JEM Watercraft

Onto gunwhales...

I ripped (with some help from the brother-in-law) some 16 foot pine 2 x 8's into half inch strips. Their still a little stiff, so I'm trying to tease a curve into them while I do epoxy coats on the fiberglass...

I've clamped four of them together (so they'll stay rightside up) and hung individual "weights" (a gallon of water, a couple of toolboxes...) from each separately to start bending the curve.

I think I'm going to need to do some serious clamping to get the gunwhales to bend properly to the curve. Might end up using screws in some places.

So, I thought I'd go ahead and epoxy the cut-up pieces of dowel (pretty quick work with the school's bandsaw--but I keep hankering for a peanut butter/ banana sandwich when working with these) to give the clamps and gunwhales something extra to hold on to...

I used a simple jig to keep the spacing even--starting in the center of the boat and working outward toward where the edge of the decks will be...





At that point, I only had about 30 spring clamps and a couple of bar clamps. I need to place about 80 pieces of dowel.

Later, after church managed to get the wife to let me stop by Lowes. They had a boxed set of 15 clamps for 20 bucks--best value I've seen around here. Was then able to clamp the rest of the "banana slices"

While working with the epoxy/wood flour glue mix, I used the left-overs to build up by decks out of plywood scraps.

Then added the bracing for the decks.


I also began working on the bulkhead hatch covers. All I really want is a couple of places to keep keys, camera, maybe an always ready emergency/first aid kit, etc. dry and secure. So I bought a couple of the Beckson screw in plates.

Step one, mark the hole using the inside cover turned flat against the wood.


Cut out with a jigsaw.


I don't have a pic yet, but I then epoxied some small blocks to the back of the bulkhead for the screws to go in. I plan on drilling out a small reservoir in each block and filling with epoxy to help keep everything nice and waterproof.

Now, just waiting for everything to set up and cure...

Oops! I split one of the gunwhales near the end when trying to clamp it on (during the dry run)--that one got trimmed and is now an inwhale.

So, any thoughts on how to keep that from happening when it counts (like when I run out of full-length rails)?

Also, after clamping the inwhale onto the dowel pieces, I'm a little concerned that maybe too much epoxy squeezed out from between the pieces. I cleaned it all off, but I had to use more pressure (to make the inwhale bend properly) than I would have liked for a good epoxy joint.

I'm thinking maybe a few screws strategically placed just to reinforce???

Best way I've found is to use 1/2" x 1/2" ash and do the gunwales in top and bottom layers of needed.

If you're good with a heat gun, you can heat the wood so it's a little bendable.

I've also heard of some putting a pipe in a vise and wrapping one end in a wet cloth. They heated the pipe (non-cloth end) with a torch until it glowed. This is turned heated the rag until it started to make steam. They then quickly pressed the wood against th wet cloth and were able to "steam bend" in a localized area.

Yeah, I probably should have used thinner pieces to start with, but I'm only out about 7 bucks for the 2 x 6 I ripped.

I was hoping the dryer venting into the garage would help...dang high-efficiency front-loading washer spins all the moisture out ...good for drying, bad for steam

Have decided to wait on the hatches--might put some in later, might not...am getting impatient to finish--I'm soooo slow on projects like these.

Got the decks in and am working on some more epoxy coats for gunwales, decks and some flub-ups (runs and other epoxy mistakes) on the interior and exterior...

some pics of my progress...

And my wife wants me to clean the garage!

Just about done...

Congratulations JT
Thats a really good job Youve done there,them breasthooks just set Her off beautifully