Slow but Steady (Part II)

Some of you may be thinking that while all these coats of epoxy are curing, I am sitting in the air conditioning drinking beer. This is not so. The inside of the boat gets three set of floor boards. These provide a flat surface to stand or walk on and also keep your feet dry should a small amount of water get in the boat. I work on the floor boards when the boat has a wet coat of epoxy or when structural pieces have been attached and I am waiting for the glue to set up. The third photo shows a group of planks lined up on a table. These are the planks for the forward set of floorboards that have just been given a thin coat of epoxy. The next night they were flipped over and the other side was coated. Over the next four successive nights two more groups of planks were given the same treatment. In all they are 32 planks of varying lengths that will make up the floor boards. The planks are 4" wide x 5/8" thick cypress. The forward set (not shown) was glued together last Sunday. This Saturday the middle section (first photo) was glued up and the screws were removed this morning. This afternoon the aft section, (second photo) which is also the largest section, was glued together. Shortly before taking the picture all of the screws were loosened 1-1 1/2 turns to make sure the epoxy did not bond to them. After they have been trimmed to fit the curve of the hull any areas of bare wood will be covered with epoxy and they too will be sanded down to be primed and painted.

Slow but Steady

It has been awhile since my last update, a bad USB cable made it impossible to download photos for a week. Work continues trying to get the interior of the boat ready for primer. The first photo shows thickened epoxy in the rubrail holes. Before filling them I cleaned each one out with the drill as some of the holes had wasp nest in them. In fact one crawled into a hole while I was drilling so it got drilled also. The second photo shows all the seats after they were glues and all the masking had been removed. Last weekend I sanded the out-wale, in-wale and all the spaces between the two and coated them with two coats of epoxy. Last week after work I caught up on some yard work and did not work on the boat any. Friday and Saturday were spent sanding the hull. I finished sanding the fairing compound on the inside and sanded some runs from when the gun-wales were clear coated. I also sanded all the thwarts, first with 80 then 150 and finally with 220 grit sand paper. Last night I rolled a coat of epoxy over the hull and seats. This morning a few bugs were sanded out of the first coat and a second coat was rolled on. After the second coat was tack free I rolled a third coat on the hull only. The seats had out-gassed while the second coat was curing so they were left alone. In the third photo some of the bubbles are visible, they are the smaller white flecks around the large white spot in the photo. That is the center seat which bubbled the worse, the other two have only a few bubbles. The boat will be allowed to cure for a full day and then it will be given a final sanding to prepare it for primer. The seats will also be sanded to smooth out the bubbles, and then they will be given another coat of epoxy.

First Seat Installed

I took a few days off last week to work on the boat with the intention of getting the remaining wood pieces glued to the boat. On Tuesday I sanded the aft section of the the boat to remove any epoxy runs and applied a layer of fairing compound. I began sanding the fairing material Tuesday night and finished Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday evening I sanded the forward section of the boat and applied fairing compound to it. Thursday was spent sanding the forawd section smooth. In each case the most time consuming part was the frames as the R. O. sander would not fit inside the frames. Each side of each frame was taking 5-6 hours of hand sanding to get the frames some what fair. Each frame had to be faired before the seats were installed as they would be really difficult to access otherwise. On Friday the two remaining areas of the the boat (btween the forward and aft frames) was sanded. I decided to wait until after dark to apply the fairing compound (System Three Quick Fair) in the hope that the slightly cooler temperature would give me a few more minutes to work the fairing compound before it stiffened. This plan did not work as june bugs (a type of beetle) began to land in the first batch. I quit for the night and began the fairing process the next morning. On Saturday morning before I could add any more fairing compound I had to remove six beetles that had become trapped in the hardened Quick Fair. After applying the Quick Fair to to remaining areas of the boats interior. I began dry fitting the floorboards for the area in front of the forward frame. I also cut all the boards for the remaining sections of floorboards. On Saturday Evening I sanded the open areas of the boats midsection and began sanding one of the frames finishing half of one side before calling it a night. Sunday morning I faced the task of sanding the remaining frames was was bbecoming disheartened. I finally decided to go to the local Home Depot where I purcased the smallest mouse sander they had in stock and packages of 80 grit sanding pads for it. With the mouse sander I was able to sand each frame in 30 to 40 minutes. I finished the sanding Sunday afternoon and swept and vacuumed the hull. I rolled a thin coat of epoxy of the face of each frame to seal the fairing compound and then I glued the transom knees and breast hook to the boat. (2nd - 4th photos). The pinkish-white patches in the photas are what remains of the fairing material after sanding. This evening I masked the frames with cut up trash bags to catch any glue drips and glued the aft thwart (seat) to the top of the frame. Tomorrow I will glue the forward seat. The center seat will be installed after UPS delivers some more glue.

Inwales complete

This Saturday my brother and I glued the the inwales to the spacer blocks (third photo). This morning I trimmed the bow and stern ends so the breast hook and transom knees fit, after I epoxy coated the wood for the seats. While I was waiting on the epoxy to cure I marked and drilled 65 1/4" holes in the outer rub rails (first photo). These will be filled with thickened epoxy and re drilled for #8 screws to mount a protective rub rail (5/8" rope). I took a break for dinner and then glued up the fore and aft seats. The center seat will be glued together tomorrow as I ran out of clamps that were large enough. I then returned to the tent and sanded the outwale and inwale. While I was sanding I noticed that a small wasp was already building a nest in one of the holes a had just drill in the outwale. I removed the nesting material with a drill bit but I have a feeling that she will be back. When this was complete I removed all of the stuff that had accumulated in the boat and swept up the sanding dust.