Day... 13

Today I spent some time cleaning up the frozen snot drippings that happen while fiberglassing overhead and large quantities on curved surfaces. I then vacuumed the boat. It takes about 3 trips with a vacuum before shes habitable without a dusk mask...

I made a mistake. I went to the marine surplus store... and found some beautiful pieces of aluminum angle iron that were intended to be engine mounting brackets for big yamahas. The kind of stuff I feel compelled to build a boat around. Then I found the backing plates to go with them... and an anodized high polished aluminum tube 1 5/8ths outside diameter... 1 3/8ths inside, which means I can slip fit a piece of 1 inch schedule 40 aluminum tube inside of it and have a friend plug weld them together...

Then I went to fastenal, and ordered a 1 inch diameter 316 stainless bolt. 32 dollar bolt... 50 bucks after washers and stuff.

Long story short, I've got the stuff to build a mast tabernacle. Basically, a pivot point a few inches off the deck that allows the mast to rotate forward or aft and be taken down for servicing without a crane. I have high hopes of one day taking her through the canals of europe... and it'd be nice to be able to hoist and lower the mast as needed... that and I've always wanted to be able to fly the bird at stubborn bridge tenders that wish to watch sailboats do circles for an hour before they allow them passage by lifting the bridge.

Back to the boat I did some studying on the mast beam, and decided didn't want to mix any more epoxy today... So let the ideas fester till tomorrow on how to best glue everything up. it looks like I'll have to through bolt everything, as I haven't found a local source for massive wood screws as they used originally.

I went to west marine three times... cotter pins, seizing wire, spreader boots, rigging tape... pricing out bottom paint and through hulls... and to buy a chain plate. They had one schaffer 3/8ths pin chainplate. 1/8th inch thick 304... 40 bucks out the door. I'm thinking I may go that route to get the stick back vertical and sailing for a while. Not as massive a saftey factor (I like the dumb numbers of overkill) but the original 1/8th inch bronze chainplates made it 48 years. Stainless is as strong, but not as corrosion resistant... will be good for a few years. I just need the longer length to get the bolts below the toe rail on the hull.

I'm dreaming up a way to center everything, I think Ebb over on the pearson ariel board talked about it once... taking two sticks the same length with two marks at equal points. Measure back from the stem down the sides of the boat the same distance... the stand up the sticks changing the angle side to side till they cross... showing the centerline of the boat. I figure I can hang a plumb bob from the two sticks to find the center of where the mast step ought to be. Moving it forward 2-3 inches, my tabernacles bolts will pass on each side of the beam, with plates under it. Ought to be plenty strong.

I'm figuring to do some measuring of the scribed waterline and see if it is symmetrical on both sides of the boat. If it is, I'll take a square and mark a line on each going vertically, then take a flexible batten to transfer the line up to the toe rail. That way when she is trimmed as designed, her chainplates will be plumb... which means if the stick isn't raked fore or aft at all, the pull will be perfectly inline to the chainplates.

I think it'll work, but that might just be the acetone exposure...

After doing my thinking on the mast beam, I pulled off the cockpit seacocks, and the raw water seacock, and scraped out all the sealant. I made a tool out of my 2 inch piece of cold roll by grinding it to fit the inside diameter of the through hulls. They laughed at it, and I bent it into a pretzel. So, I ground off the heads of the through hulls. On the two cockpit drains this slackened the seacocks inside, so I unthreaded them from the through hulls, then I used my pretzel, and unthreaded the through hulls from the hull... after heating them up with a torch till the sealant started to bubble. After that I started grinding. I pulled out the brownout box (dimmer switch/receptical combo) and detuned the beast... 7 inch grinder with a soft pad and PSA sandpaper discs. at 8,000 rpm it would roast the adhesive of and sling the paper off. I spun it a lot slower and it did a pretty decent job at bottom paint removal. With the paint out of the way I loaded a new 40 grit flap disc on the beast and ran it full throttle for as long as my arms held out... 2 through hulls. The hull is an inch thick here, so I'm feeling pretty content to go 3/4 of the way and fill it with biax, then grind back the inside a smidge, lay down a disc or two then fill up the rest with thickened epoxy with milled glass fibers. It's not like the hull isn't fine with the holes there now! (It would take a ridiculously large bevel... 1 inch times 10 = 10 inch radius around the hole...plus the 2 inch hole... I'd be starting with a 22 inch wide piece of glass cut in a circle and working up 10 layers thick, each layer a 1/2 inch or inch smaller diameter. I don't think so...

