Frame C - new challenges

After a short break for summer holidays, I came back to the yard and quickly wrapped up frame B. Since everything had already been dry-fitted, finishing it was straightforward: sanding and cleaning all the contact surfaces, coating them with unthickened epoxy, then applying thickened epoxy to the wood strips and fastening the plywood knees until a gentle squeeze-out appeared.

Frame B finished - last knee glued

With that done, I moved on to frame C, which I had already laid out on the MDF board. This frame brings a new challenge: curved pieces of wood. Unlike the straight strips of frame B, these required a different approach.

Some of the pieces were similar to the ones in frame B, so I started with those first. To get a good fit when cutting adjoining strips, I devised a method that worked really well: cut the first piece at half the angle of that corner, place both pieces in their positions on the MDF board, and then draw a parallel line across the second piece. This way, the second cut aligns much better once joined.

Parallel line on the second piece, will join much better with the first

Next came the curved members. I prepared a new board, since the widths needed are larger than the 55mm strips I had been using. Following Janusz’s blog, I cut a 10 cm strip, plus another about 7.5 cm wide to allow for the 55 mm + 8 mm curve of the bottom piece. I’m hoping to reuse this second strip later for frame D, which has an even more pronounced curve (hence not 55mm + 8mm = 63, but 55mm + 18mm = 73mm instead)

This time, I challenged myself to use the table saw alone instead of asking the yard staff for help. They’d certainly do it faster and better, but I wouldn’t learn anything that way. I needed a quick explanation to get started, then I carefully figured it out, took my time, and got the job done.

Wider strips of wood for curved pieces

The 55 mm + 8 mm piece proved trickier. One side was straightforward, like before, but the other runs all the way down to the floor — and the angle was too steep for the miter saw to handle. I decided to cut it manually. Every time I need to saw a piece of wood, I treat it as practice for cutting straighter and squarer, and by now I feel reasonably confident. Also, since that end will sit against the hull bottom and not against another strip, it didn’t require perfect accuracy.

Preparing to cut bottom side

I first made a test cut parallel to the final one, just to check if I could manage a clean result. Satisfied with the practice, I went ahead with the real cut. It wasn’t miter-saw quality, but it was definitely usable.

Good enough result

Now, the next step will be tackling the curved section itself — but that’s a challenge for a future post.