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Order of work for the first three steps listed in the Pygmy manual

One of the first steps in the Pygmy Borealis manual is to "align and glue" the panels together.

The boat is made up of 6 panels on each side, 12 panels total. Most of the panels are made up of three pieces of plywood cut out by their computer controlled cutting machine. To make the panels you must carefully line up the component pieces of each panel and glue them together using epoxy and fiberglass tape.

The manual also suggests the you make one side of the boat and then the other side.

Here are my changes to this step:

A. ALTERNATIVE STEP FROM THE OFFICIAL PYGMY MANUAL: I only epoxy and fiberglass the INSIDE of each panel. The manual has you do both sides. The problem with that is that you almost never can make that fiberglass tape go completely invisible. When you build the hull you will line up all of the seams. This essentially creates a ring of fiberglass tape that goes around the entire hull at both the main seam and the stern seam. It becomes pretty obvious. IF you are CAREFUL you can get away with only doing the inside seams of the panels instead. If you aren't careful the panels may crack. I'll let you know how it goes!

B. ALTERNATIVE STEP FROM THE OFFICIAL PYGMY MANUAL: I change the order of work by doing the #6 panels first and then working down through the panels to the #1 panels. After completing each panel you then put them aside and carefully stack them. Because you will build the hull starting with the #1 and #2 panels you will want them at the top of your stack. Again, because I'm only taping the insides of each panel I need to be extremely careful when I move the panels. This enables me to move them much less.

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My specific order of work combines the first three steps: (Align and glue the panels, Reinforce the deck panels, and Bevel the Sheer Edges)

ALTERNATIVE STEP FROM THE OFFICIAL PYGMY MANUAL: Here's the changes I made from what the manual suggests:

1. I glued the #6 panels and #5 panels and put them aside

2. I then glued the #4 panels and put them aside but in a different place (this will make sense in a bit)

3. Then I stopped building panels and instead used my router table to do the "Bevel the Sheer Edges" step. You bevel the edges of panels #4 and #5 where they will meet later. I did this now before reinforcing the #5 panels because I was using the router table and the reinforcement piece would not work as it went through the router table. I then put the #4 panel aside again.

4. Then I did the "Reinforce the deck panels" step because I already had panels #5 and #6 within easy access.

5. I re-stacked the panels in reverse order; #6's, #5's, #4's onto my side storage area making sure that the middle seams (especially for #4's through #1's) were well supported.

6. Then I made the rest of the panels in reverse order: #3 through #1 and put them aside by carefully stacking them on top of the other panels. Now all my panels are built and ready to be used in the order that you need them.

At this point my work table is cleared off and I'm ready to install the temporary frames for my next step - The "Taping Method" of building the hull instead of the "stitch and glue" method!

More later.


 Aloha! 




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