Transom and Steering

The boat is getting closed in.  Handy old 1/8"masonite is now known as eucaboard.  It's still the best thing for making templates,

Sloppy welds can be dressed up with the lathe if needed and small enough to fit.

Trial fit of the transom piece made with the eucaboard template.  Nice fit!

It's easier to crawl in and out without the transom in place.  Here is a mock-up of the steering system.

And finally, a look at the base for the steering wheel at the helm.

Transom work

 Here is the trial fit of the mid transom and deck beam.

A close up of the tunnel and rudder reinforcements.

Trial fitting the rudder and the top transom piece.  Note-this piece is curved both at top and outward to the rear.  Very nice job.   You may also spot the brand new dead blow sledge hammer.  As the boat gets bigger, so do the tools.

Sebring bonus sights

We planned our trip to stay at the historic Kenilworth Lodge and see the stuff at Flywheelers, but found there was other interesting stuff going on there.

We watched some SCCA racing and went to the Light Sport Aircraft show.  We resisted adding another project or two to the collection in our yard.

Happy New Year!

It has been over six months since the last post.  The airboat job took a bit more time than planned.  John is back in the shop welding the boat.

We took a break to travel to Sebring for the Florida Flywheelers Swap Meet, tractor parade and old equipment extravaganza.

Out for a run (through the yard)

Checking headroom in the future head/shower area.

Checking headroom in the center aisle.

There was a lot of visible progress during the past week.  The hull sides are welded and more bracing was added.  We tested the cabin height with temporary square tubing.

I thought John told me to check out the "lightning bolts" that he cut into the supports.  After a a bit of research, I figured out that he meant "lightening".

The next big project is figuring a way to support the sides to keep them from caving in when the boat gets turned.

Out for a turn around spin through the yard.

Port side view

Lightening holes, not lightning holes.

The empty shop.  It's too dark to see the motor hanging from the handy chain fall.

Turning the boat around....

The shop is so tight that John needed to turn the boat around to fit the rest of the hull sides.

  How he got the tractor in the space is a mystery to me.  Fortunately the yard is big enough to run it around.

Now there is room to trial fit the hull sides.

It's really going to be a boat!

Today's project was to install and tack weld the outside port and starboard hull skins.  These were cut from 4' x 12' sheets of aluminum - .125" thick.  If you do the math, each side will need 2 plus sheets to run the length of the boat.

Cabin sides are going up.  John is feeding the 25' wire feeder cable for the push pull gun into the boat. 

Port side lines are looking good. 

In spite of careful calculations, the skins and the frames didn't line up.  The anniversary gift dead blow hammer came in handy once again coercing the frame to meet the skin. 

Both skins are tack welded.  She is looking good.
  It's time to start thinking of a name for the boat.

Tool of the Day:
Butt clamps from Harbor Freight.
 (no kidding, that's what they are called.
  John modified them to join 1/8" aluminum.