Hi Pita! Welcome aboard! When I removed my keel it was mush like most of my boats wood. But this pc in particular was like a carved 2x4x8 to fit into place as the keel.
I may be wrong but I understand that you should use a series of ply {more strength**to make the fit and scallop it to fit the contour. Ea. pc. should be sealed, then pb, then fitted and sealed with glass. I'm sure WOG or Rick will clarify this better.
Been ready to approach this myself so I'm gonna follow your thread. Thanks!
This brings up some interesting thoughts or maybe minutia that might be useful for Pita. I'll throw out some of my thoughts and everyone feel free to pick it apart.
Just to be clear I'm only talking about the two keel pieces (not the area around the drain pipe).
On using ply I'm wondering if it's worth the effort if what was there before turns out to basically be 2x4. I guess ply would be stronger, oriented vertically and Titebonded together (this is really a question)?
What would be an efficient way to build these things if using ply? Maybe figure out the angle, cut that angle on the bottoms, then come back and cut the top's to the right height before gluing? I'm no woodworker...
Once you have the pieces of wood ready here is what I think would be next:
Round off any sharp edges.
Saturate in resin and let it tack up.
Wrap in CSM.
To install lift them off the hull to avoid hard spots (just like on a stringer).
Squeeze PB in the gap.
Create fillets.
Glass in with two layers of 1708.
Have I learned anything over the past several months?
