Deck Recore Episode 94

So... I have been working late on Pylasteki now that the great light in the sky stays up a bit longer.

Things I have learned: It takes 10 times as long to ungoop an almost cured epoxy job as it does a fully hardened polyester, or epoxy. I resorted to a 7 inch grinder with a 24 grit backing disc... which without the layer of epoxy slime would have ground through the inner skin in a half second flat. About an hour and a half later... I was back to the polyester inner skin. The corners took more time, as well as chiseling the mostly hardened but not really filler all the way around the edge.

After a few nights of cleaning, scraping, and de-gooping... I was ready to go. I hot coated the inner skin with epoxy and let it start to set while mixing West Systems and cabosil (fumed silica) to make a slurry that would just barely sag in which the new balsa was beaded in.

My friend Todd who runs the boatyard around the corner was showing off his silicone spatula technique for fairing out microballons... but by golly the 2 dollar one I picked up fits the corners of 1 and 2 qaurt mixing buckets like a glove. Less waste, and its the perfect tool for gooping in corners/filling up the crevass (southernese) left between the edge of the fiberglass and the balsawood. The tighter the fit the less epoxy you use... I use a filet knife to cut the balsa.

Then I laid down a sheet of plastic and loaded down some weight on top of the balsa. I came back the next day, pulled up the plastic and knocked off the blush (scotchbrite plus water) and cleaned off the peaks that form when you lay crinkly plastic on wet epoxy. I then ground down a few obvious high spots on the balsa... wiped everything down with acetone, and went to town glassing.

I'm using 17 ounce biax on this, the first two layers have no mat backing... the third will be 1708, as this is the last of my un-backed stuff.

Innovation: My glass cutting bench is on Noel... which is now up on the rail, making it a hundred yard walk with a 20 foot ladder in the way. I cut the glass in situ... using a rotary knife that they sell at fabric stores. I love this thing... Rolled it around the inside of the toe rails and cabin... with the plastic button laid up against each. For the second layer, I cut the toe rail side, then slid it towards the cabin top a 1/4 inch and cut the cabin side. Sweet... No torn tattered edge, and a perfect fit right off the bat... Err... with the exception of forgetting to cut the dart off of each end. (more on that later...)

I had a real tough time rolling out air bubbles in this piece, generally they roll out easily... but on this I had to mix up a little more resin and pour it on the bubble and tap it in with the straight edge of my squeedgee. Frustrating... I think I like the mat backed 1708 a little better, once it is wet out life is good. (Innovation 2... with a silicone spatula you can spread the leftover resin onto a large squeedgee and wipe it off back into the mixing container.

The leftover darts are something I came up with reworking the deck on Noel... pre-spatula. If you grind a round hole through the old glass, and cut a new square of cloth... you've got a place for the leftover resin to go. Once it is wet out nice, instead of letting it puddle in the center, work the excess to a corner or two (Depending if you eyeballed it or weighed the cloth...) When you come back with a grinder it takes a half second to make the 3 corners disappear into a poof of glass fiber. The resin filled one takes 15 seconds, and you are flush to the surrounding surface. I dig ways of doing things that take less time on the finesse side... (Ever tried to cut a circle out of biax with dull scissors? Yeah...

All for now.

Zach

Dunked the dink...

Well, I lost a filter for my respirator overboard... and in a snap decision grabbed dinky and tossed her in the water and gave chase.

That lasted ten feet or so, before the bow transom started wanting to separate from the sides... I used the pink stuff (bondo) for those fillets, rather than the bondo-glass I used for the sides and bottom. Still a little exciting that my wee little boat floated and didn't spontaneously explode like it probably should have. (I had not fiberglassed the joints... and no frames...1/4 inch luan... )

So, having ceremoniously dunked my dink... I decided it was time to put her back on the cabin top and see how much bigger I can build her next reincarnation. She is a mere 32 inches wide, to easily slide through the back hatch of my vw bus...

I hoisted up the boom almost to the end of the track, and spent some time pondering boom to head clearance, and boom gallows placement. I'm wanting a gallows to have something fixed at the aft end of the cockpit to attach an awning to... solar panels and to make reefing and hoisting and furling sail a little easier single handed.

I was about to button Pylasteki up for the night when I noticed that the amount of space for dinghys grew. By raising the boom, my boom vang went from nearly touching, to almost a foot of clearance at Dinkys bow rail. Hmm...

