Day 4

Day Four:

I started out today with the threat of impending thunderstorms... So in a clear patch I glassed in the three through hull fittings. It was only about 85 degrees, and they were in the shade with slow hardener.
2 I did pretty much in one shot. 6 or so layers thick... Start off by taking a 2 inch wide chip brush (cheap if you buy them bulk...) and wet out the bevel you ground in the hull a few minutes before you get started. The key to getting a lot of layers to stay together is to wet them out in something flat... I use a paint roller tray with a plastic liner. Wet out each disk, flip over and hit resin on the back side. Stack them up three or four deep, and roll them out in the pan, lightly. You want them gooey when stacking, and once rolled act like a cohesive layer. Drawing out your circles with a sharpie helps too... as wet out glass is clear enough that it is hard to see without a mark.

Now stick them to the hull with a gloved hand. Those sleeve covers help to keep the epoxy from drooling down your elbows... Roll out one corner, from the center up or out. Work from the left and right, so drips don't hit ya... You should have a fair bit of drool... you've got enough resin to push the air pockets out, and once the excess resin is out, you can hit it with acetone and wipe it up.

I goofed, and forgot to tape over the backside of 2 of the holes... so I've got one that I did pretty nicely, and one thats a 1/4 inch tall mound coming inside the boat... If I had been on my toes I would have done it from the inside out, as there would be less fairing to do afterward. Shrug...

When that was done, I took a vacuum to the inside. I donned my respirator and tyvec suit... There was so much dust it was starting little avalanches sliding down the sides of the hull.

After it was slightly less dusty, I got started removing the mast beam. I pulled down the front block, that the mast step bolted to. Then I unbolted the beam from the bulkhead. Well, the bolts snapped off... then I tapped them back through with a bent screwdriver and a hammer. (What ya think this is a high budget operation do ya... drift pins... sheesh. Grin.)

The mast beam came off in two pieces. I did not pry hard enough to crush any wood or damage the paint... I believe I may have been sailing with mast beams, plural, and not singular... Though there was a nice steel reinforcement that someone added in the past carrying the load.

After that I pulled the curve of the cabin top. I use luan plywood, or what are known as door skins... as they have one good side, and wind up on real crappy hollow core doors. I run them through a table saw into 2 inch wide strips. Generally I have a stack of strips that I have cut down into 2 and 4 foot lengths... along with a load of small cross cuts 2 and 3 inches long. This beam needed one 53 inches wide, and a lot of long pieces... Joined with a hot glue gun, and glued lighty to the bulkhead. See picture... No math required, no tick sticks... and the pattern has enough points of contact to pull a smooth curve. Sweet! (Thanks go to my friend Matt who shared that idea with me...)

I then went over to Noel and finished planing a bunch of Ash from half inch down to 3/8ths. It started out 13/16ths... I've been working it down when I get the chance. Only been planing one side though, allowing nature to induce some curve in the direction I want to go. Planning to do a dry run one day before the final gluing, and wet them down nicely so they'll take the curve even more... I don't like to work hard.

I took inventory of my clamps. So far I've bought nine of them to do the beam... Noel has mostly sawn frames, so I haven't had much reason for more than two or three... Ouch. This will be an expensive piece of wood...
Then I went to lowes. Twice. Supply runs... Thought I had a big piece of fiber board, but didn't... and had some ideas that you'll see tomorrow...

After that, it was back to the grind. Literally. I ground out the old tabbing on the front of the starboard main bulkhead. Still on my 36 grit flap disc... It ground out the V berth tabbing, 3 through hulls, did 1 side deck recore... and continues to look like new. I started out using my cut off wheel to get to plywood, as I always feel antsy about grinding near the hull into places I can't really see.

I ran into a load of barney powder. Purple thickened polyester resin... I have no idea what they added, but by golly it almost glows in the dark.

All for now...

Zach

Day 3

This is day 3 of my 10 day Grinder War of 2009. I have 10 days on the hard to fix everything that can't be done in the water... easily.

No before picture on that one...
Day 3... The saga continues...

So the weather report says today was my last sunny day.

I took advantage of it, and set up staging on the port side to recore the side deck.

Started up at 8 am, finished around 7:00pm... Cut off the top skin with a circular saw, snipped the edges it couldn't cut with a cut off wheel on the grinder. Peeled off the top skin. Pulled out the balsa, routed out the stuff under the lip. Fired up the Fein Multimaster with a scraping blade to get rid of the solid balsa at the aft end and under the edges.

Once that was done, I prepped the inner skin by grinding off all the old balsa remnants, and working sand paper under the lip on top and bottom. This is the most tedious part of the process... as you continually find another sliver of wood and have to resort to fishing a chisel or 5 in one tool under the edge to get the last of it...

Then I ground the bevel on the edge around the edge so that the new glass would have the same contour as the old deck, and there would be no hard spots to flex. I'm still on my original 36 grit flap disc... looks the same as when I started.

After that, I vacuumed everything and wiped down with acetone. I took out my sheets of end grain balsa coring, and cut them to fit with a fillet knife, notching the top by pushing down till the blade left an impression, then rotating the blade so it splits along the grain.

After that I cut my fiberglass to shape. 2 layers of 1708 biax, 8 feet long and 17 inches long at the wide end... but you have to start out with one almost two feet wide to follow the contour of the hull. I've never had luck starting with a straight cut piece and pulling it into shape... it always wants to bunch up somewhere or form a bubble that never wets out, so I make some scrap.

