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There are four of us from Wylie, TX (a northeast suburb of Dallas) that decided to build Cocktail Class Racers. We worked with Chesapeake Light Craft to arrange to have all four kits shipped at the same time and we received them on April 2, 2019. While picking up the kits from the freight dock and transporting them home there was a small setback ($28) by a deceitful and green law enforcement (taxation) officer who apparently just needed to make his first ever traffic stop.
At the end of the day all four kits were delivered to their respective homes…
I’ve got mine on the garage floor and have done nothing but open the box. After traveling for work this week I intend to start construction of the kit on Saturday, 4/6.
Today I built the CLC jig/mold. It’s important to read the instructions to understand what planes should be vertical, parallel, and perpendicular to each other. The first time we assembled the jig I set up the cradles “level across the top”. This is wrong, per the instructions you should set up the cradles so they are level left to right and then plumb!
The inner stem was attached, per the directions. It was necessary to have a drywall screw right perpendicular between the two ineer stem screws in order to keep the spine of the jig from separating.
Once the jig was assembled the instructions progress to the first epoxy job! I laid out the transom, transom doubler, tank sides and tank side doublers.
It was at this point I realized the value in organizing the parts in the order you’ll use them. I had hauled quite a few of the parts into the house to try to reduce clutter in the garage. This worked well, but a lack of foresight meant, inevitably, each piece I needed was the piece currently on the bottom of the pile. I rearranged the stack a few times.
Epoxy was applied with a disposable chip brush. Ratcheting clamps, spring clamps, bricks and brake rotors were added to provide the necessary clamping force while the epoxy sets up over the next 24 hours.
That’s all the progress for today.
By the way, this Japanese rasp is an amazing tool and makes short work of machine tabs left by the CNC router process:
Today I built the CLC jig/mold. It’s important to read the instructions to understand what planes should be vertical, parallel, and perpendicular to each other. The first time we assembled the jig I set up the cradles “level across the top”. This is wrong, per the instructions you should set up the cradles so they are level left to right and then plumb!
The inner stem was attached, per the directions. It was necessary to have a drywall screw right perpendicular between the two ineer stem screws in order to keep the spine of the jig from separating.
Once the jig was assembled the instructions progress to the first epoxy job! I laid out the transom, transom doubler, tank sides and tank side doublers.
It was at this point I realized the value in organizing the parts in the order you’ll use them. I had hauled quite a few of the parts into the house to try to reduce clutter in the garage. This worked well, but a lack of foresight meant, inevitably, each piece I needed was the piece currently on the bottom of the pile. I rearranged the stack a few times.
Epoxy was applied with a disposable chip brush. Ratcheting clamps, spring clamps, bricks and brake rotors were added to provide the necessary clamping force while the epoxy sets up over the next 24 hours.
This particular forum software is really discouraging!!! I may just move over to the CLC forums.
Here’s the Japanese rasp I was telling you about:
Well, the epoxy set up just fine! I always save the cup from the batches of epoxy to make sure that I got a good mix, set and cure.
I started working on the bottom of the boat today. I’m using a door as my work table and it’s great. I put the two bottom halves on the workspace, clipped the copper wire up into “stitches” and grabbed my safety wire pliers.
A nice row of uniform looking stitches.
My wife helped me unfold the bottom of the boat into the cradle. It kept slipping aft so she pushed it forward while I put a few stitches in the bow stem.
The other essential tool is the Japanese pull saw.
Use doubled wire, larger wire, or steel wire in the front area when you pull the bow together. The stress will be enough to break some of your stitches if you don’t. We didn’t do this, ended up dealing with breaking stitches and drilling multiple extra holes to eventually pull it all together. Next time, if there is a next time, I’d use larger copper or double the kit wire.
One thing we did correctly, or at least seemed like a good idea, was to examine the parts prior to assembly and epoxy some of them BEFORE assembly. For example, the backs and bottom edges of the coaming strips, and some of the pieces that form the steering braces.
Thanks for the tips Marty! I tried to post some more pictures but this forum software is insufferable.
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