I can’t wait to see the floors installed but I don’t want to sand/paint the bilge. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this got me stalled out for a while. Begrudgingly I’ve finally gotten in gear. I had already done the bulk of the bilge sanding but the bulk part is also the easy […]
I hit quite a stall during Christmas and haven’t gotten much done in a while. It’s that bilge. The thought of sanding all those nooks and crannies multiple times I think just ran me down. I did however get all my floorboards ready for install as that part was fairly easy and so more fun […]
In the last post I described what I am going for and how I made sure I had enough sq.ft. of board coverage (length and width). For how I want my sole to look and lay out, there was not enough area with the boards that were included in the kit. To get more coverage, […]
Where to start? I have a whole lot more to go in this build but at least to date this has been the most challenging piece by a long shot. According to other blogs, I’m not alone. Part of the difficulty is simply discerning what the goal is, much less how to accomplish it. As […]
In my last post I had laid down fiberglass for a few of the bilge sections but had yet to roll any epoxy. At this point I have finished all the bilge glassing and finished all sanding but for some touch up spots. Strong Suggestion : Following the lead of several other builders I refrained […]
Having a good place to spread out and get fiberglass off the roll has always been troublesome. I have seen a recommendation to set up a bar for the roll to hang on for spooling off the glass sheeting (Doug Braun maybe?). I rigged one of these up and after cutting fiberglass for half the […]
EpoxyAfter laying all the large fillets in the bilge I realized a need a better way to handle large batches of epoxy, both unthickened and thickened. SandingI have a couple of ideas for sanding fillets that I want to try out. Epoxy Dispensing & Mixing SpigotsThanks to Steve Sawtelle for pointing me to Wolverine Tuff. […]
With all the tack welds in place it’s time to remove all the stitches and lay down large continuous fillets at all the seams. Prep Removing the stitches is fun. Seeing everything held together and standing on its on is satisfying. Just 1,517 more steps to go. Though I had cleaned my tack weld fillets […]
All the pieces are stitched in and are all level, flush, plumb, etc., etc. Or…as much as they’re going to get at least. Now to start tack welds. Before starting to glue, I got on the floor and taped up all cracks and holes from which epoxy might escape. Easier said than done to say […]
Before applying the initial ‘tack weld’ fillets, all the floors and bulkheads need to be squared up and leveled. As my shop floor isn’t perfectly level I first had to mess around with leveling the cradle itself. Then I stitched in the remaining floors and bulkheads (except for floor 3, more on that later). All […]