Hull Frame Prep April 16-20, 2018

by Wayne | Apr 22, 2018 | Boat building, Hull | 2 comments

A quick update of the work this week of April 16-20.  Most of the time has been spent sorting and cleaning up all the parts from the small first shipment we received which are made from  8mm AL plate while we await the arrival of all the the majority of the parts of various thicknesses.

As will become my practice I think, there is a video summary of the week at the end of this post as well.

Most of the 8mm parts are for the skeletal framework which you can see quite clearly in this quick rendering we’ve shown you in previous posts. 

To help keep terms straight you can clearly see the difference between the transverse FRAMES and the longitudinal STRINGERS and these are the parts that have been worked on this week.  Cleanup involves some light grinding to remove any roughness along the edges cut by the plasma CNC cutter to they are safer to handle and ready to weld. 

In this phantom or X-ray view you can see how the shape and size of the frames changes very rapidly up in the bow area as it widens from a point with zero width at the stem bar plate which is the very front edge slicing through waves and water and then widens out which each successive frame as you move aft. 

It is a useful reference that each frame is spaced one meter apart so you can use this to get a sense of scale.  The frames are also numbered from bow to stern so that first one you see here furthest to the right of the illustration is about 1m back from the stem bar edge and each successive frame is 1m aft of that.  I will be referring to frames by their # so you will know were that is located in the boat.

We started with this pile of parts I am getting to know here, still on the pallet they where shipped on.

Each part has its unique name/number etched into it during the CNC cutting so there is no confusion and there are also other alignment marks, labels and instructions where needed to assist in the assembly.

This made it a relatively fast process to sort though them all and stack them in groups.

This pile on the left will form the window frames which wrap around the entire pilot house or SuperSalon as we are calling it to provide 360 views even when we are inside. 

On the right here is a pile of the rectangular tank access cover plates.  For both safety and capacity almost all the volume inside the hull below the waterline is tankage.  Approximately 14,000 liters or 3700 US gallons of fuel and about 5300 L / 1400 USG of water.

By the end of the week the team had lightly cleaned up areas for welding as you can see in this stack of pieces that will form the bottom portion of several frames.  These are stacked upside down right now so the point at upper middle of each of these will sit along the very bottom centerline or keel of the boat.  That large slot you see at this point is where these frames will allow the 25mm thick keel bar to pass through and be welded. 

Extending out from this large center line slot you can see the smaller slots where the stringers will interlock in place with their corresponding slots.

This shot also shows quite clearly how the shape of the bottom of the hull varies along the boat’s length.  The foremost frame in this picture is frame #3 which stands in stark contrast to Frame #12 closest to the wall.

Keep in mind that the parts in the picture above are just the bottom side of the frame and they will soon have their side and top parts welded in place to become a true frame. 

Frame #2 pictures here is narrow enough that it can be cut whole within the width of the AL plates so it will serve as a good example of the basic form of completed frame.

This is an old set of drawings so there have been some changes since but this set of frames 1 through 12 will give you a good sense of how each frame varies. 

As promised here is a video compilation I have quickly put together of 3 videos I took during this past week.  The audio is a bit rough in the middle as there was a lot of grinding going on but I hope this will give you a better feel for the work that has been happening this week. 

This is a long weekend here for National Sovereignty and Children’s Day here in Turkey so we have a shortened work week this coming week.  However we also expect the big batch of almost all the rest of the aluminium parts to arrive by truck from Istanbul which will make for another exciting week.

Hope these posts are helpful and PLEASE let us know with your comments what about these posts and videos works well for you and what does not.  And add any suggestions on how the blog could be improved to be of more value and enjoyment.