Note on the bottom battens: I bought 1x2 timber at the store but forgot it's not actually 2 inches — it's more like 1¾ in. I ended up planing everything down to ½ in, so the final dimension is ½ x ¾ in instead of the original spec. Should still be plenty strong.
Current Status
Waiting on bronze nails to ship from Glen-L before I can start assembling anything
Honestly feeling pretty lost on the build right now — I've stared at the plans for a long time, looked at pictures online, and I'm still not totally sure where some pieces go
Can't seem to find the template for the runner planking
Plan for the Rest of the Week
Since there's not much else to do until the nails arrive, I'll probably just focus on cutting out all the remaining pieces.
I spent a couple of hours today cutting out all of the 1/2-inch plywood pieces. There really wasn't anything too complicated about this step, other than making sure to use a steady hand with the jigsaw and stay as close to the lines as possible.
I went back and forth between using a pencil and a knife to transfer the outlines through the transparent paper and onto the plywood. I'm still not sure which method I prefer. Both seem to work, so I've been switching between them depending on the piece.
One thing that is important is to pay close attention to the plans where they show the template layout over the full sheet of plywood. Some of the individual templates only show half of a part, even though the finished piece needs to be full size.
For example, the transom template is only shown as one half of the transom. However, when you look at the plywood layout in the plans, you can see that the transom is actually one full piece.
That means when transferring the template to the plywood, you need to trace the template once, flip it over, and trace the other half so that you end up with the complete part.
It's a small detail, but definitely something worth checking before making any cuts.
I only put a couple hours in today but I used the time to sand down all of the edges of all the duplicate parts so that I have pretty much mirror images. I also cut out the parts for frame number one but I did not get to plane it yet so I have not posted those pictures.
Today I finished tracing and cutting the comings and planing them down to the required 1/2".
I also noticed that a small piece on each of the bow sections requires a one quarter inch piece as well so I cut those out.
And lastly I got out my old epoxy from my last boat and did a test run, so far it looks like it's working pretty well with our hot temperatures here it was hard in less than 30 minutes and tomorrow I will check the strength of the two wood pieces that I put together.
Today's goal was to build the frames and start mounting everything onto the bottom planking.
Runner Chines
I started by getting the runner chines mounted on the bottom. This wasn't too difficult, though I wasn't 100% clear on the plans. The instructions say to mount the runner chines from frame number one forward on both sides of the outer edges but the line drawn on the plans is actually for the aft piece of frame one, which is where I placed the back of the runner chine (see photos). I wasn't sure if I was supposed to add the width of the actual frame to that measurement.
Frame Number Two
Everything else was pretty straightforward. Building frame number two was easy. The only issue was with the bottom frame member I glued and tacked it into place with nails, but it's about 1/8" or less too short to fit over the bottom planking (see photos). Tomorrow, after everything dries, I'll plane down the frame so it fits properly.
Bottom Battens
I had originally cut the bottom battens to 6 ft, based on what I saw on the plans, but the actual length needed is around 67 in, with a 15° wedge cut into the aft side (longer portion facing up see photos).
As for epoxying and securing the bottom battens, this was a bit of a challenge. If I could do it over again, here's what I'd do differently: after applying the epoxy and setting the batten while the boat is facing up, I'd use two or three screws to secure it into the bottom panel from the top first. Then, once it's secured from the top, flip the boat over and nail it from there.
