Paint

I have two coats of paint on now in addition to the primer. I bought two one quart cans of Interlux white paint, but I have only used one of them. I have been considering a 3rd and/or 4th coat or saving that can and seeing how it holds up then using it for a minor refinishing if needed. I hate to waste anything that costs $34 a quart. Maybe I will split the difference and just give the bottom panels an extra coat, since they will be getting the most wear and tear.

Primer

Primer
Originally uploaded by dylanbright

Today I put the last coat of epoxy on the rails, did a little sanding on the interior. After the epoxy was touch dry, I enlisted my Dad to flip the boat. Then my troubles began. Sanding the bottom panel, the one that was glassed was miserable. I had globbed the epoxy on to fill in the weave of the fiber glass, and it was down right lumpy. I spent a solid 3 hours sanding. At first I thought it would just be impossible. I did a pass on the entire bottom panel, then many, many more. I found this helped my sanity and prevented me from sanding through the fiber glass which might have happened if I had obsessed over one small area at a time. It took about half an hour after I stopped sanding to get the feeling back in my right hand.

The primer tacks up quickly. That's probably due in no small part to the Florida tempratures in the garage. I did the priming at about 8:30 PM, when the weather outside was probably a pleasant 80 degrees, but in the garage with the 500 watt work lights and the heat spilling in from the attic, it was probably in the upper 80s. This could complicate things when I put on the actual paint tomorrow. I will have to be pretty quick to apply the paint with the roller and tip it out with a foam brush. I will have to do small sections at a time, I think, or possibly enlist my Dad. I had some near splatter and and drip incidents too. I think I will give all the parts that are going to be varnished a newspaper skirt in addition to the blue painter's tape.

New Sander

Some guys at work recommended these little mouse sanders that look like a tiny iron. I was skeptical. They were small, light, and cheap feeling. None of the cool power tool companies made them. I thought they wouldn't have the power to sand epoxy.

Then I was faced with sanding all the nooks and cranies of the boat. As I started sanding the interior with tiny sanding blocks and my bare hands, the gravity of the situation became apparent. I needed to pursue whatever help technology had to offer. I needed to try one of those little plasticy sanders.

They're cheap, about $40, which made me all the more suspicious of them. The triangular pads aren't cheap at all though. Home deport has them for $4.77 for a pack of 5 which is almost $1 per pad. I already went through over 75 sanding disks for my random orbital sander, but those are available in bulk online. I bought the Black and Decker "Mouse" sander and one pack each of 120 and 220 grit pads. The box looked like a box for a toy. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

I got it home, took it out of the toy box, plugged it in, and shockingly, it works pretty darn well. I'm actually incredibly impressed. It will never have the special place in my heart that my that my DeWalt 5" orbiting sander has, but it will really help out.

I also found 10 yard rolls of sandpaper with velcro on the back at my favorite Internet sandpaper supply company for only $17 from which I can probably cut my own little triangular pads. I ordered a couple rolls. Hopefully they will arrive in time for me to use them.

CLAMPS!

So the last post brings us to the rub rails, which is what I am currently working on. I thought I had a ridiculous amount of clamps, enough to glue both sides on at once, but as it turns out it takes a ridiculous number of clamps. You can watch the rub rail action below.

If I had it to do over again, I would have bought more C clamps and less of the green spring clamps. I was attracted to the little spring clamps because they were only pp cents at Home Depot, but I think I could have used a smaller number of C claps instead of all the spring clamps. You have total control of the pressure you apply with a C clamp. You can do a lot more than a C clamp than you can with a spring clamp in my opinion, so they would have more uses in the future other than gluing rub rails on a boat. That being said, the little green spring clamps are great for 99 cents, and they are useful. I would have gone with a different spring clamp to C clamp ration.

Almost two months later...

Yeah, yeah, so I didn't really update the boatbuilding blog. Since the last update I Installed the transoms...

Installed the bulk heads, flipped the boat over and sealed all the strakes...

Pulled all the wires...

Glassed the exterior bottom...

Glassed the interior, that was kind of a pain getting the glass fabric flat...

Built the center bulkhead/center seat/dagger board assembley...

Installed the bulkheads and seats, my fillets look pretty bad in some places...

Cut the dagger board slot on the bottom...

Installed the skeg and skids on the bottom, which was easier than I thought it would be...

That covers most of the major things. There was a lot of epoxy and sanding interspersed. It all took almost two months of nights and weekends. You spend a lot of time waiting for things to dry.