Then I cleared everything out, and started mixing pots of epoxy and cabosil filling the gap around the deck. I used a silicone spatula... sweeeet!

Once that was done I went back and took a chisel to any lumps that ended up anywhere so the balsa would lay flat.

I wet out the balsa with my cheapo 2 inch chip brush that I keep in a little bit of acetone... Gotta fill up all the joints in between blocks of balsa to get full strength and rot resistance. As each piece was wet out, I mixed up a pot of thickened epoxy with cabosil, and used a notched spreader to give some goop for the balsa to bed down in. I then went around with my fillet knife and trimmed any balsa that contacted the now filled gap...

More thickened epoxy went in around any gaps...

Then a layer of 1708... and another...

1 gallon and 11 hours on a 2 x 10 later... and she be done!

Zach

Day 2

Day 2:

Finished up on Noel at Noon... Had the mast pulled at 1:00.

Once the mast was down, I cut out a 12 x 24 inch section of the top skin. The inner skin was cut on each side of the deck beam by compression on both sides, I taped the crack to keep from gluing the old beam to the skin. I tacked a nail to hold down the junk inner skin flap (technical terminology...) and propped up the skin on both sides until it was in a fair curve. I pulled out the balsa core, routed out the punky stuff (starboard side) and cleaned up the good balsa around the peremiter. I packed the gap full of thickened epoxy (cabosil) and proceeded to lay in 4 layers of 1708. When that had kicked and was starting to cool off, I laid down 4 more layers. 8 layers is just a touch under 13/16ths of solid fiberglass and epoxy. Heavy, but compression shouldn't ever be an issue again...

I pulled out the through hulls in the head. One was a ball valve threaded onto a flush mount through hull fitting. (boo hiss on ball valves) Since I'm flying solo... I unthreaded the backing nut, gave it a whack with a hammer to generate some clearance and slipped in a sawazall... The other was a 60's Pearson special... solid 13/16ths or so block of mahogany, fiberglass encapsulated over a fiberglass tube/mound with the sea cock smushed in to the polyester resin and stuck forever...

I used a cut off wheel on my angle grinder to cut through the fiberglass around the edges. I used a chisel to clean off the area around the bolts. 3 came out, 1 broke. Then I used my chisel to wedge the old fiberglass off of the wood. Once it was free on one corner, I put a pipe over the end of the through hull, and performed a ABYC (American boat and Yacht Council) test... to see if I could hang my body weight off of it without it breaking loose. It did...

Then I used my sawzall to cut the rest of the fiberglass off of the block, and a chisel to clean out the wood. I changed my angle grinder from a cement cutting disc (They last forever on fiberglass...) to a 36 grit flap disc, and cleaned up the inside... Then went outside and ground down both holes prepping them for glass in the morning. I've got it in my mind to set up a wet out station and do all four at once, wetting out on the bench and carrying over to the hole... my glass is all pre-cut, did that earlier this week.

Also got the old speedometer fitting out. That little plastic booger was really in there. Wouldn't budge... so I cut off the flange on the outside, cut off the guts on the inside... and cut the tube into 4 pieces. I'm not sure what sealant was used... but it took almost as long to clean that out as it did to remove the fitting.

Then it was 10:00 pm, and I decided the day was done.

Zach

P.S. I love my full face respirator and carbon filters... beats the heck out of the N95 and P100 cartridges I've used on a 3m half face up till now.

Day 1

=

Side Decks... Impending Haul out.... Main bulkheads...

The benefit of working late, is the occasional after dark money shot. Yeah, I had to lay down on the dock in a boat yard... covered in fiberglass dust... eaten alive by no-seeums... the things we boat nuts will do to satisify the voices inside our heads...





So... You may have noticed that I start and stop projects devoting 100% on each one for the moment... a day here, a week there...

Pylasteki gets ten days starting tomorrow. She will be hauled out, 9:00 am impending no set backs...

Starboard side deck is done with the exception of the last few inches of old balsa... did it floating, so had to have somewhere to rest my foot to reach the middle... Not suggested, but I wanted to have the cabin top stay stiff while I pull out the bulkheads. Yeah, a pain in the lower back but it can be done. I put in a 2x4 prop under the cabin top to keep it from going anywhere with my weight laying on it.

This is a lot more fiberglass than it looks like:

I spent the afternoon cutting tabbing for my bulkheads, and discs for through hulls, and the 12 x 24 inch stuff is to go under the mast.

How to cut Bi-ax fast without a mess:

Cutting Bi-ax... Stand farther away from your rotary cutter (Fabric store = Walmart) than you think you need to. Look at the cutter, not where it was, or where it is going. Pick a line of stitching and follow it... Set up side lighting from the left if you are right handed, so your hand isn't casting a shadow on where it's going.

Go back and cut the little stitches holding the piece to the rest of the cloth, sliding the two apart just wide enough to slip in scissors. Pick it up from the stitched edge, at least a few inches away from the ends... and roll starting from that point back towards the end, and then roll it up just barely tight enough that friction holds it put. To tight a radius and ya end up with wrinkles... to loose and it flops out of the roll and is hard to deal with.

Alrighty... Wish me luck, I've got 10 days to prep and paint the bottom, fill 4 through hulls (well... maybe 6, depends how adventurous I'm feeling) Replace the main bulkhead, laminate a new mast beam, redo the coring under the lower dog house, and figure out how I want to move the chain plates outside.

Pictures and such as they come... Epoxy mixers and helpers would be spectacular, if theres anyone out there in driving distance to Beaufort, NC.... grin.

Zach

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.