Sanding, filling holes, glueing and more sanding

We've had a long day of hard work on Serenite and it has left her looking more beautiful than ever. We removed all the cable-ties from the side that we had glued. Then we sanded it, and sanded it, and sanded it. When we were satisfied, we went along and sanded the other side (the unglued one) and made it ready for gluing. Now we're done gluing both sides and have already filled the holes left behind by the cable-ties on the side glued yesterday.

Producing 'wood flour'

Special method

Cutting off the used cable-ties

Ties removed, still need to sand

Sanding front curves

more sanding

Gluing and filling holes of cable-ties

more sanding

more gluing

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A "Sticky" day

Today was a day of gluing. We woke up early and started work on our little "Serenité". With some help from our enthusiastic neighbours, we set about the initial steps before gluing the parts of the hull together. 

We first had to sand the wood between the cable-ties so as to make it rough so that the epoxy glue would bind well. We got a lot of help in that one.

Then we had to mix the epoxy glue with some filler powder to give it the right consistence for the work at hand. We also had to make some wood flour for use with the filler to give it the right color and strength.

We initially started off with our power tools such as our sander. However, we eventually produced a good-enough quality wood flour using our good old hand saw.

Prior to gluing with filler and wood flour, we had to "wet" the wood with some epoxy.

Preparing the glue with filler and wood flour.

Applying it to the panels.

Front part and right side glued.

Completing the shape of the boat hull.

With lots of help from our little neighbours for the cable ties, we finally managed to complete the hull of the boat. Its all tied up with lots of ties and already has it final shape of a beautiful boat.

The broken panels that we had to glue again held on extremely well and at the end of the day though we were completely tired the work achieved made us extremely happy.

We were kept so busy the whole day that we forgot to take pictures, so we only have the pictures taken at the end of the day to post here.

Placing the sides of the boat onto the bulkheads.

Today a big job was done. We placed the two side panels onto the port-side of the boat. Its a half boat and is really looking like a boat now (seems some people were in doubt whether it was really a boat we were building :D ).

Work started early and we were glad to see that the panel we had glued yesterday was doing beautifully and was as strong as can be.  We got a lot of helping hands willingly holding bits of wood and tightening cable-ties from our little neighbors. Work went very fast.

From two people, our team got to five. Here's little "Benjol" adjusting cable-ties.

(Almost) Everyone hard at work.

"Moumoune" (by my left) joking all the time......

.......but definitely a very good worker :D

Sultan and "Naufal" completing the tightening of the central part of the hull.

Then we had a little problem with adjusting the panels to properly lie on the bulkheads....and Sultan has to provide some weight to the problem....literally....

Putting a lot of trust into the jig we built....now we confirmed its really strong :D

First side panel is done.

First panel is placed and looking good. Boat taking shape.

Getting ready for the first panel of starboard side as well.

Drawing the line for drilling the holes of stitch job with a marking gauge.

Guess what happened....breakage of a weak joint on the starboard panel..back to gluing.

Adding epoxy to the joint and fiber-glassing it well.

Second Panel on port side added.

Looks beautiful from the top.

Stitching of bottom panel done and awaiting glue.

Once glued all those 3 angles should become one.

Placing bottom panels

Today we were placing the bottom panels onto the inverted bulkheads. It all had to simply align onto the measurements on the bulkheads if our measuring and cutting were done precisely.

It all aligned exactly with only minor adjustments with the small block planes. Turns out we did a great job during marking and cutout. It was all going on easily and fast.  Then we went to marking and drilling holes for the stitch work.

Panels placed and preparing for stitch.

Drilling with our small cordless Drill.

It was a really nice work and kept going on well.....until it SNAPPED :O

The Epoxy joint we made was too weak......that will teach us not to be lazy next time. Note the fiberglass did not yield, only the unglued side gave way.

During gluing of the parts together to make the panels, we had not put fiberglass on both sides of the wood so as to obtain a  much more supple panel. But we did lose in terms of strength. We should have had fiber glassed both sides :D

Placing cable-ties on undamaged side so as to stitch more easily next time we get to work.

Back to gluing.

Panel glued and fiber-glassed on both sides.

Fixing the Bulkheads

(Written by Sultan)
A few days back, on Sunday the 30th of June, dad and I had a big leap forward in our ongoing project of constructing a small boat for our family use.

We were helped a lot by my cousin Noor and his Dad and their help was greatly appreciated as two extra pairs of hands(and eyes) were definitely needed to ensure all our alignments were correct.

So, what exactly were we doing?
To put it simply, we were building the "template" of the boat(called a "jig") and we needed it to be EXACTLY aligned and positioned with extreme precision so as not to end with a boat that was out of shape(since all the other bits  and pieces will come onto this initial part). So far it looks like were successful in this respect.

The Team of experts hard at work :)

Almost done placing all the Bulkheads( The wooden panels supported on the wooden poles).

All Bulkheads now in place.

Everything covered after work is done to prevent humidity (due to heavy rainfalls) from affecting our  Bulkheads too much.

The plumb-line aligned with the centreline of the boat.