I then cut the exhaust outlet and sink fiberglass tube flush inside. The hose to my sink disintigrated when I pulled on it, ripped in half. Yikes. I'm re purposing one of my cockpit seacocks to sink drain duty. Deciding between a real pair of 2 inch cockpit drains, or going to a pair of 2 1/2's... Cost will play a big roll, but in any case the through hulls on my 1 1/2s necked down to 1 1/4. Unacceptable for an offshore boat.

Being that I am a connoisseur of overkill, I'm pleased to note that my friend Dave shared an idea... He uses concrete grinding discs to do fiberglass work. I had a metal grinding disc loaded on my 4.5 inch grinder tonight so I gave it a try. Wow! I'd say doing the first 80% with a grinding disc, then switching over to a flap disc to smooth things out... then finishing with a random orbit or DA... gives the exact same finished product, but at a much much quicker pace than starting with the DA.

From 7 to 10:00 tonight, I ground the bevel for 4 through hulls.

Zach - Almost like a day off!

Day 12

Today... I got a late start.

Did some working and talking on Noel till 10:00 or so, then refilled resin and loaded up my template to the boat. First I swung by atlantic veneer, and picked up a boat load of ash... sifting through till I found the perfect two boards. 5/4 10 inches wide and 14 feet long.

I like ash, its a nice looking wood... but its also cheap enough at 2.50 a board foot, for me to pick through and throw away anything less than perfect.

So, I've got enough lumber to make the 4 compression posts that take the load from the mast beam. Which I hope to glue up tomorrow. I'll have to figure how many clamps it'll take. I may try and do them all in a row divided by polyethelyene sheet, as I don't have quite enough clamps to do all of them at once.

I'm thinking to do 2.5 by 3 inch posts, as that is what was factory. Since I am laminating, it ought to be 20% stronger than if it were a sawn post... though I bought enough to do 4 3x3 posts. Decisions decisions, weight savings vs overkill...

If I had more time I'd consider doing something fancy like a box strut on each side of the door way, so the cross section might be larger... but the weight would be much much less. Or a pair of aluminum tubes...

Sometimes though, I take the weight weenie thing to extremes. (Grin.)

After I got my wood, it was time to get back to the boat. Test fit my template... good good. Laid glass over the pvc tube, went to Noel and cut out my bulkhead. Went back to Pylasteki and foam stripped my bulkhead. Learned from the other day, put the foam on the bulkhead not the other way around... then ya don't have to fight with it to get it centered.

I then took some time shaving here and there to get it to fit properly. My index is from the center walkway, so the port side deck is about a half a touch taller than the starboard, and the cabintop just a tick tighter angled... It's a boat, everything is hand fit, building it or rebuilding it. What looks fair, what looks right... is... Throw away your square, level, plumb bob... just keep your straight edge and bendy battens handy!

With that done, I filleted the bulkhead, and glassed it in place.

That one line, seems so anti-climatic... but here are the pictures.

Day 11 (though day 9 on the hard... grin.)

Day 11...

Today I finished grinding. Got a late start, as today was laundry day... ran out of clothes. Slept in till 10:00, and awoke to a phone call... it was all I could do to get my hands to answer it.

I don't like bonding stuff to dry polyester resin and clumps of mat... so I took it down till almost all the pits were gone in the original roving of the hull. Then I laid an 8 inch wide strip of 1708 over the path just in the event I lost any strength... The port side was especially flaky, with lots of air pockets... So I want to grab hold of hull!

I put down two layers of fiberglass on each side of the starboard bulkhead. Each side on the hull got a 4 inch wide tab 8 inch swath of glass and an 6 inch tab which means a 12 inch wide strip. I had cut a 16 inch wide thinking about overkilling, but I got to thinking that the original tabbing was roving and mat of the dimensions I laid down... and I replaced it with epoxy and biax, even I at times find overkill for the sake of overkill to get over the top. Write down the date, I said it...

The deck has a double layer of 6 inch wide tabbing. I replicated the original installation and didn't put a fillet on it, as it makes sense that the beam ought to tuck up extra tight to the bulkhead without having a 2 inch radius missing from its backside.

Speaking of backsides... I've worked my ass off, literally... pants don't fit anymore. Had to drill a new hole for my belt!

