Day42 Serving up other bow side plate.
Starting bottom plate
Last weekend we had a rest with the relatives, it was quite alien to us going shopping on Saturday and eating out that evening. Actually, doing nothing felt downright uncomfortable!
Well happily we're back into the swing of things now.		  
The other largest plate had to be hoisted up and over the front of the boat to get it into position. A slight kink resulted in the 23' long piece as it flopped right over 90 degrees or more. This was worked out using the frame straightener made last year. Guess we should have braced it with some angle stock like we did before...
Anyway, all went in as planned. The bow cutoff was probably the hardest to do. We are going to add in a 1/4" steel rod on each side as the welding there may be a bit too much to fill, and the rod will act as a filler.		  
Next came a whole new experience. The bottom plate. Apon deciding to start at the bow end, a 13' x 4' plate was split diagonally to accomodate both sides, thus cutting back on waste. Templates were considered but the pieces aren't too big so we opted that out for this weekend.
Working with the plate horizontally poses several challenges. The plate that is being worked on is now under our feet, for the most part.
Any marking for cutting must be done with the height of the plate in consideration. Mainly because it isn't perfectly horizontal. An upward movement of 1/2" can make a difference of almost 1/4" on the horizontal. Care must be taken when measuring, etc. We almost goofed on a measurement which would have ruined the whole piece.
Even though the piece weighs a mere 180 lbs, we had to use the hoist anyway as it was too high to push up into position by hand.
The piece has been cut and ground and is ready to go up. The weather prevented us from finishing the job today. The cut along the keel butts right up to the frame so the keel plate can sit over it, to be welded on. Also I partially cut out circles in the frames where the bottom and keel plates will meet.
This is to facilitate welding constantly past the frame from the inside. The rest of the circle will be cut out after the bottom plate has been fit.
I'm sure we'll use templates for the larger pieces. I guess we'll see how this goes tomorrow!
Stay tuned!

Day 42:
8 hours - Fit large forward side plate up to bow and tacked on, cut out the first of 2 bottom plates for the bow area.


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