DaveH6
Keel installation started
This is the curved lamination portion of the keel. Before applying epoxy, I roughed up the inside keel raidius with a wood rasp to put some teeth into the wood. The forward end terminates at the start of the plumb portion of the stem. A separate straight laminated piece of keel will cover this plumb portion.
On the keel at the plumb stem, I put a 1/4" bevel on the keel edges to give the hint of an old time wooden boat stem. This shape is carried a short distance onto the knuckle portion of the laminated keel.
However, this beveling is underwhelming in appearance but with 1" wide stainless steel half round centered on the 1 1/2" wide keel edge the bevel can't be any wider but perhaps deeper. With the boat upright thus a better perspective of the plumb stem, I may glue some fir on the sides of the keel to expand the width say for a foot or two from the top of the stem. Then I can do some wood shaping to get the look I want.
Blocks of scrap wood were hot glued to the hull both port and starboard and then short strips of wood were glued to the blocks and then the keel in order to hold the keel in proper position as the epoxy cured. If someone tries to take your hot glue gun...kill them.
In this part of the Austin area we have about 6" of top soil and then limestone slabs, thus limestone is almost as cheap as dirt. The good news...houses don't settle and don't disappear in mud slides. The bad news...you need to rent a jack hammer to plant a shrub.
Keel installation started
This is the curved lamination portion of the keel. Before applying epoxy, I roughed up the inside keel raidius with a wood rasp to put some teeth into the wood. The forward end terminates at the start of the plumb portion of the stem. A separate straight laminated piece of keel will cover this plumb portion.
On the keel at the plumb stem, I put a 1/4" bevel on the keel edges to give the hint of an old time wooden boat stem. This shape is carried a short distance onto the knuckle portion of the laminated keel.
However, this beveling is underwhelming in appearance but with 1" wide stainless steel half round centered on the 1 1/2" wide keel edge the bevel can't be any wider but perhaps deeper. With the boat upright thus a better perspective of the plumb stem, I may glue some fir on the sides of the keel to expand the width say for a foot or two from the top of the stem. Then I can do some wood shaping to get the look I want.
Blocks of scrap wood were hot glued to the hull both port and starboard and then short strips of wood were glued to the blocks and then the keel in order to hold the keel in proper position as the epoxy cured. If someone tries to take your hot glue gun...kill them.
In this part of the Austin area we have about 6" of top soil and then limestone slabs, thus limestone is almost as cheap as dirt. The good news...houses don't settle and don't disappear in mud slides. The bad news...you need to rent a jack hammer to plant a shrub.