We finally glued one piece of boat to another. This was a long time in coming for one main reason. Money! I was planning all along to use epoxy to glue and coat the boat. I had picked out the epoxy at a local boat supply shop and it was going to cost about $100. However, when I went back to the boat shop last week I found that what I thought were gallon containers were really half gallon. This plus the fact that I would need more than I had first thought drove the price to over $300 just for the glue. This was about what I was planning to spend for the whole boat!

I know epoxy is best, but after researching the topic I feel I can still end up with a great boat using Titebond III wood glue. I only plan to have it in the water a few times a year so this should be fine. I also want the boys to be able to help as much as they want. Epoxy is just too toxic to use around young growing kids in my opinion. If I suddenly come into some money before I paint it I can still coat with epoxy.

The picture is of a chine log lamination that will be glued to a side panel to provide surface area to hold on the bottom. The chipboard is not part of the boat. It's just a base to work on that I don't mind filling with deck screw holes. The screws are placed along a curve that matches the bottom of the boat. The two halves of the chine logs are then glued together and clamped to the screws. When it dries the log roughly matches the profile of the bottom of the boat and can be glued to the side pannel much easier.