will cost, they are still a bit of a work in progress. I got Wee Seal II lofted and the frames built and came to the conclusion that it wasn't the boat for me. After getting a look at her full-size on the floor and seeing an Eun Mara being built in Port Townsend I realized I should haver gone with initial instincts and built the slightly larger Eun Mara instead. This was confirmed at the Pocket Yacht Palooza in PT a few weeks ago where a Wee Seal II showed up. I'm chalking it all up to a learning experience, better early on than too far into it to quit.

Seedy; I have a few old BMWs.

Updates are a little light right now because my shop time all about scraping and sanding the interior before the seats and decks get in the way. Got to make some decisions about dry storage too. The seats, if sealed up could act as bouyancy chambers, which is good. They could also be useful for stashing small items that would otherwise be in the way but that compromises the watertightness, the face that any openings would be cut into is curved so that adds a level of complexity to the project as well. I have finally pared my motorcycle camping gear down to a point where it almost all fits in my saddle bags, there is always the temptation to fill cubby holes with stuff. Lots of stuff to keep my head busy while making things look good.

Steve

[maarten]

Steve
Couldn't you make the dry storage top loaded, instead of side loaded as in the original?
And finish the seating and locker lids with slats like on swallowboats? see link. (must learn picture posting)
http://www.denmanmarine.com.au/siteb...oatshow018.jpg
I find it a quite elegant solution and they could be made watertight with surgical tubing.

Greetings,

[Clinton B Chase]

I think that is a good solution, Maarten, to have a top loading hatch. Why didn't I think of that!!??

If you have a budget to support it, I think a really nice way to do it would be to have flush hatches on seat top and some nice canvas covered closed cell foam seats. You could install them with simple snaps fastened to seat top.

Otherwise, just paint and a very light non skid is the lowest maintenance. They Swallowboats seats look OK, but like a lot of taping off to me in order to finish and maintain.

[Clinton B Chase]

Here is a deck plate that seems pretty good. Denman Marine uses them, and I saw them in action on Chris's Caledonia Yawl.

http://www.armstrongnautical.com/deckplates.htm

[stromborg]

I am avoiding using the plastic deck plates for aesthetic reasons. One up on the forward bulkhead for ventilation purposes and that's about it I hope.

The swallowboats seating has possibilities. The hatches on my sea kayaks are gasketed with 1/8" neoprene and seem to keep thing fairly dry inside. I'll have to do some poking around for a low-profile salt water resistant tensioning latch mechanism, nothing is popping up in my mental image Rolodex just now. I like the idea of the slats to sit on, but Clint is right, they could be fussy to maintain. Though I suppose I could pop for some teak and just let them be...I wonder how cocobola weathers?

Steve

[maarten]

I used cocobolo for an fretboard on one of my guitars.
I'd bet it would weather fine.
It does as a fretboard, standing up against grease, sweat (salts), beer,...
It becomes verry dark, almost black, but maybe UV-rays will turn it grey,... Guitar doesn't come out a lot.
You can get cocobolo cheaper dan teak?

[stromborg]

Taking a little break from scraping and sanding I decided it was time to work on the "bedlogs" that go on either side of the center board case as reinforcement.

Just a couple of pieces of wood that fit between the floors... except they should really follow the curve of the keelson and match the height of the floors so they can carry that edge of the floorboards. The keelson is, of course, a bit wider than the case so there needs to be a rabbet on the back side too (One could go with filler pieces here, but I'm developing skills for future projects here and I have a rabbet plane, so a-rabbeting we'll go.) Oh, they also need to be clear of the limber holes in the floors. A nice little project for a Friday night while my girlfriend is out at a catering gig.

I am just about done with the gross clean-up of the interior, next boat I will be more diligent about the runs that seem to occur right after I turn the lights in the shop off. I've also become more circumspect about not sweating areas that will disappear once the boat is put together. Behind the forward bulkhead and under the seats are areas that only need to be prepped for the sealing coats of epoxy, nobody will ever see them after they get sealed in, which reduces the total area needing finish prep dramatically.

For future builders, I (and Clint) have talked to the folks at Sailrite and they have put together a package for me, a standing lug and jib kit should be showing up soon. They also worked up a balanced lug/jib combination so it should be in their rotation now.

Steve

[keyhavenpotterer]

For future builders, I (and Clint) have talked to the folks at Sailrite and they have put together a package for me, a standing lug and jib kit should be showing up soon. They also worked up a balanced lug/jib combination so it should be in their rotation now.Steve

That's interesting Steve, that you have gone for standing lug. Our local Scow balanced lug dinghies race without a jig when solo, but use a jib when racing two up. The jib sheets will catch on the balanced lug boom when tacking where the boom sticks out in front of the mast, so they use a small rope strop which locates the front of the boom at the mast - effectively making it a standing lug rig.



