Saturday, May 1, 2010

Panel Work

Only had a couple of hours this morning (rest of day taken up with son's soccer), so I went down to the shed & got some stuff done on the test panel.

I think that the glue should be ok. The colour looks good & I like the way it foamed up between the joints. The actual glue joints on the boat won't be as wide as this anyway, since I'll mill the cove edges on those planks (hopefully this week), which will result in a much tighter/stronger joint.



Below shows the reverse side of the panel (duh...). Think I might've gotten a bit carried away with glue application.



Next, it was time to work out my staple pulling tools/technique. Gary's book recommends a ground down & bent old screwdriver, with a paint scraper beneath to protect the surface. I ground a screwdriver & fiddled around with a few staples, before sticking it into a vise to bend it and promptly snapped it in half. After a small pause, I picked up a pair of small flat nosed pliers & tried them instead. They worked really well & never even looked like damaging the delicate cedar surface. Job done, I'll use the pliers for sure.

Then I grabbed my sander & gave the panel a quick sand. I do love the grain. If I don't stuff it up, this boat is going to look a million bucks.






I'm going to order all of my resin & fiberglass for the boat over the next few days, but because I'm getting impatient, I've decided to use up some left over Polyester resin & fiberglass tape (from my surfcat rudder repairs) on the panel, to see how different the results would be. The stuff I'm ordering is called Boatcoat & is apparently a more user friendly alternative to WEST System Epoxy. Besides, I think I need all the fiber glassing practice I can get.

Because time was short, I made up a bigger batch than I would've liked & lacquered in on. I cut the fiber glass tape in to appropriate lengths fitted the strips, followed by another thick coat. I made a bit of botch job of it (think the fiberglass started floating in a few parts), but the grain glowing up through the resin looks dead sexy.




Tomorrow my plan is to glue up the stems & ensure proper alignment of the intermediate molds once & for all.

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