Merry Christmas, Backer Board and Sanding!

Merry Christmas to everyone. No boat building today, but while I am waiting for my son to arrive, I thought I would post. The Holidays have been busy and I have had limited time to work, but I still manage to do a task here and there.

A couple weekends ago, I bought a piece of Oak from Home Depot. I wanted to cut a piece to act as a backer board to support the removable tabernacle. From viewing the forum, John Harris recommends a 10" by 13" backer board. It took me a while to cut out using the bandsaw. I then had to setup the router table again to cut the 1/4 inch round-over. I then sanded smooth and have already put a coat of epoxy on it. I am trying to determine how I am going to mount it. Whether to permanently or just bolt on?

Backer board for removable tabernacle.

Last weekend we had a nice day in the upper 60's, so I pushed the boat out into the driveway and started to sand and sand and yes more sanding. I actually had a couple of session earlier in the garage. I was getting the boat read for fiberglassing. 

I also spent some time filling in all the holes and gaps. This took a couple of attempts. The lighting in the garage is ok, but working mostly after work it is hard to see. Having the boat out in the sunlight I was able to see everything very well.

The boat ready for glassing. Notice my cradle setup with furniture dollies. It makes it easy to move the boat in and out of the garage. 

I also spent some time on the transom skirt.  I had to use a plane and a bunch of sanding to get the shape to look right. I am pleased with the way it turned out.

After a bunch of filling holes and sanding, I was ready to start fiberglassing. With the temperatures still very cold, I have to use the work lights to help with curing the epoxy. Below you can see the port side cabin deck where I installed fiberglass and did the first filler coat. The top horizontal part was easy. It was a little bit of a challenge to do the vertical parts.  I finally wound up using a brush to get the epoxy on the glass and then a a brush and roller to get it spread out. I think I will do some research on methods to applying epoxy to vertical pieces before attempting any more. 

Transom Trim and Winter is here!

With Thanksgiving Holiday and work, I have been limited with working on the boat, but I have been continuing to move ahead. Over the last couple weeks, I have been focusing on the transom and filling the many holes with epoxy.

Last weekend I cut the trim for the transom and that took a few hours to set things up, make some test cuts and then cutting the actual pieces. The piece on the left goes on first and then the one on the right.

Below is where I did a dry fit of the first piece of trim, so it would become accustom to the curve. One thing I have learned is that when you are trying to do some type of bend and you are applying epoxy, the part will want to move or slip all over the place. I am not sure you can see it, but I decided to use some screws to hold it place.

I left the piece for the week and finally got time yesterday and today to start installing them. I installed the first piece of trim yesterday and things went pretty good. I used the screws and then a bunch of clamps to hold it in place. Nature decided to bring a nice winter storm late yesterday and today, so the temperatures dropped and we got a few inches of snow. I had bought these work lights and setup a 2X4 to hold the lamps so it would help the epoxy cure over night.

Winter has arrived! 

First piece of trim.

Work lights setup to help the epoxy cure.

This is the first piece of trim cured enough to install the 2nd piece. 

I installed the 2nd piece today and used the lights to help if cure. It went on ok, except for the end of the wood. I just put a screw into it. I tried the same thing on the other side, but split the wood. I still had enough epoxy in the cup to fix that! :-)

Some other work I did was to start filling all the cracks and holes from building the boat. I mixed up a couple small batches of epoxy and applied it with a putty knife.  You can see all the dark spots below. 

With Winter here, I am going to probably work on some bench projects. Unless I can get some warmer days, I am not sure I will be able to apply large areas of fiberglass. I may try to build some special brackets to hold the work lights.