I picked up two quarts of fast hardener the other day for doing the tabbing, as I had dreamed up getting the starboard locked in place... then in close succession doing the port, not wanting to wait dfor the slow stuff to set up... This was a mistake, as I mis-cut one tabs dart (had to cut a dart to get it to conform over the new stringer tube...) and didn't have enough time to correct it before the pot started smoking.

The aft side was a piece of cake to lay up, the forward side fought me a bit... melted two pots (one of them in half...) when I wet out 12 ounces of a 16 ounce pot. I should have mixed a few smaller batches... but having just done the aft side without a hitch, I was feeling ballsy...

With that done, it was dinner time. I've been going to Hardees for dinner most nights out of this saga... as its right around the corner from the boat yard. 12 minutes, and 5 bucks later I'm refueled...

I got back, and laid up the 8 inch wide strip on the port side, and positioned my PVC tube. I didn't grind back the paint quite far enough on the forward side to glass over it... So I called it quits and will check my bulkhead template to make sure everything fits. (Per my measuring it ought to... but boats aren't symmetrical!)

About it for now...

Day 10

Today... Sucked.

I got an early start, but had to top up my resin and cabosil... and make a supply run to get more gloves, paint brushes... so 7:30 turned into 8:30... turned into 9:00. It rained last night, so I had to pump out the bilge (backed up cockpit drain...) and clean up the boat. Turned into 9:30...

I decided to take on the port bulkhead and glass in the PVC pipe/starboard tabbing in one shot then move outside the boat.

I had the port bulkhead out around 1:00, and the bulk of the tabbing gone at by 2:00. I used the 7 inch grinder which I have nicknamed... "The beast" as its 13.5 pounds, 8000 rpm... and 4 horsepower. I put a 40 grit italian made flap disk on it, and took the tabbing down to the first layer of mat. (I've used a half dozen of these particular disks on that grinder on Noel, so no sweat on putting scars anywhere... My dad said that when he came to the boat, it looked like it was on fire as dust was coming out of the forward hatch in puffs like smoke. I knocked over my fan and experienced a total white out...

Today was the first time I've ever tasted styrene through an organic respirator... and the second time I've found myself quite tired... and vision going funny, as the pre-filters on my respirator got so totally blocked with glass dust I was working at an altitude higher than sea level...

The bad news, is my big shop vac died... inhaled a glove, and I had not turned the set screw to tighten the filter in place... wound up in the fan. Got the glove out, but no motion... must have popped an internal fuse or fried the motor. I use this big shop vac to suck up most of the dust, by grinding in directions toward the hose... when its not trying to tear my tyvek suit ioff me... So I had to vacuum the boat three times, for my own sanity. I stepped on my sawzall, which was hiding in the dust in the bilge... then I couldn't find my 4.5 inch grinder...

I'm somewhat messy, though not dis-organized... but one thing I can't handle is a heavy layer of dust coating everything, as my mind works visually... Don't think straight when the world is shielded... Probably why I'm not much for snow. (Grin)

That was the relative success.

I shot myself in the foot. I did the bulkhead removal prior to sanding the fillets I did on the starboard side. The epoxy work I did last night blushed worse than I've ever had it, and I mix 5 to 10 gallons a month... you could have used the hull as a slip n slide... if it were not for the razor sharp peaks of thickened mix here and there... so it took a while as my scotchbrite became smaller and smaller, and the chunks coming off larger and larger... till finally it was blush free. Epoxy when it cures has a tendency to have the free floating amines in the mix float to the surface, leaving a waxy like substance that nothing will stick to... Luckily it dissolves in water and gets somewhat easily removed with scotchbrite.

Since... I started hand sanding my fillets almost 24 hours after they were done... the epoxy was well past green, and nothing soft about it. I spent three hours cleaning them up, as my little ridge had re-amerged as a slightly smaller little ridge. I also had to get rid of the waves that were in it, having not yet mastered the art of vertical, curved, acute corners...

Effectively, my day was done at 1:30... though I didn't leave the boat till 10:00 pm. A frustrating day, but tomorrow I have a little more grinding to do, and then the glass goes in.

Zach

Forgot my camera.

Day 9

Today my dad came down and helped mix epoxy… Though I had him wait… as I had to do some prep work. A lot… before getting the bulkhead in.