Seeing the pictures of KDI sailing I had been thinking - "I wonder f the jib sheets catch on the boom when tacking" - hence my interest in your choice.

Perhaps the KDI will always sail with a jib? If so standing lug looks best, if when sailing solo it might be sailed without the jib, the a balanced lug could be chosen and the rope preventer used when sailing in company with a jib.

Lovely boat - looking forward to more build and sailing pictures.

Brian

[stromborg]

The standing and balanced lug sails are cut differently, my intention is to follow the recommendations in "Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails" and build gaff jaws on the boom. I like the ingenuity of the scow racers though.

Steve

[Clinton B Chase]

My plan uses jaws or a "crutch" but the jaws are not at the very end of the boom, but just aft of the end...the sail sets better and prettier my way. The downhaul will develop a very tight leech and I think the stand. lug with jib rig will get outstanding performance to windward. A preventer/vang will be nice for off wind performance as Key Haven Potter can testify to.

I think the balance lug with jib works fine. I did not find that it hung up when sailing the KDI but the lug needs to hang with the yard tied off a little too close to the heel, I find. It does offer some versatility in that one could not fly the jib and move the lug fwd. where the yard ties off and sail the boat lug only. But if this is how one would tend to go, there is a dedicated lug only variant, with about the same SA as the standing lug with jib.


StandingLugSailPLan by Clint Chase Boatbuilder, on Flickr

[stromborg]

Holy cow there are some nooks and crannies on this boat!

One coat of System 3 non-blushing epoxy went on this evening. I'll try for a second pass tomorrow. One of the the things I like about System 3 is that they have built in a 72 hour window of opportunity for a chemical bond. So far I've been able to work inside this time frame. Tonight I got a little ahead of myself, I was going to mask off a few areas where I know more parts need to get attached but once the ball was rolling it was too late. I did manage to do all the fillets pretty cleanly though, minimal clean-up all around.

Next up are the seats/buoyancy chambers, the mast step and then decks. I'm supposed to go to a convention the last week in June, starting to wonder if I can weasel out...

Steve

[maarten]

Cleaned out! looking great.
Are you going to varnish with a uv-protectioncoat of some kind or paint the inside ?
Hard to see from this angle but are the joints in the planks very noticeable.

Greetings,
Maarten

[stromborg]

I'll be painting the interior. Probably ought to do that before I put the decks on. That means making some decisions about color fairly soon. I still have some of the cream-colored paint from the interior of my skiff, that seems to have worked out well, not too bright in the sun and it looks nice against what little brightwork there is on that boat. I would like to varnish the deck, but I am going to wait until it all comes together before finalizing that choice.

When I get home tonight I can take a picture of the planking joints, they are definitely visible but not obtrusive.

Steve

[stromborg]

Starboard side plank joints.

Steve

[maarten]

As I look at it now, it doesn't even matter much.
Most of them will be covered by the benches anyway.
thanks for the pic.

[stromborg]

The seats/floatation chambers got started tonight. Earlier this week I sorted out getting the panels to fit then pre-coated and let them set up while I was at work. Still have to put a few cleats on the support the actual seats before sealing things up.


Almost too pretty to paint. The handful of spots where I had to thicken the epoxy with micro-spheres instead of wood flour would drive me nuts though, as would fretting about the UV blocking capabilities the varnish and re-doing it periodically. Though if you started off with that intention it would be fairly easy to end up with a beautiful bright-finished boat.


One more for good measure.

I'm also on a hunt for some lead, it isn't something the local stores sell, sometimes living on an island has it's downside. Initially I wasn't going to weight the centerboard, just use a bit of line to keep it in position. Then I remembered this centerboard doesn't have a traditional pivot. In this case the pivot is captured in an open "V" for removal so I think it probably wants a little something to keep it submerged. I'm hoping my nearest hunting/fishing store still has some shot, it is being phased out around these parts.

Steve

[stromborg]

Looking at these pictures, I really need to spend an hour or so cleaning up the shop. I've also been building this:

I've got a young adult (progeny of my girlfriend) coming home to roost for the summer after 2 years away at college, I don't need her sleeping on the couch in the living room of my 1 bedroom house. I call it the dog house, she prefers "bungalow".

Housing by day, boats by night.

Steve

[StevenBauer]

Great pics, Steve. We've still got three pairs of planks to go but the builder will be done with school in just a couple of days.

[ChrisBen]

I'm also on a hunt for some lead, it isn't something the local stores sell, sometimes living on an island has it's downside.
Steve

Have you looked at your local builders supply for lead flashing?

[StevenBauer]

Around here every roofing supply place and lumberyard, including Home Depot and Lowes sell lead flashing by the roll.

[stromborg]

I did not see any lead flashing while at Home Depot yesterday. There is a lumber yard on the island that caters to the local contractors (no prices on anything...I hate that) they may have it.