I'm thinking I'll build a full size tortoise, and maybe a nymph (both Phil Bolger designs) and see which one fits best. The tortoise clashes with the lines on

Anyone out there done a removable transom? It's a bit tight with a boat over the companionway hatch. Grin.

Zach

P.S. In other news, there is a Triton out of the water at another yard... so today I spent some time with the owner, and made a full scale template of the rudder and prop aperture. Weee! Exciting, as I've been mulling over this area of the boat for a long while.

Patterned out the new sole.

Cleaning out the new balsa...
Look Ma, no sails. (Sigh... Trying to arrange a mast plucking ceremony sometime this week so I can redo the mast beam and bulkheads...)

Pattern - 12 inch wide half inch plywood, strips of 1/8th inch plywood... glue gun. Priceless.


New sole template. 6 feet standing head room to the lower doghouse...

The template is stout enough to act as a temporary sole, so I no longer have to wander through the bilge. I made a pattern by measuring from the line of the old sole down two inches in the rear. The width of the bilge at that point was 12 inches wide, so I ripped a piece of scrap plywood to size and laid it in place. Since it was only supported on the ends, I took a junk 2x4 and ripped it in half so it would be light enough not to cause the ply to sag. I nailed it in place to the underside of the sheet, so it would not bow along its length.

I set my bevel gauge to the angle of the hull where it tapers down sharply at each end by laying the handle against the stock end of the plywood (a known flat surface) and laying the adjustable angle against the hull, on the underside of the plywood. Since the underside of the plywood is where it'll rest on the hull, it yields a tighter fit than trying to eyeball a cut of something you can't see. Marking the pivot of the bevel gauge, I laid it on top of the plywood marked it and cut my line. Cutting templates in the bilge of a boat requires a sharp handsaw... I like a cheap japanese style pull saw, less dust (Super skinny blade) and it doesn't tear the crappy plywood that is so tempting to use for patterns.

I laid a straight edge across the settees, and measured down to the plywood to keep the sole parallel to the settees. Measuring from the ceiling down to the sole, it too is parallel. By measuring along the line perpendicular to the settees, to prove that the sole is level athwartship to the other known planes. Since Pylasteki is floating, "level" is relative.

Since boats don't have straight lines in nature (grin) I still had to mark the curve. My friend Mark had told me about using 1/8th inch plywood and a glue gun, so I decided to give it a try....

To mark the curve I ripped 2 inch wide strips of 1/8th inch plywood, then cut them into 2 and 3 foot lengths, along with 3 and 4 inch lengths. With a hot glue gun I found the straight shots on the forward and aft ends could use the long strips, just laying against the hull. For the more curved areas I used the 3 and 4 inch strips, 2 inches apart touching the hull on the 2 inch side. It's a pretty elegant solution, instead of a tick stick (which the 12 inch wide strip of plywood would be the story board...) and marking the lines twice, once on the story board and once on the new template, the 1/8th inch plywood is the template the first time out.

So I pulled my template out of the bilge, and laid it upside down on another scrap piece of 1/2 inch plywood, which I ripped to 19 inches wide. I laid it on the floor and marked my line and played connect the dots with a straight edge. Since my largest gaps were 2 inches, over 8 feet the curve was smooth. and I didn't need to fool with a flexible batten like I would have with a tick stick to make a fair curve. I used a jigsaw to make the cut, when making templates I leave my pencil line on the part, as its hard to make it grow back once cut... grin. A small Stanley surform plane does quick work on shaping plywood without the curves flattening to much, and works faster than a block plane... though it wasn't needed.

I like it, Thanks Mark!

Called up West Systems (The brand epoxy I have been using throughout the project...) and have an answer: If you mix up the resin and hardener, and it turns creamy colored you have moisture in the hardener.

It will still kick solid, if you have enough mass for it to exotherm and cook the moisture out... or if you catch it early on, wet out the area and then hit it with a heat gun.

Cool. Know for next time...

Pulling up the balsa, yielded a cool tool find. I headed back up to Greensboro for an evening to grab sails, and some interior trim that I had stored up there... and swung by Woodcraft. I blew my paycheck (always seems to happen...) and bought a Kutzall Carving disc. http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=148408&FamilyID=1846

It flies through fiberglass, and moves balsa like its not even there... What it doesn't do, is high traction nonskid. Noel has some of the toughest stuff I've come across. It wore the underside of this thing smooth... in 6 feet. (oops. expensive 6 feet!) So far it's chewed up to Four zirconium 40 grit flap discs... of the 7 inch variety. I don't think it's sand, but whatever it is... it's tougher than any aluminum oxide fiber backed sanding disc, wearing one smooth in minutes!

