swampscott dory stem and transom

[tim in providence]

i'm building swampscott dory from gardner's "the dory book" and i have two questions:

1) i'm about to put the bevel on the stem and gardner's book gives instructions on how to achieve this bevel throughout it's length. however, to me the instructions are vague at best and i'm about 50% at underrstanding. i know that the bevel changes throughout the stem, but my question is do i need to draw up one of the these " special sections' for each placement of where i want to place one of these starting bevels? or do i get the bevel from the measurements of the projected lines?

or does anyone have another solution to finding the bevel on the stem?

2) the goes for the transom

thnaks

[johngsandusky]

Tim, I haven't built a dory. But I built a mutichine dinghy. I cut the bevel with a batten over the frames at each plank.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Have you lofted the plans? If so you will have found the rabbit and bevel and can know that you can gauge the depth and angle of the rabbit at various points up and down the stem. Not being familiar with the design (I'm sure Thorne will chime in at any moment now) I would pressume that you will need to cut the rabbit on the stem and bevel on the transom first. Greg Rossel, in his book Building Small Boats strongly suggests that you leave to outter bevel (cutwater) until you've well and truly finished planking and anything else that may require a clamp to be put in place on the stem.

[onobleboat]

I make the bevel on the stem buy laying either a plank or a batton across it that is wraped around the molds the way the plank will lay. Easy to do and works very well, should work well with a Dory. Work it down with a spokeshave and fine adjustments can be made with a piece of belt sandpaper cut to about 12 inches with the plank in position but loose so the sandpaper will go between the plank and the stem, it's not rocket science and not that hard to do once you get out the plank and lay it across the stem. The same sandpaper will also finish off the gains if your doing the dory laps.

[Bob Smalser]

.... do i need to draw up one of the these " special sections' for each placement of where i want to place one of these starting bevels?

Exactly. This is more a lofting than a woodworking problem. I'm sure you noticed if you don't draw a special section for each of the four starting cuts desirable for getting out an accurate bevel, the bevel angle doesn't change like it should.

While taking transom bevels off a test batten is straightforward enough, this stem is a bit long and a bit horizontal to bevel efficiently using only a batten. You'll do a lot more trial-pare-trial-pare than necessary. Like two or three days worth. ;)

And to prevent any confusion, dory stems like yours do not have either rabbet or cutwater, they use a false stem added after planking......nor do you really need to buy any more books than the Dory Book it sounds like you have. Pay special attention to Gardner's depiction of the grain orientation of each piece. Few other books provide that and Gardner didn't draw all that in for decoration. Good choice. Have fun.

[Thorne]

Beyond my modest skills, folks. The above advice sounds perfect.

[onobleboat]

The Dory builders of long lost times built a lot of these boats by "Eyeballing" if you are using Gardners lines and offsets and you have the molds down pat, the stem bevel is just what is left over to cope with, get the general shape from the plans and put the rest in by eye, thats what boatbuilding is all about, the Dory is easy to do, I put the stem bevel in Canoes, Wherrys, and all the boats I built by eye. And I agree with Bob on the Dory Stem, should "not" be a rabbit stem, use a false outer stem. And if John Gardner were posting to this thread he would tell you to just do it and not loose any sleep over it.

[tim in providence]

thank you all very much for your guidance and words. i thought as much about putting a special section for each of the four starting bevels and then using the hairy eyeball to finish it off. same goes for the transom. i'm sure i'll have other questions.

peace

[tim in providence]

thank you all for your help.