Frame A: A More Complex Challenge

After completing frame D, I couldn’t resist the temptation to arrange all the frames I’ve built so far in their relative positions. For the first time, I could really see the three-dimensional shape of the boat emerging — the gentle curves, the outline of the hull, the actual size I had only imagined until now. It was a deeply satisfying moment, a glimpse of the finished vessel still years away but already taking form before my eyes.

The boat is taking shape!

With that morale boost, I decided to move on to frame A. This one adds a new level of complexity: it includes a plywood panel glued to the structure to form a watertight bulkhead, along with more pine pieces and knees than any of the previous frames.

As usual, I started by erasing the markings from the previous frame and carefully measuring and plotting all the points for the new one. I’ve become much more efficient at this stage — all the diagonals, angles, and reference measurements were within a millimeter of the original plans.

Frame A markings

Once the layout was ready, I began sawing the pine pieces. This time, I adopted a slightly different approach: as soon as I finished cutting each piece, I immediately screwed it to the MDF board in its correct position. This saved me the constant back-and-forth of repositioning pieces later, though it introduced its own minor inconveniences — mainly the build-up of sawdust, which is harder to clean with everything fixed in place. It also meant that I had to find new ways to draw the plywood knees, since I couldn’t easily place the plywood under the pine pieces as before.

Cutting the pine pieces

For the bottom knees, I improvised a simple but effective solution: I cut a few strips of cardboard and taped them over the pine pieces to form a template. Once I had the shapes right, I used those templates to draw the outlines directly onto the plywood. For the other knees, I used the angle finder to capture the corner angles and then filled in the rest with straight lines and right angles.

Cardboard template

During the first few cuts, I wasn’t entirely happy with the results — a few pieces ended up with less-than-perfect joints, costing me some material and time. That led me to rethink my manual sawing method, paying extra attention to setup, stability, and the rhythm of the cut. By the end, the improvement was clear. I think I’ve finally mastered the key aspects of cutting accurate miter joints by hand. If the next frame goes as well, I’ll document my full method in the blog — though, to be honest, most of you will probably prefer to use a good powered miter saw and spare yourselves the struggle!

Frame A turned out to be quite a bit of work. There are many more pine pieces and plywood knees than in the previous frames, but I worked steadily and managed to get everything ready for glueing. Since I had been screwing and dry-fitting as I went, by the time the last piece was cut, the entire frame was already assembled and aligned.

Ready to glue - so many pieces!

The glueing process was also intense — I split it into two epoxy batches, one for bonding and fastening the pine pieces, and another for the plywood knees. In hindsight, three smaller batches might have been better, since I found myself rushing near the end to finish before the epoxy began to set.

First side finished

With one side glued and complete, the next step will be fitting the plywood bulkhead on the opposite side — another new challenge, which I’ll cover in my next post. 

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