Blog Post #5

 5/14/22

Hours Today: 6 Hours 30 minutes

Total Hours: 35 Hours 30 minutes

Today was a shorter day but yet again, sanding intensive. I chose to hand sand the hull with 120 grit disks and a wood block. I chose to do this because I was concerned that I might sand through my epoxy coat. It took me a few hours of consistent sanding to make my way across the entirety of the hull. 

Once I finished this, I thought I might do some planning ahead. After reading through the remainder of the manual, I found out that the last thing I needed to do on the bottom of the boat was install the bottom skids. These are two small strips of wood, which provide protection when doing things like pulling the boat up on a beach. 

First, I snapped a line down the center of the hull. Then, I measured a handful of lines on either side of the centerline 7 and 1/8 inches out. These lines gave me the inside edge for my skids.

After I had this done, I laid the skids down on the lines and traced them out. I had a couple people look and we agreed that they seemed to be square to the skeg. 

The next step was to mark and drill my 4 pilot holes, which I did with a 1/8 inch bit. I got under the boat and countersunk all of these holes, after which I conducted a dry fitting of the skids. The rest of the installation  process was the same as that of the skeg, which I talked about in an earlier post. 

An issue that I ran into is that I found the skids began to split when I ran the screws in. I plan to fill these cracks with more thickened epoxy once they are fully cured. 

To end the day, I gave the hull its final coat of un thickened epoxy, and will sand it smooth tomorrow. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #9

 5/21/22 I returned to campus yesterday, and got right to work this morning. It was a somewhat light day in terms of work, but I was able to knock out some more of the important prep work. I began by removing all of the spring and C clamps that I used to affix the second set of rubrails. There were a handful that were stuck by epoxy squeeze out, but they were nothing that couldn't be taken care of with the heat gun.  There were also a number of clamps that I needed tighten a little more aggressively, due to the warp in the rail. With this in mind, I cut a small 1x1 squares of wood to place between the clamp where it met the hull. Having one of these squares on either side of the clamp allowed me to tighten the clamps without worrying about damaging the wood. Once all clamps were removed, I repeated the same process I discussed finishing the first set of rubrails. Using a heat gun and chisel, I scraped the majority of the squeeze out. This time, however, I also took care of the...
Read more

Blog Post #4

 5/12/22 Hours Today: 8 Hours 30 minutes Total Hours: 29 Hours Today was a longer day, and I started it with sanding the hull in preparation for another coat of epoxy. I realised, however, that I still needed to install the skeg. If I installed it prior to sanding and coating, the fillets would have more time to cure. With this in mind, I measured the center of the hull from stern to bow, and marked lines 3/8 of an inch on either side. The width of the skeg is 3/4 of an inch, so these lines would allow me to line it up perfectly upon installation.  The next step was for me to mark and drill 4 pilot holes through the bottom of the hull, in increments of 10 inches. Beginning at10 and ending at 40 inches, I used a 1/8 inch drill bit and followed the path the skeg will take. I then got underneath the boat, and countersunk all of the holes. This allows the screws to sit flush with the deck.  I got someone to hold the skeg in place while I conducted a "dry fit", in which I set ...
Read more

Blog Post #6

 5/14/22 Hours Today: 4 Hours 30 minutes Total Hours: 40 Hours Today was yet another day comprised mostly of sanding. To begin the day, I sanded the final coat of epoxy on the hull using an orbital sander.  Then, with the faithful sanding block, I roughed up the coat on the skeg and the skids. The skeg will need one more coat, whereas the skids will need two. This is not where the work on the skids will end though. I decided to run very small fillets along the sides of the skids, that way they will be protected from any water working its way into the gap. I also need to fill the cracks, which may be something I take care of tomorrow.  After 3 or 4 hours working on the boat, I decided today would be a good time to go to the hardware store and get some paint. I went to Ace Hardware in Franklin, because they seemed to have the cheapest paint and the largest variety. The paint I will be using is the store's version of Rust-oleum, which is a brand of indoor outdoor paint that ...
Read more