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12/14-- The cold snap we had has passed. Temps are back
up in the 40s so it's possible to keep the shop warm enough for glue to
dry. So after a few days off, I'm back to work. With strips on one side running past centerline, it's time to transfer the centerline to the outside of the hull and trim them off. |
| The hull after trimming along the centerline. Once the centerline was drawn on the outside of the hull, the strips were trimmed with a chisel, working with the grain from the center of the boat towards the ends. Then the edge was straightened using a small plane and spokeshave, and finally a sanding block. Working around the station molds was a bit of a challenge, but I found that if I trimmed to the line at the stations with the chisel, the space in between could be cut using the plane and spokeshave. Now the remaining strips can be glued in place. |  |
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An offset straightedge to extend the centerline to the other side of the strip and then mark it with a flush scribe gives an accurate line to work to on the outside of the hull. |
| 12/23-- Last strip! Now the hull is all stripped and
the staples have been pulled. (1236 of them... but who's counting.)
Next the outer stems are attached and the hull will be faired. I've decided on West System epoxy using 207 slow hardener to fiberglass the hull. I also bought a 1/2 pt. of fast 205 hardener to use for filling and bonding. The faster cure time really helps in the cooler temps of the garage. Some epoxy with 205 thickened with wood flour** did a great job of gluing the outer stems, and it'll be ready to trim flush to the hull in the morning. All the material is ready, I'm hoping to glass the outside of the hull next weekend (12/30-31) |
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| **I went to my local specialty wood store and picked up a bucket of "Wood Flour" to mix with epoxy as a filler material. For some reason I thought it would be some kind of special stuff. I mean for epoxy thickeners there's cabosil, colloidal silica, milled fibers.... why not wood flour? I was pretty embarrassed when I opened up the bucket and realized it's the same stuff that comes out of my sander's dust bag. After creating several cubic feet of the stuff, I actually BOUGHT sawdust! |