A shoulder to try on

My gut feeling at this point is that cutting the gains -- the rebate where planks transition from overlapping to flush -- will be one of the dominant esthetic touches on this boat, and perhaps the hardest to get right.  I ordered a small (#1) Lie Nielsen shoulder plane to make this job go more smoothly, and it arrived today.  It is a thing of beauty. Tomorrow I will give it a try on plank 3, which I spiled and cut today.

The first two planks look and feel fair.  I'm still not sure about my gains, but when the are filleted and sanded, i think they will be fine.  I do think I will try to increase the length of flush mating surface by an inch or two.

 I did the lattice and batten spiling thing again, and cut the pair of #3 planks.  They seem slightly oversized, and I'm wondering if the spiling technique is causing this, or whether i need to adjust the creation of the pattern.  The landings where planks 2 and 3 overlap will be wider than the half inch called for in the plans, which shouldn't be a problem.  I don't think I agree with the conventional wisdom about the garboard being the trickiest plank to hang.  For this boat, (and this inexperienced builder), turning the corner of the chine, as planks 3 and 4 do, seems trickier.

Cleaning up the squeeze-out where the garboard and plank two meet was a challenge.  I taped the area just inboard of the joint, but the squeeze-out formed a fillet that had to be chiseled out along the entire length of the seams.  It didn't take that long, but its a nuisance, and another great opportunity to drive a very sharp edge too deep.  I will set the tape edge slightly further away for the next planks.

I am happy with the performance of the clamps... they are easy to set and adjust, and provide a well proportioned pressure to the joint.  Making 40 of them took no more than two hours, and cost the price of three packs of shimming wedges (about $7.50).

The do have one significant disadvantage, which is being in the way of the squeeze-out bead, making it difficult to dress the joint before the glue sets up.  Tomorrow I'll try to go through and remove, smooth,  and reset a clamp at a time in order to rectify that issue.  I'm afraid to look at the underside.  It is hard to work between the stations (only 14 inch spacing), and it is going to be a dreadful job to clean up all that hardened squeeze-out. 




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