Making snow, and a Do over!

A sticky situation... well, not sticky enough.
My hardener got contaminated somehow... I thought perhaps the night time temp cooled off to much for it (slow hardener) as it took two days to set... but was still somewhat pliable and didn't offer as good a sound report when tapping it over as the rest of my work on the bow.

Did two other test batches, same result... it comes out of the pump clear but when mixed up it goes cloudy. Any ideas what caused that? It was from the last dregs of an A sized drum, so maybe the stuff separates, aged out, or moisture got to it... whatever the case, I got some new stuff man... the good stuff.

Whatever the cause, I'm redoing it. I figure that anything worth doing is worth doing to the best of my abilities... lest it always be a curiosity of it's about to blow up or not. Rather spend the time here now than wish I did half way to Bermuda...

The glue failed, not the balsa. In most of it, its dead slick on both the underside of the skin and the top of the balsa. In a few places it grabbed hard enough to shred the mat out of the top deck skin... Good, but not the balsa shredding goodness I want.

In other news, I made a lot of snow. I'm entertaining building a water tank in the bilge, given I can find some FDA approved lining goop... I ground out the last remnants of the engine stringers to banish the last drop of oily goop from my boat. She did smell all lemony fresh, now I'm back to needing my respirator for the foreseeable future. Picture = post vacuum cleanup for the initiated. For the initiated... About 4 square feet, 4 plies thick of solid mat. The bilge was full of dust to the prop shaft, and an inch thick up to the rudder tube... I was sporting the look that suggested I had just molested a box of powdered donuts. (grin)You may also notice that the starboard settee is missing a piece. I was curious to see how much space there is under there for additional storage, not a whole lot... but a few wedge shaped bits of foam glassed in and there will be a nice home for a pot or tea kettle that there wasn't before. I'm not going to go back with drawers, it'll be a cabinet door for better utilization of space. Still have some work to do on that front, as the bulkhead the galley bolts to is rotten... as is the cockpit bulkhead. Water + Non-marine-grade plywood = mush.

Zach

Aft end of bilge... The tight squeeze.

Yup, there was some more goo to clean up where the engine once rest... the thick gooey kind. Lower bilge goo has had soap introduced, causing it to settle in to a muddy clay like substance. The stuff under the engine stringers (where the dust is in the top picture) was plain old engine goop...


After: A wee bit cleaner... the hose in question goes to my sink. I plugged it even though its above the water line (we are still floating... grin.) as its disconcerting to look over and see a water column!

Another two hours... she almost does not smell like a boat any more... nah! Grin.

Zach

Round three...

Bilge... Round Three!

Today was round three of the Bilge cleanup.

The first round involved putty knives and scooping out goo.
The second round involved peeling up most of the loose resin sealer that Pearson put in.

The third... Stainless steel wire brush, and a bottle of Simple Green.

Spray a 6 inch wide stretch of bilge, scrub until bubbly goo forms... wipe off with wet paper towel. Repeat... Switch sides. Work from top to bottom, and knock loose any dry crud so it doesn't stick in the wire brush...

Repeat.

3 hours later, I had made some progress! Then, it was dinner time, and time to do the laundry. Hehehe... (sure beats 5 gallon buckets and a garden trowel like on Noel...)

More to go before its ready for the new sole... getting close!

After:

Is'dat a shiny spot I see?

Windlass.

Yesterday I stopped by a marine consignment shop, and nearly tripped over a 15 pound toadstool that looked like it had just been pulled out of a mud bank.

On closer inspection, it's a bronze Simpson Lawrence vertical windlass that takes a winch handle...

I'll be curious to see how it works. I've been pondering installing a set of sampson posts on Pylasteki (been working close to shrimp boats a bit to long... my fashion sense seems to be at a new low...) but it does seem like an easy way to take a vertical windlass that requires sitting down on deck beside it... and turn it into a horizontal one at a reasonable height.

Anyone recognize what model it is? Looks like it takes 5/16ths Chain, but I'll have to take it up to the local chandler to see what variety fits best.

Zach - Gotta love old bronze.