I used the angle iron to hold things in place. One about level, the other running up hill, in the event that my plywood had any bow to it or wanted to float at an angle…

If you look real close I have a 5/8ths thick wood block supporting the weight. I used that to draw lines on the hull by laying a sharpie on the plywood on each side. I then pulled the ply back out, and unrolled my ¾ inch thick weather stripping down the middle.

With the weather stripping in place, I epoxy coated the edge of the plywood and dropped it in place. I popped my wooden block just barely under one side of the wood and clamped everything square.

I then put two 20 and 3/8ths long 2x4’s down the passageway and squared up the opening till they hung with no support in the gap.

I took a straight edge for the last time to see that it was perfect… and we started mixing thickened epoxy. I wrestled with the idea of using milled glass in the mix, but decided that if things get to flexing enough that its needed I have bigger problems… so cabosil.

It was a new experience for me, putting a fillet on a surface tighter than 90 degrees, on a curve… with a pipe in the middle. Normally I use a piece of 1/4 th inch polyethylene cut on the bandsaw to whatever is needed… raked at an angle smaller than 90 on the wall side, and dead flat on the floor side, 4 to 6 inches long. Held at an angle less than 90 in the direction of travel it cleans up for you as you go… nothing really to sand. This time I made a little tool out of luan, and broke it into shorter and shorter lengths. The front side was 3 fingers wide, with my ring finger doing the job of cleaning up the pass as it went up hill… The aft side worked best about 2 inches long.

With the fillets in on both sides, I started glassing the aft side of the bulkhead with a 4 inch tab (8 inches wide piece of glass) and discovered that glass doesn’t lay smoothly around the radius of my sewer pipe. I’ll have to cut a dart on each side for it to lay over.

I discovered however… that my fillet on the aft side wasn’t quite large enough to cover the outermost edge of foam. I thought it was smooth, but it wasn’t… making it impossible to wet out without a bubble forming along the corner of the foam… So I took the 64 inch long strip back off, and tossed it on the scrap pile. After that act… which always feels satisfying… I added more meat to the fillet by rotating the angle against the hull allowing more goooo to pass under the fillet stick.

(Wipes sweat off brow…)

Casualties: Burned up shop vac.

Innovations: 3M Paint and rust remover, looks like a black spider web of really abrasive stuff that you chuck in a drill… Works beautifully to sand the inside of fillets, and inside corners of the cabin top. It has enough guts to clear out fiberglass too, which I discovered trying to use it to remove paint from the hull… whilst it smoothed out the roving. I’m running it in a right angle drill. Sweeet tool of the day.

Finally toasted my 36 grit flap disk. Swapped it out for an 80… Don’t think it is going to last as long as the cutting speed reduced quickly from new. Though the reduction probably seemed more severe, as the new 36 grit flap disk acts about like a plasma cutter to steel…


Zach - My arms are getting tired of grinding overhead... Need another cheeseburger to continue.

Day 8...

I did some yachtrodding... Or at least pulled some hotrodding tricks out working on the boat.

Once at the boatyard, I glued up a stack of polystyrene sheet with 3m 77 spray adhesive. (Not recommended for longevity, but long enough to make a form...)
I took my stack and cut it out to fit the prop aperture. I used a Stanley Surform plane... (Same one I use for planing end grain of plywood, and working with luan....) and worked it down to a shape that was fair to the keel, and the same thickness as where the rudder rests.

I then took a 1/4 inch off, everywhere. Which wasn't quite enough... and covered the thing in biax scraps. The last time I did this I was making car parts, and had to cover the piece in Mylar as I was working with polyester resin.... and 1.5 ounce mat. The surform works, but an autobody file (big cheese grater) works wonders. I also built an electric hot wire to do it, but all that stuff is stashed at my folks house 250 miles away.

I cooked some polystyrene., but the outer shell is there. I'll probably end up filling it up with acetone to dissolve the foam then troweling in a putty of thickened epoxy with milled glass fiber and grinding it to fit where needed. The alternative is to cut it in half, and glass it as two clam shells, stronger, but more work for what is really just a glorified fairing.

I took a wooden dowel, 1 inch in diameter, and wrapped in aluminum foil (Used it as mold release in the past... Crinkled up, didn't let go of my half round. You see, the aft end of my keel has a fairing strip running each side of the rudder shaft that I want to replicate, as I' haven't decided when I rebuild the rudder if I'll use a 1 piece shaft and a massive gudgeon, or keep something similar to the stock setup. I tossed the aluminum/epoxy composite form (Hehe...) off to the side in the junk pile. I then took some waxed paper and wrapped said dowel...

