Working on the Mast!

Okay it seems like all I have been doing is working day job and taking trips on the weekend. Out of the last 4 weekends, we have taken 2 trips, one was Easter, so very little time for boat building. I did get a chance to work on the mast some. 

I was able to glue up the mast with lots of epoxy and get it all clamped up. I bought some extra clamps, but could have used more. I think I counted 52 clamps. I basically used everything I had. 

Below are some pictures of the glue up. 

After the mast cured for a couple days, I moved outside to use the belt sander to take off all the extra epoxy that squeezed out. The belt sander did a quick job of removing it. 

I then used my orbital sander to give it a once over with 80 grit. I have yet to do much finish sanding on the spars. I will probably do all of them in a session when I get time and start epoxying them. Manual calls for 2 coats. 

While I was outside, I decided to use the 1/2" round over bit on all the edges. Glad I was outside, since the router was throwing saw dust all over the place. Clean-up is easy with the leaf blower! :-) 

Below are a couple pictures of the mast. 

If you notice in the pictures above, you will see a couple dark places. I had epoxy lathered on heavy, so I was a little surprised I had some very small gaps that needed to be filled. I just got some thickened epoxy and made sure I filled the gaps. In a couple places I did 2 applications. I don't think this will be any problem, but wanted to make sure I didn't have anywhere for water to work it's way in. The 2 coats of epoxy will help seal up things as well.

I also did some work inside with filling some holes. I am going to be working on touching things up inside, so I can do the painting under the deck prior to flipping the boat back over.

Next up is finishing the mast and then start on the painting inside and have another flipping party. Need to go buy more beer!