Tools & Tips

 In this section I will lists some of the tools and tips that made my Brick-building experience pleasant. I don't know that anything here is all that revolutionary but I do hope it helps. 

Useful tools

I’m not going to try to run down an exhaustive list of every tool that I used to build these boats. Really I didn’t keep track. What I will try to do here is list out the tools that made life much easier.

Circular Saw

I did nearly all of my cutting with a circular saw. I used a brand new 100-tooth plywood blade for the sheet goods. The curve on the bottom is gentle enough that the circular saw will cut a beautifully sweet curve. A regular blade did the rest of the work.

Router with Ball Bearing Flush Cutting Bit

Behold the joy of right angle carpentry in a boat. I used my router with a flush-trimming bit many times. For example, trimming the chine logs and transom framing flush with the plywood. I deliberately left my framing about 1/16" proud of the plywood – which I knew was the right size, and trimmed it flush with the router after the glue dried.

Brace and Bit

Chucked with a screwdriver bit this is my tool of choice for driving bunches of drywall screws into softwood. It makes the work go very fast, is cordless, and give a little more "feel" than an actual cordless screwdriver. It’s pretty easy to tear a screw out or crunch the luan plywood a little too much if you aren’t careful.

Sheet of foam insulation cut into 2 by 4 foot strips

I don’t own a table saw. Even if I did I would still cut sheet goods on the floor with my circular saw. All you have to do is put the foam on the floor and lay the sheet goods down on top of it. The whole workpiece is supported and it is much easier to move the saw over the plywood than wrestle the plywood through a table saw. One piece of foam is good for more cutting than I do any given year.

Architects T square

I used an old architects T-square to draw the station lines for the hull sides. It is critical to get the layout right. For me using the T-square was more sure than trying to use a framing square. Since the sides are only two feet deep at the most my T-square was able to draw lines as long as needed with precision.

Metal straight edge

Getting good straight cuts in your sheet goods do a lot for making this boat go together pleasantly. After years of using a straightest board in my shop as a straight edge guide for my circular saw I bought an aluminum straight edge eight feet long designed just to be a cutting guide. Life is not much easier.

Fine Wire nails.

I cut all of the parts that needed to be identical like the sides, rudder halves, and dagger board halves at the same time. To keep the layers of plywood from sliding around I made sure that all the layers were lined up correctly and drove in some thin finishing nails in areas that I knew would be waste. Because I cut my sheet goods flat on the floor resting on a sheet of foam insulation c-clamps are not as useful.

Good sharp block planes

There are not very many angles in this boat. At all. However, for those few angles, like on the top of the bow transom a sharp block plane does the job.

Make a bunch of these clamps

Having a great swarm of clamps is useful if you want to build this boat in a hurry. There are quite a few linear feet of framing to install. Having enough clamps will help. All they take are a carriage bolt, a few inches of threaded rod, a wingnut, a hex nut, a few washers and some scrap wood.

Brick Hints

My Folding Rudder

You will want a folding rudder, trust me. The standard rudder on a Brick is deep enough to make it almost impossible to launch from short in place. It's also a bother to try to fit in place while afloat. A drop-down rudder solves both annoyances. My version retains the standard size. You can use the standard rudder for the blade. Pretty much any scrap of plywood 5/8" thick or greater will do for the top. My rudder blade pivots on a carriage bolt. A knob made with a T-nut and a scrap of hardwood does the rest. I started using eye screws and a dowel for my rudder hinge. Second time out I replaced the eye screws with gudgeons made from a t-shaped mending strap and the dowel with a 1/4" steel pin. I consider the current rudder a work in progress. It has worked fine so far. Sailing with it doesn't seem to strain it overmuch. Sculling with the rudder partially down puts a little more strain than I feel comfortable with.

Handles

For a couple of extra bucks you can make your brick really easy to carry. I put a handle on both corners on the stern and a single handle in the front to serve as both a handle and a place to tie a painter.

Rig your sprit on a sling.

The rigging described in the back of Payson’s Build the New Instant Boats works. I don’t know if it was dumb luck but I followed the diagram and it just simply works. Hold the sprit out taut and easily swings around the mast.

Wooden cleats are pleasant and cheap.

NOTE: It is my intention to put up plans for wooden cleats on this page. Use them at your own discrstion. Do a bit of research and check out the boatbuilding sites that discuss them.

 Put Fiberglass tape on the bottom outside edges.

Even if you’re really nice to it you boat will bang up against things. Like the shore. If you run strips of fiberglass tape along the outside edges it will go along ways towards making a somewhat flimsy boat last longer. You will have to invest in some epoxy to do this. It probably isn’t essential. The boat will float without it. Just not as long.

Spend some time with the rub strips

I didn’t do all that great a job on the rub strips. I didn’t get them glued up smoothly to the bottom and needed to fill in with thickened epoxy. I would probably but on epoxy fillets in any case but the gaps bothered me. If I were to build another Brick I would follow Bolger’s suggesting and laminate them up to a full inch or so thick. The do much of the work stiffening the bottom and take a beating keeping the rest of the bottom from getting dinged up. Next time I would be inclined to saw some thin 1/8" strips and laminate the whole works up with epoxy.