Look, it ain’t all going to be exciting.

Sometimes you just have to grind.

I’m in a phase of the project that is turning out to be a bit of a grind. It’s not bad, but it isn’t particularly interesting. There’s no glamorous-looking curly shavings of clear wood. No carefully chiseling away wood to get the perfect fit. And no novel problems to ponder. And there aren’t even very many good photos of the process.

I’m working on preparing all of the parts to build the frame – the thing the boat will sit on as I build it. I’m also preparing all of the bulkheads. Once this is all done and assembled, I’ll have a boat-shaped object. But for now, I have assorted pieces of wood in a pile.

I’m going to build the frame itself out of 2x6s. This weekend I cut many of the 2x6s to length, but I’m holding off on assembling them until I’ve made a bit more space in the garage. The story of cutting 2x6s probably doesn’t even warrant the amount of space I’ve already spent on them.

I also needed to create a number of bulkhead supports. These are basically rectangles of plywood that will be screwed to the frame to support the bulkheads during construction. Vivier calls for 15mm thick “chipboard.” I ended up getting 15mm CDX plywood.

Now, CDX plywood is…not exactly the highest quality. Plywood has grades (A, B, C, D). CDX combines a grade C face with a grade D face. Just like in school, those are not great grades. But, it makes up for it by being cheap. And that’s notable because I was a little reluctant to spend too much money on a part that doesn’t even end up going in the boat. I’m hoping that my “fiscal responsibility” doesn’t come back to bite me – the CDX plywood has a tendency to warp. Once I get them installed in the frame I’ll have a better sense of if I got away with it or not.

A good number of these bulkhead supports have notches cut in them to help with alignment, and several have slight concaves carved from the top of them. I was able to use a jack plane and my sander to create the curves, not wanting to get any nicer tools too close to the rough plywood.

I’ve also been pre-coating all of the actual bulkheads with epoxy. The parts need to be sealed eventually, and it’s a heck of a lot easier to do it on the bench than when the parts are installed in the boat.

The process of coating these parts is just like painting. Mix the epoxy. Roll it on. Tip it with a brush. Repeat. (Each piece needs at least two coats.)

It is wasteful. Unlike with paint, you can’t really reuse the brushes and rollers. So, sorry environment… I feel bad about this part, but I’m not really sure I have an alternative. (Outside of scrapping the project and building a boat in a more traditional, less resin-y way.)

I am doing one interesting thing: I decided to round over the edges of a few parts: the limber holes at the bottom of the bulkheads, some larger drainage holes, and some smaller tie-down holes. I used my router with a round-over bit. The hope here is that the eased edge makes the epoxy go on easier, and in the long-term, the parts are less likely to be damage by rope (or to damage the rope).

I’m only part way through the pre-coating process. It’ll probably take several more weeks, at least, to get everything done.

Then, I have to make some spacing battons that’ll ensure the bulkhead supports are aligned just right. I wasn’t happy with my first attempt at these – when the poplar I used got close to the finished dimension (20mm x 60mm), I was seeing enough warping to gave me pause. So, I may try again with a different species (Doug Fir?).

Then, all of these parts get assembled, and that’ll be more interesting than watching epoxy dry.