As Ive got to the point of placing and fixing the plywood bottom and sides to the temporary frame, I realised that I really should have bought that book that was reccomended on Amazon..."How to build the Nutshell pram" ! I have no idea how all the screws and bits of wood fit together . I had naively assumed the paper plans would have all that.
Back down to Whitworth Marine in Caringbah with a sheet of the plans annotating all the screws I needed, provided welcome distraction for the older boatbuilders there who crowded around to have a look at what was being attempted, as well as comments from the younger guys along the lines of how much more useful the dinghy would be with a 30hp outboard affixed!!
Back to Google,
and I must also mention here how useful other blogs have been for me, notably:
-- Building Our Nutshell Pram by BZ on "nutshellpram.blogspot.com.au"
and now looking at the photos on this blog to see where the screws go!
-- Nutshell Pram Construction by Shutterfly at nutshellpramconstruction.shutterfly.com
NUTSHELL BOTTOM DRY FIT:
First off, I added bracing to the temporary moulds to take the strain of the bent plywood, and also an extra batten to straighten up the laminated mid frame.
Next was to dry fit the plywood bottom, drilling holes for the Record clamps to pull down the plywood to the moulds.
(note; remember, spade bits don't like 10G steel wood screws!...scratch one 22mm spade bit:)
The bottom didn't seem to line up exactly with the moulds, so I added the mid plank on one side as another guide. Again, I drilled holes in the temporary moulds with a spadebit for the clamps. Not wanting to drill large holes through the stern and bow transoms, I setup an easy windlass to pull the plywood down to the bevelled transoms.
Its starting to show its final shapes, but I have a bit of adjusting to do before I screw down the ply bottom. It's been hot enough to burn outside today, so this will have to wait for more afternoon shade....
Great blog!
ReplyDeleteAbout to start building the 7'7" version soon. I have the plans and the book, except one of the plan pages is missing? Maybe we could help each other out?
Your photos are motivating me to get started!
Cheers,
Dan (TAS)
Dan, you are welcome. That is the point of this blog...and to have fun chatting to other people who are attempting the same thing. If you have the book, then we can certainly exchange information. As you might have noticed, I have a materials list on one drawing showing a hundred screws but i have no idea where they go!
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