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Fiberglass
cloth doesn't like sharp corners, which is why the inside seams need a
fillet, and the outside seams are radiused. As with the inside
seams, the outside seams are
precoated with epoxy, then the saturated tape is laid on the seams and
smoothed out. The astute browser will have noticed the tape down
the center line. This corresponds with the center line tape on the
inside bottom. I'm a big guy, and I'll be cutting a slot in the 1/4"
ply bottom for a dagger board, so I figured a little reinforcement
couldn't hurt. |
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The hard part of this process is
keeping up with the runs in the epoxy. Gravity is not my friend at this
point. I could have cut back a bit on the epoxy but I wanted to be sure
the
tape was thoroughly saturated. |
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This is my epoxy station. A long,
narrow tray made from OSB and lined with polyethylene keeps the mess
confined when slathering epoxy on the tape. I'm using epoxy from RAKA.
If I had it to do over again I would not have split the
hardener between slow and fast, I'd order slow hardener only. Mixing
the fast and slow hardeners
doesn't give me as much time as I'd like. I don't care if it takes a
little longer to cure, I can wait.
In spite of my efforts to avoid direct contact with the stuff, the dreaded Epoxy Rash has struck. System
Three's "The
Epoxy Book" says, "Most people who become sensitized are unable to
continue working with epoxies without breaking out in a rash commonly
on the inside of the forearms ...." It goes on to say I should stop
working with epoxy until the rash clears up. Sigh. |
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Seat riser lamination. A straight
riser would have destroyed the fair lines. Building a steam box seemed
way too complicated for the gentle bend I needed, so I ripped the
risers in half and glued them up on a form. The forward risers required
a different bend, and consequently a second form.
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I
was really stumped for a while
trying to figure out how to hold the risers to the sides while I
drilled pilot holes and screwed them to the boat. I had no clamps that
would reach as much as 10 " deep. I finally cut an extension jig from
scrap ply. The end against the riser is rounded and an extension and a
Quick Grip clamp near each end of the riser provide enough squeeze to
hold everything in place. When I get the seats fitted I'll remove
the risers and move the boat upstairs. I'm trying to get as much done
as I can in the basement because that's where the tools are. When I
move it to the garage, invariably every time I need something it will
be in the basement.
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6-23-05. I know, it's been a
while. We horsed the boat upstairs without having to cut it in half,
and set it up on sawhorses in the back yard. An 8' 2 x 4 rests edgewise
on the spreaders, centered both ways. A 4' x 8' and a 4' x 2' piece of
cheap 1/4" plywood rest on top of the 2 x 4. (The 2 x 4 brings the
plywood spanning the middle up to the height of the curved transoms.
Without the 2 x 4, the ply would have to try to conform to a compound
curve. It can't do that.) The ply supports the tarp, provides an arc to
shed rain water, and protects the tarp and hull from hail.
Sanding the seams outdoors means not having to change the furnace
filter and hose down the walls weekly.
Grinding/sanding
fiberglass produces prodigious amounts of dust, not to mention
sweat.
It is such an odious job that I often find reasons why I
can't/shouldn't do it on any given day. As of today I'm at the
halfway point
of sanding the inner seams; once the inside
seams are
sanded I can turn the boat over to work on the outside seams.
As I've already said, I work on it when I feel like it, and if you're
following my progress, you won't miss anything if you drop by
every few weeks. |
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8-03-05. With the inner seams sanded, the boat is
turned over for outside seam sanding. It might go faster if the weather
would cooperate. I refuse to play on days when the temps are 90 and
above, and we've had a lot of those lately. Once the outside is done
I'll hose it down inside and out, then move it to the garage for
'glassing.
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8-10-05. Sanding the outside seams is a lot easier
than the inside seams. Sanding the inside tends to trap the dust there
and blow it up the side right into my face. Not so on the outside, and
even a slight breeze helps disperse the dust before it gets to me.
(It's still a dirty job, though.) The edges need extra caution because
it would be easy to sand through the 'glass.
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11-08-05. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know its been a while.
Okay, quite a while. I did say from the start that I'd work on it when
I felt like it, and I was not driven to finish it on a tight
schedule.
I did get it moved into the garage. The plans don't call for it, but I
decided to 'glass the interior as well as the exterior, mostly for
abrasion resistance, partly for keeping the plywood from checking
(surface ply splitting). I have some 2.7 oz. cloth for the sides and 4
oz. for the bottom. I laid the cloth on the bottom and stuck with it
until the epoxy kicked, carefully smoothing out any wrinkles and trying
to scoop off excess epoxy. The next morning, disaster. The bottom
looked like a washboard. Wrinkles everywhere, cloth pulled away from
the surface. Yes, I cleaned the plywood first; a good vacuuming
followed by a wipe down with denatured alcohol the day before I did the
'glassing. No, there won't be any pix.
So now I'm grinding away all the high spots, and its slow going because
there are a lot of them.
There will still be enough left to help with abrasion resistance and
resist checking, which is good, because I ain't doing it over. Once I
finish sanding, I'll give it another cleaning and a coat of epoxy, then
move on to the lighter cloth sides and inner transoms. If it happens
again I may just take a chain saw to it.
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2-20-06.
Been an even longer while. Too cold in the garage to work with epoxy,
so the boat is on hold until spring.
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