Chainplates are in

 I'm getting to the point where I want to glue down the deck and I wanted to install the chainplates before that event.  A few builders installed the chain plates after their decks were installed.  Needless to say they were working in very cramped quarters trying to get those things in.  In any case, I looked around trying to buy chain plates and finally I asked where people get these things.  Jon from Critical Twist sent me drawings done by Kevin from Pipe Dream.  When I saw the drawings I figured that I could build these things myself.  Of course this kind of thing would be pretty easy to build with a nice milling machine, but my drill press with a crummy cross vice would have to do.  To start off I ordered some 316 stainless.  I thought that I pressed the button for 1/8th inch mirror finished plate, but I received 3/16th in mill finished (dark).  In any case after cutting the metal to size with a Porter Cable Tiger Saw (I tried a cutting disk, but a couple of those broke apart) I used the cross vice to get the holes aligned and spaced evenly.  I then built the backing plates using the same methods.  The backing plates were smaller than the ones in Kevin's drawings in order to save a bit of weight.  I figured with the thicker material that this would be OK.  Finally, it took a whole lot of work to clean up the 316 to a nice shiny finish.

 As everyone recommends in their blogs, I over-drilled the size of the holes in the chain plate gussets, filled them with epoxy/filler mix and then re-drilled the holes to the appropriate size.  The picture to the right shows one of the chainplates installed on the gusset.  

 The picture to the left shows the backing plate.  As you can see, this is quite a bit smaller than the chainplate itself.  

Finally, the picture on the right shows the chainplate protruding through the deck.  The slot that I built on this side of the boat was perfect.  The one on the other side was not so great, however I'll fill the gap in when I glass the deck.


Next up, I'm going to remove the chainplates, finish fitting the deck together and glue everything down.  I'm still thinking about how to add flotation to the boat.  I'm thinking about adding foam under the entire length of the deck.  I might do this with normal pink foam from Home Depot, or use expanded polyurethane foam.