Herkimer & Perkins: Building Backyard Boats in Buffalo, NY

My Backyard Boats:

The Piccup Squared

Bevels -- sticking to the plan

18 May 03: I had expected to breeze through the putting of 1x1 1/2 pine boards with bevels around the edges of the transoms and bulkheads. Four days and 16 hours later, I was finally done with this part of the project.

The bevel thing gives me fits sometimes, because Jim's plans say to allow for extra for the bevels, but I never really felt certain of how much to leave. His new book, however, has a section on bevels that clears up all this confusion for me. I could see that my old way of cutting the bevels threw off the lines by 1/16 of an inch, more or less. What I did this time was to cut the bevel with my chop saw, which is dead-accurate and has a degree scale that I trust. I took the pine scrap with the bevel to the 10-inch table saw, which has a degree scale that I don't trust. The pine scrap, butted against the raised saw blade set the proper bevel. Then I cut a bevel piece of pine such that the face one sees was 1 1/2 inches wide (making the glue face a bit wider or narrower, depending on the bevel being cut. The pix show all this clearly.

I took my time and did the best job I could, and I was pleased with the result. I had no errors beyond 1/16 of an inch. That's acceptable for me.

A few days ago, I bought a 1x12x12-foot Select pine board and cut all the chines, gunwales, and skids -- eight pieces in all. I got a good deal on what seems a lot like New Zealand radiata pine, for about half the price I paid the last time I bought radiata pine. It smells wonderful and cut well, too.

Tomorrow I plan to put the hull together after trimming the bevel sticks on the transoms and bulkheads. The weather has finally cleared after about a week of rain and cold.

Time spent so far: Add 16 hours for cutting bevel sticks for the transoms and bulkheads, for a total so far of 26 hours.

Cost so far: Add $3.49 for a 1x4x8-foot pine board and $39.96 for a 1x12x12-foot pine board, for a total so far of $127.38.

Piccup Squared building log index

You can check a bevel by placing a cut board directly on the plans. This one is perfect. Now I can use this angle to set the table saw angle to rip a beveled stick of 1x1 1/2 pine.
Sticks in place on the stern transom.
Sliding bevel gauge helps you check the angle on a cut piece of plywood to see how accurate you were. And you can pick up an angle to take to the saw that makes the bevel cuts. You also can cut the bevels with a hand plane if you wish. I've done that before. The sliding bevel gauge will tell you how accurate that sort of cut is, too. Just slide alone the cut edge and look for flaws.
The annual rings in wood can be placed to minimize problems with shrinking and swelling with changes in moisture level in the wood. I would flip this piece and glue so that the annual rings won't pull the board away from the plywood on the edges. This is a good trick to keep in mind no matter what the wood project.
Chop saw has a dead-accurate degree gauge. The sliding bevel is used to set the angle picked up from the cut plywood.
Scrap of pine with desired bevel, cut with the accurate chop saw, is now butted against the table saw blade to set the proper angle for a bevel rip cut. Raise the blade high enough to get a good mating of the surfaces. This blade has carbine bits, so I raised the blade high enough to avoid them.
Closeup view shows a bottom bevel stick and side bevel stick, with the bevels oriented correctly according to the blueprints. I'll trim the extra on the side bevel stick with the Japanese pull saw.
The bc pine does not like to go untwisted, so I clamped each finished bulkhead or transom to the workbench to encourage the piece to take on flatness as the glue dried.
All the pieces finished and lined up in order, with the bow transom at the top and the temporary form with butt strap in the middle.