I used wax paper as the release to keep my foam hunk from getting glued to my new table. Didn't work... epoxy got hot enough to melt to the wax paper... I sliced off the edge on the bandsaw to keep from grinding wax into the part.

(That wasn't chronological...)

While I had the fiberglass out, I laid another layer of 1708 biax over the starboard side. I did the starboard side while she was floating, and only got one layer down before haul out. I was stuck in first gear, not wanting to grind through the glass, but also wanting to rough it up... I spent 15 minutes with a random orbit going nowhere fast, before going out to the truck and getting my grinder with worn out brushes. It has a soft 6 inch pad... a thing of beauty, takes adhesive backed sand paper discs... I held down the switch, and spun the pad... and she worked. In the first minute I did more with that 40 grit disc than I did in the previous 15... I got almost done, until she would run no more. The rest I did by hand chasing down shiny spots along the corners and resin lumps. I did the whole 8 feet in one shot. Mixed up 16 ounces of resin, brushed on a hot coat, unrolled the fabric and got to wetting out. Once I got that on, I hopped off the staging, mixed up another batch... Stirred with one hand, and rolled what I wet out with the other. When everything was wet, and the excess pushed all the way aft into a puddle on the gel-coat... I put up a tarp and hung around chasing air bubbles and excess resin out. My tarp didn't cover the forward foot, so I have a few bubbles... I'll grind that back and do it again when I rework the chainplates.

Yeah, it'd be fine to have a dime sized air bubble... but that just bugs me till I fix it.

With that done, I took a piece of oak dowel and popped out the cutlass bearing. It was held in with marinetex... sweet. I took a piece of adhesive backed sandpaper and slipped it around the dowel to ream out the stern tube. After sufficient sanding, I ran an acetone soaked rag through till I was satisfied it was clean. I mixed up some tickened epoxy, and took a small piece of dowel and a little bit of glass. I wrapped up the external part of the stern tube (bummer, as I already sized my ear shaped aperature filler... have to modify it...) in glass. I slid in the dowel till it stopped, on the shoulder that indexes the cutlass bearing. I packed it full of epoxy, and put my little disc of fiberglass over the end of the hole. I don't want whatever I do as far as the engine-dectomy goes to be overly permenant in the event I want to put an inboard in the future. I'm not going for a "Never had one" rather a buttoned up "blank slate."

At this time, I noticed that my four ounce pot of thickened epoxy was smoking... and decided I might have mixed a little bit to much.

After that it was lunch time. (Around 3:00...)

I did some grinding on my through hull patches to get them started fair to the hull. I need to cut a new batten to follow the curve... but as with everything I do, I went way thick on the first few layers so there is plenty of meat to start with. If the weather holds I'm going to get rid of the rest and swap out my sink through hull for a seacock. (I want to move my cockpit drains above the waterline... lately i've been thinking of a redesigned cockpit....)

I got back, and started fitting my bulkhead. I took my length of steel angle iron and cut it into two 3 foot pieces, and ground down the ends so there would be no sharp parts. (don't want the boat getting hurt.)
I took 2 of my big clamps, and clamped them to the port bulkhead, and used spring clamps to hold the starboard floating free in the air... perfectly aligned with the starboard bulkhead. I took my 5/8ths blocks (don't cross cut stuff that skinny on a table saw.... Caboom... hit with a pile of toothpicks. (Grin)

I measured down the hull to my reinforcing stringer, and measured down my bulkhead template, took my compass and pulled a curve. I took my jigsaw and cut it out, then dropped it in place. I went around the stringer with my compass set to a 1 inch radius, marked it, and followed the contour under the deck, which had a 1/2 inch clearance at the cabin top, and 1 inch at the deck height.

I took this information, and cut another. I took my 1 inch radius marked out for the stringer, and made a few concentric rings from its center in half inch intervals... Cut the smallest, second one was the charm. Bulkhead dropped right in place with 5/8ths clearance the whole way up. The deck was a little tight, so I took a paint stirrer and held it to the edge, tracing a line 1/8th inch plus a pencil... 2 passes with the jig saw and it was perfect. (Imagine french chef making kissing noise)

My new beam set up rock solid... I pulled it out of the jig tonight. Another thing out of the way.

