It went real well. A couple of hours with the hand planes got it all flushed up to the first layer and the chine logs. I'm ready to fill in all of the screw holes and glass the bottom and chines now.
I still have the temperature problem, so I figured I'd flip the boat and work on the interior, rudder, cabin top, hatch, mast step etc.... until it warms up, then flip it back. One good tilt with the bottom on and i reconsidered the idea. I'd flipped it over for the bottom work all by my self, but the bottom has CONSIDERABLY beefed up the weight. I'm a bit concerned about a future flip after even more added weight.
I think it's time to figure a way to warm the hull without warming the whole garage and order up the resin and glass for RAKA. glass the bottom and chines, paint the bottom and she never needs to flip again after i put her right side up.
I went back to trying to shape my leeboard in the meantime. I have a belt sander with some 80 grit, but i can't believe how slow it's taking the wood down. I get the sander hot enough to fry an egg with very little progress. The planes are kind of useless in this situation, which is too bad because they chew the material much faster than the sander. I've started shopping 7" disk sanders/angle grinders on Craigslist.
All in all everything's looking good and I'm really happy with how the build is coming together. In the end the boat pulled extremely straight with the bottom installation and no twist. I think the bow is @ 1/4" off being dead on centerline.
I'd suggest tenting it over with blankets and putting an electric heater under there. Preheat wood for a good long time, mix epoxy, tear off tent and coat. Don't worry about keeping it warm until it hardens: my experience is that, even with slow hardener, epoxy will set solidly in a few days to a week even a little below freezing. You will have to keep checking for runs, though: the epoxy still flows, but so slowly that some runs might not appear for hours.
ReplyDelete80 grit is way too fine for rough shaping. Try the coarsest belt (24 or 36 grit?) you can find, and replace it often. I think you'll find your progress MUCH faster. Of course when you get close, you'll need to switch to something finer.
ReplyDeleteIs your leeboard made of plywood? If you glue up some boards instead, you could use your plane, and even a drawknife, which is a tool worth having. Especially for shaping oars and, I think, masts. I got an acceptable oar on the first try, though it proceeded to warp later.
Whether sanding or planing, you might find it useful to adapt the following technique for your leeboard:
http://charlesriverrc.org/articles/construction/markdrela_airfoilshaping.pdf
It worked well for me on balsa. I don't know what airfoil the design shows, but a NACA 4 digit section like the 012 ought to work well.
Years ago, I found that RAKA, with the fast hardener, was good down to 40 degrees, though I had to wash off the blush afterwards. I worked a week for a boatbuilder once. He made a sheet plastic tent over his boat and put a heater in there overnight. Very important that the heater has enough air around it and that nothing flammable can touch it. I've also heard of people using electric blankets. When cleaning up glass work, I've found that at first, scraping is far better than sanding, but sanding works better after a few days. A bit of heat can hasten that. On hot days, though, you won't have much working time, even with the slow hardener. Nothing like a can of smoking epoxy! (I'm talking someplace over 85F, I think.) Good luck with your project.
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ReplyDelete