Good to see your project is moving along Steven.

Steve

[stromborg]

Back in the shop for a couple of days I've managed to get the seats epoxied into place. It is an interesting operation because once you drop the tops over the frames you can't see what is happening on the other side. You put some cleats in to create as much faying (pretty sure that's the right word) surface as you can, mix a thick batch of epoxy and go for it.

With seating under control I decided to lay the deck pieces out to see how it all was going to come together.

Looking into the stern. This is a point where I've gone off on my own, the plans call for a skimpy little watertight down there in the middle. They also indicate this is a watertight compartment, but with the limber holes so nicely machined in there that wasn't happening. So I am creating a lift out trap-door hatch cover back there instead. I should be able to put my tent, sleeping bag and pad in dry bags and stuff them in there for safe keeping should I decide to go camping.

Looking forward there is a veritable cave up there to stash stuff.

As on the original boats I am planning to paint the interior, probably the same Marshall's Cove cream I used on the last boat. The benches, thwart and centerboard cap will be bright finished dimensional lumber too though I don't yet know what they'll be made of. Over time varnished doug fir goes a little too orange for my tastes, though maybe I can stain it with something. I'm going to approach the deck as though it will be finished bright too, it will be interesting to see how well the 5 pieces come together in the end.

Steve

[maarten]

Thumbs up,

[stromborg]

I expanded the steam cabinet to take a couple of 10' long pieces of 3/4"x3/4" DF for the carlins this afternoon.

View from the bow showing the pre-notched frames and the four notches that I located and cut in the bulkheads.

Apparently an hour of steaming wasn't enough. This is the same point in the sheer that gave me fits when installing the sheer clamp, in that case I eventually laminated two pieces 3/8" wide together.


90 minutes in the cabinet worked better though I am considering running the last few feet through the bandsaw before steaming next time. While this one didn't break it has a nasty looking little knuckle at about the same place that I'd just as soon not leave behind.


Steve

[StevenBauer]

It's nice to see your progress, Steve. Looking good! I'm about to update our thread.



Steven

[stromborg]

Not fair, you've got a crew working out there!

Steve

[stromborg]

Steaming just wasn't getting me a fair looking curve on these carlins so I went back to laminating and you can see the results above and below, much better.

With the carlins in place the next few days will be filled with sanding and fairing the hull in preparation for paint as well as making and installing the mast step. I've also made up a template for the benches. Like the prototypes they will be made up of solid timber pieces glued up to match the curves of the plywood chambers. Still waffling on what wood to use. Doug fir is easy, readily available, glues up and varnishes well but I also have a voice in the back of my head that says "Use teak and skip the whole varnish thing for good." There is a fair amount of work to do before I really have to make that decision.

Interesting what relatively small details come back to haunt your midnight thoughts on a project like this. What should the stems look like? Iain Oughtred has those sweet super-pointy ones on a lot of his boats, but maybe this one needs something more working-vessel like. So small yet so critical to the final look. Don't get me started on paint. Then there is the question of what to do with the floor boards. The original boats were fitted out so they doubled as sleeping platforms, raised up and flush to the seats but how to achieve that has been left to the builders imagination. I have couple of ideas but at this point I want to concentrate on getting the decks on so I can get the hull off the slightly too-high cradle that is holding it straight and level and down to a better working height. We have a series of human and wind powered campsites out here, spread across Puget Sound that are mostly used by kayaks but open to small sailboats as well. One of them (Blakely Island) is within sight of the ramp I plan to use when launching the boat. The idea of being able to toss a sleeping bag and some dinner onboard and sailing over for a quick overnight excursion is tantalizing.

Steve

[James McMullen]

We have a series of human and wind powered campsites out here, spread across Puget Sound. . .

And I am sure looking forward to meeting you out there in your sweet new boat! What a cutie-pie she is turning out to be! It's really coming together, Steve.

As for the stems, I say just keep leaving them long until you have to decide. Maybe make up some assorted cardboard patterns in a contrasting color and tape em on for a day or two at a time while you mull it over and let the ideas stew? I could see it looking good either way, but I'm not sure which I'd like the bestest.

[stromborg]

It's been a busy week outside the shop and the sorts of stuff I have been doing on the KDI isn't exactly note-worthy. I have found that getting ready to paint takes longer than the painting itself. Just about the time I was ready to throw in the towel and proclaim "good enough" I went sailing and found myself looking at a few drips and runs that were "good enough" in the shop but are now mild irritants every time I see them so it was back to sanding that evening. Lots of little corners to deal with too, as well as working out what needs to be sealed up and what stays bare for when the decks get glued down.



I did find the time to cast a small lead slab for the center board. At this point I am fairly certain it is in the thickest spot of the foil so it won't get in the way when I start shaping.

Steve