The inch and a half piece of flat bar I'm going to grind down to fit my through hulls, and turn with two crescent wrenches. Doesn't take long to grind, though don't lean on the grinder so hard that it anneals the steel... grin. If she turns purple, ya got to hot! I learned my art of grinding doing sheet metal repairs... Done my share of finding air on the other side of fenders and such... it takes light touch or everything in the world goes wavy, and thins out. Fiberglass is cooool, cause it has layers to tell ya when to stop.

That's about it for today. Tomorrow I'm satisfied to cut out my marine grade BS1088 3/4 plywood and turn them into a bulkhead. I'm crossing my fingers that the work done with the starboard pattern will transfer over fairly nicely to the port side, as it is on the chopping blocks too.

All for now,

Zach

Day 7

Day 7...

Today I pulled the bubble gum beam out of the jig. My two test batches measured by volume kicked off... one melted the mixing pot. I've deduced... that there is some junk keeping the piston from giving a full squirt of hardener. I've decided I'm never gonna use mixing pumps again if I can help it...

Since I had a beam that acted and felt like the real thing, I power planed off the excess glue on the top and two sides. Then I ran it through the planer, and took it over to Pylasteki for fitting. I goofed following the sides of the cabin top... and it had next to no spring back, so my extra arch in the center touched the deck and not much else. I noted this, on the beam with a sharpie... Then set it aside.
After that, I went to lowes and bought two pieces of angle iron, and a flat piece of bar stock. It hurts me when I do this, as theres about four cents worth of steel in that sentence, and 20 dollars soon parted. My bulkheads were plumb, and square... So I'ma gonna use the port one as a jig for the starboard one, with blocks spacing out the gap between them while it hangs in "Foam space" around the outer edge.

I then had to go spend some time on Noel looking over quotes for hydraulics and new shafts...

I borrowed a three jaw gear puller, and went over to Pylasteki and pulled the shaft coupling, turned the rudder all the way to one side and slid out the shaft with the prop still attached.

Returned tools to rightful owner (With free 1/2 inch socket lodged forever on the end of the puller...) and got to work cutting out my bulkhead pattern, which is exactly 5/8ths smaller than the pattern I made yesterday that fit perfect. 3/4 inch squishy foam... figure it ought to be about right for proper "stiction" so it's neither wagging around in foam space, nor 11 pounds of potatoes in a 10 pound bag.

With that done, I went over to Pylasteki (Notice a trend here... the two boat yards are around the corner from each other..) and pondered my PVC pipe installation. 4 inch sewer pipe, split long ways in 10 foot sticks. I twisted and warped an 8 foot piece in under the V-berth to see how it'd lay to the hull, and chopped off a 2 foot length. Set that aside, and found the perfect line that intersects the underside of the V-berth, top of the settees... and prepped the surface for glass. (Grinder > Random orbit sander with 40 grit> Acetone > Hot coat of epoxy...> I took one of my 64 inch long, 8 inch wide strips of 1708 biax tabbing and laid it to the hull. Then I took my PVC pipe, and hot glued it in place on my marks, mixed up a bunch of cabosil thickened epoxy and did a fillet... then put 3 layers of 1708 over it, staggering outside of my projected bulkhead tabbing.

Somewhere in here I went to lowes again and bought more clamps (Can never have enough clamps... reminds me of metal working... but somehow i don't think vice grips fit the bill...) a sheet of foam board, and a 6 foot folding table...

With that done... I collected my resin, gloves, acetone, and sander... loaded up the truck and went around the corner to Noel, where I adjusted my mast beam jig with my new findings... and prepped my "Good ash" by sanding with 60 grit till it was smooth, with no scalloping or burnish marks from the planer. I cut out my polyethelyene sheet, wide enough to put a wrap and a half around the stack... then wet out with 20 ounces of resin, everything but the bottom of the bottom board. You see... Noel is sitting on an incline... which I probably should measure... But while wetting out and flipping boards, the top two on the stack float slowly down hill, an inch or two every ten seconds... The marvels of a work surface thats that far out...

After that, it was a half hour ago and I took a shower.

Goodnight.

Zach - Tomorrow, I use a compass.

Pictures: Part of a PVC stringer.
No Prop
Bubblegum Beam, new beam waiting to cure
How to cut PVC without it binding up... fences aren't square.
Bevel board... Lay bevel gauge on it, read off. Ooooh yeah.