I could have sanded this much, much more. But, it is smooth, it will not abrade gear, it will be easy to clean, and it is a locker. So I cleaned it up and primed it. Could it be nicer yes, Is it sufficient for a Dory locker, yes. Tomorrow another light sand and clean and on goes the toplac.
Well it’s been raining for two days. Yesterday I had work so, no biggy. Today is my boat building day. Still raining.. What would the old salts do? I think the term is “rig an awning.” Aft locker has a coat of toplac. Forward locker is sanded and primed.
1 Like
I would have waited for a sunny day, maybe worked on splicing, seizing, whipping or other rigging-related marlinspike work and listened to boaty podcasts or sea chantys.
Laszlo
Little point in rigging till I have a boat.
Caught a break in the rain and moved the boat out of the way. Now I have enough space build the deck. We add much more to this thing we aren’t going to be able to move it. The workspace is a filthy dusty mess after two and a half months of boat building.
Just staging and doing a dry fit. My boat yard isn’t flat, level, plumb, or any other thing. Even if it were, these old plastic tables aren’t. To compensate I use wood blocks and scraps to shim. I’ve found if you can get the puzzles to lie flat before gently clamping that works better than trying to clamp a mess flat. I want to run the shop vac but I’m trying to give the neighbors a quiet Sunday morning. The puzzles look pretty good right now. Tempting to just clean and brush unthickened epoxy over the joint and hope it finds its way where it’s needed. That is probably a mistake though.
Serious rain here in Knoxville. Parts of downtown are flooded. Despite all, progress continues. I went very minimalist with the epoxy and thickener for the first deck puzzle joint. It is perhaps slightly starved. Since this is a varnish area I’m being as careful as I can. My reasoning is it will have glass and many layers of epoxy soon. Second puzzle is in the clamps. Thickened with a mix of cell o fill and wood flour.
Always a great day when you run out of bits to glue together, especially if it coincides with running out of hull/boat to assemble.
Laszlo
1 Like
This build has been a joy. It’s had it’s ups and downs for sure but I would do it again, in a heartbeat. I think I’m in that 80% done 80% to go place where it looks more or less like a boat but still a lot of glass, epoxy, and finishes to do. With all this crazy rain I’ll be glad when everything is safely under glass and epoxy and especially glad when it’s all under paint or varnish. I’ll wrap up the basic kit over the summer and as we head into fall I’ll do the motor well, and the sailing kit.
Deck puzzle 2 of 4 looks okay and a little starved again but strong enough to accept glass. A few blessed minutes of sunshine. I hope it lasts. Penciled in the forward sea dog oval hatch opening.
Got another puzzle joint in the clamps. One puzzle joint left, FOR THE WHOLE BUILD! Can’t say I’ll miss them much.
Since these are the cleanest puzzle joints I’ve ever done, I thought I might take a minute to document. Now don’t do them like this if strength is your #1 concern. Do these when strength is secondary to finish. First I stage the boards, It’s best to truly isolate one side of the finger joint so that it doesn’t move. Add whatever blocks or shims needed till you can make a perfectly or nearly perfectly flush dry puzzle joint. I put a layer of plastic and peel ply under the joint to capture any squeeze out and to prevent it from gluing itself to the clamp. Once I have it worked out I carefully lift the mobile half of the puzzle joint and slide a kick stand under it (just a scrap of wood). Since I need these to be as clean as possible I lay some plastic over the isolated bottom half of the puzzle, that way any drips don’t get on it. I stored this okoume in a dehumidified tool shed so it’s very dry and thirsty. I mix a very small amount of MAS slow cure epoxy and leave it un-thickened. I trim the bristles down to 1/8" on an acid brush. Now I dab un-thickened epoxy on the edge of the floating half of the puzzle. Just want to put enough to wet the edge, less is more. This gives that dry wood something wick into the fibers so it doesn’t starve the joint as much later. Once I’ve wet the edge, I mix a little cell-o-fill into the epoxy and tint it with tiny amounts of wood flour till it’s the same color as okoume. I try to get a spun honey consistency. Then I dab this just on the edge of the floating puzzle half. You don’t need much, just a thin film of thickened epoxy. Once that edge has thickened epoxy, I carefully pull out my plastic film that was between them and press the puzzle joint together. Take a few minutes to make sure it’s truly flush. Add any shims that you need. You don’t want anything shifting. I put a layer of peel ply on top the wet puzzle joint to capture any squeeze out. A layer of plastic on top so it doesn’t glue itself to the clamp. Then tighten the clamp. In my case I used a couple of full five gallon buckets.
This is the previous complete joint.
The bottom is immobilized, the top has a scrap under for a kickstand. Plastic between to catch drips.
Very little squeeze out but what little there is is captured in the peel ply.
Uniform pressure applied by gravity and lots of boards.
And that is the final puzzle joint on my boat! Yay!!
Flipped the deck with the help of a neighbor and started epoxy coating the bottom. I’ve left natty edge cloth on purpose to prevent bottom drips from forming on the other side, it acts like a trough to hold epoxy and helps it soak into the edge ply. The downside to this strategy is it will be harder to remove the excess cloth. I’ll probably have to use something a little more powerful than a utility knife.
