Work Day 11

To be honest this was actually two really short days combined.  One was spent in the wood shop fabricating the next round of wood pieces for the forward cabin core replacement and then the mast reinforcement.  After cutting them out in the shop I took them over to be epoxy laminated.  This included the other sides of the pieces I was already working on.  I foolishly bought more roller brushes, not necessary. I had forgot about  the convenient yellow squeegee that had come with the kit, these things are way better at spreading around epoxy evenly on wood.

The wood laid out, the triangle and rectangle have just been cut but not coated yet.

After coating the wood to dry, I laid up another layer of fiberglass on the keel.  This time I had my CSM(chopped Strand Mat) which was 1 million times easier to bend around the shape of the keel and stick.  On the down side it was less this then the 6oz cloth.  But two or 3 more layups and it will be good to go.

This keel will be able to take any hit by the time I am done with it!

Forgot to include pictures the other work day of the bilge bin that had been sanded down with the angle grinder.  That was a pain to do but it was pretty clean and ready for some fiberglass lay up.  

You can see the fiberglass has been ground down and that the cracks are really obvious.

On day two I actually laid down the glass, it cured really well.  Just laid down one coat on the inside of the tray with a lot of epoxy.  I will drill out the bolt holes later.  I think one layer on the bottom of the box to totally seal and reinforce the cracks and this guy will be as good as new.  Obviously will need to lay up some fairing on there, not sure how I am going to sand this when that happens :(.

You can see how thick it is at the end where the black cracks are.  Epoxy has soaked through the cracks to the other side so I am not too worried.

Next I applied some of the new filler I got shipped in to the fiberglass lay up I did on the hull.  This was the filler I was waiting for, since I ran out of the small patch kit filler.  It had the distinctive maroon color of the filler at the end. I will sand it down when the weather gets better and is not going to rain. Hopefully this will be the last sanding job on these machined holes. 

While I am on the subject of the hull, I got a little restless at Lowes and bought some paint stripper in a spray paint can while I was picking up some solvent prep for the epoxy.  I tried it on the hull with my paint stripper iron just to see what I was in for in the future.  Not a pretty site, its going to be nasty and messy.  Though the stripper worked to get the green off, it left the copper oxide on and in tact. That will have to be sanded away, which will be dangerous and nasty.  Maybe I will have to do that back at the storage facility where its just rocks on the ground and no one will be around to breathe it in.  

This is after two or three paint scrapes to the area I applied the stripper.

Next I decieded to work inside where it was warm, which was both required and appreciated. The outside temp was 50 degrees which is on the border low end for mixing and applying epoxy.  So inside where it was nice and 70 in the shop I mixed away.  It occured to me that the cabin floor would need a laminate made, this would probably be easier to do outside of the boat(seems like a messy task once its installed).  So I figure I will lay up the main laminate and then install it in the boat, then finally add the filler once its installed to paint.  This way I can still mount anything that needs to be done.  

So I laid up the remeaning fiberglass weaving I had to make one layer on the center portion of the deck.    After coating this layer I realized I would need at least 3-4 lay ups for this to become a laminate.  I started with 6 oz fabric.  From reading on line I need at to alternate layers using CSM and woven for 3-4 layers ending with really heavy layer on top.  Rookie mistake realizing this after, apperently its hard to bond multiple layers after the first woven layer has dried, becuase of all the bumpy surfaces.  But not too woried, nothing a little epoxy cant fix. Speaking of which we are about half way throught the gallon kit. Less then thrilled about that seeing as I still have to install the the dang thing and do 2-3 more layers on the cabin floor.  But if I need another one I will buy it.

The layout, I figured I could get the edges when I install CSM to the side of the hull.

After it was soaked in epoxy

A nasty corner of strands that came undone, but you can see how flat the rest is.

While I was inside I also thought it was time to hitch on the forward cabin laminate to the new core. I tried to save the laminate because I knew it would be a pain in the ass to remake it, as evidenced by this cabin floor business.  To do this I sanded down as much of the laminate as possible to make it flat.  There was some old epoxy that was just not leaving (maybe 1/8" in some places).  So I used some high density epoxy thickener to fill in the gaps and then clamped the whole thing down to cure.  Seems to have worked pretty well because epoxy came out the sides and in the screw holes from the center.  Hope it sticks!!!

My clipped up contraption

I am debating wether or not to fill one of the fiberglass holes.  The cap for one of them is pretty beat up and I cannot imagine why they installed two of them so close together.  I will just lay in some fiberglass and build it up to the level of the laminate.  Same things with the back edge where the wood is exposed.  This will take a day or two.  This is good because I actually need to dry out the remaining core some more before I bond it to this new core. Not sure how I am going to do that yet, but its a work in progress. I would guess with all the prep work it will be at least another week before I lay this all in the the boat. But 90% prep will make 10% execution go smooth.  

The other thing I should mention is hauling this crap around, I have all sorts of epoxies and cans of solvent that I cannot leave at the shop every day, so the trunk of my car looks like a mobile meth lab in the back. Since security is tight at work, I would prefer not to leave these in the car.  So made a convienent  carry case.

Last thing wanted to talk about is the vision of what the cabin install looks like and the lay up. After setting up the other day a few things occurred,  I will need to cut a hole in the cabin floor that I am glassing up now to make room for the bilge.  The question becomes when, after its installed on top of it, or before hand when its out of the boat or place and then outline and cut.  Also there is a question of elevation positioning.  So going to try to sketch it up real quick and upload it.  I do not profess to have any artistic abilities..