For anyone who's built their own boat....

6 1/2 hours
33' 8" of 1808 biaxial fiberglass
3.5 gallons of epoxy
36' of peel ply

Blood sugar down to 4.1 (skipped lunch)

One very pooped ole' fart! [:-boggled]

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Still have to standby looking for bubbles etc. especially along the seam near the bottom which I knew was going to be troublesome.

Gotta do it all again tomorrow! [:-banghead]
 
Munch on peanuts while you work---if you are not allergic. That will keep your blood sugar steady. Not good to let it drop like that! That is why you are so pooped out. Take care, we don't want to lose you.......
 
Epoxy & Peanuts huh? Kinda like peanut brittle without the sweetness! :-)

I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong. I laid up the sides yesterday and got a so so result.

Shed was approx. 60 Deg F, Marinepoxy with slow hardener.

Peel ply removed and I have quite a few dry spots that weren't there last night.

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I noticed a lot of epoxy bleeding through the peel ply and again this wasn't there last night.

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I'm guessing it was too cool and this allowed the epoxy to bleed down through the laminate leaving dry spots. They're worse up near the leading edge. I'd love to use a faster hardener but I don't think I'd have enough time to work it in before it kicks. It would take me about 10 mins to work in a litre of epoxy. I was working on two fronts having started from the middle of the boat working out to the ends. Any ideas?
 
Got a little behind with my posts. Sorry. Saturday my buddy Jim came over to help out with the epoxy work on the stbd side. Jim's a great guy. He built himself a huge Bruce Roberts in steel about 20 years ago. Tide Rider!

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Being an ex-school teacher he was fascinated with the entire fiberglass/epoxy process. He'd used a little on Tide Rider but this was on a scale he'd never seen before. I spent quite a bit of time explaining all the ins and outs of the process and he just went to it. About all I could was stand back and watch! :-)

Between tobacco offerings to the Great Peacemaker and lunch etc. we only managed to get about 2/3 rds of the way through the side panel. I laid on the peel ply and let it be. I'd pick it up the next day.

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I had some great tips from some very experienced fiberglass guru's on the Interwebs and used their advice. The results are better for this side than the one I did myself. I'll still have a few very minor bubbles to fix and some sanding but I think it's going to be ok.

The whole week I've been having trouble with my hands. Tingling and numbness in my hands when I'm using the sander and when I was rolling out the epoxy. It got so bad it woke me up in the night a few times. Bit the bullet and saw the Quacker today. Sure 'nuff I've got carpal tunnel syndrome. This was confirmed with an electrical test. :-( I don't know how I'm going to deal with this with the amount of sanding etc. I have left on the boat. I'll get some splints for my wrists but I don't know if I'll be able to work much with them on. If it's not one thing it's another. Dammit!

Anyone got experience with this carpal tunnel thing?
 
I had Carpel Tunnel in my elbow years ago from repetitive movement with one of my jobs. I would move my right arm over 300 times a day in the same movement. Hurts like hell. Had to have it operated on and its been good since.

You gona be home tomorrow. I gota run to the boat and will stop in if yer gona be home and see about that dura block....

I wana see this tug also. See if it looks any different from the last time..
 
Save room for Me for One Girlfriend, one Cat and a few bottles of Capt Morgan...Were planning a boat trip in August. Hope the weather is better by then...

never seen so much rain as we are getting lately..
 
Yeah, you better check your boat. It might be full of water with all this rain. I noticed the river is awfully high right now.

Problem is the boat shed will flood at one end. I ended up with a paint pail floating around in a puddle last week! *sigh*

Bring your waders!
 
Just remember where you got that sanding block Wayne! I'll need it back sometime!

Wayne caught me actually working on the boat. I sanded for a couple of hours, taking frequent breaks which seemed to help. I pulled the peel ply off Saturday's job on the port side.

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Other than a few very minor bubbles the results were much better. Some slumping of the epoxy in places but nothing a light sanding won't fix.

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I'll dress up the sides then move back up on the bottom for more sanding and bubble repair. I should be laying out the next layers of fabric sometime next week or the week after. Have to order in more epoxy . This pig is sucking it up like a Barrington Street Hooker on a Saturday night! So far I'm into the outside of the hull for 20 gallons.
 
I've got RIPPLES!

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These showed up after I removed the peelply from the port side we did on Saturday. I've sanded the tops off of them, do I need to go deeper and totally get rid of them? I'm afraid of going too far and sanding away good fiberglass. It looks like the glass is deep and right against the ply from what I can tell. I did aft end on Sunday and when I removed that peelply there was no sign of any ripples. The main difference, other than Jim not being there is the temperature (abt. 5 degs warmer (low 70's)) and no rain so the shed was dryer. The only other thing I can think of is I didn't squeegee enough.

You can see them again on the right hand side of this pic.

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I started going down the port side with the sander about 10:00 this morning. Didn't quit till 16:30. My hands were throbbing like crazy.

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Nobody's going to do this for me so I had to stick to it. Mostly I was sanding the ripples and feathering the fabric edge along the bottom. Seeing as I ended up having to sand the whole freakin' hull anyways I think I'll forgo the peelply next time.

I got another question. My six inch air RO is my workhorse. I do have a 7" Simoniz variable speed car polisher. I've seen backing pads that'll fit the polisher to make it into a sander. It wouldn't be an RO but a 7 or 8" disc would help speed things along wouldn't it? I don't know if it's worthwhile. The polisher would likely be junk by the time I'm done using it as a sander.

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Hey! Guess what? More sanding tomorrow!
 
quote:
Originally posted by KnottyBuoyz

Hey! Guess what? More sanding tomorrow!

Click to expand...

You'll be sanding forever. Where's the project supervisor? Did he take off on summer vacation or is he laying under the hull doing an inspection?
 
I feel for you... I am sick of sanding! Although it s a lot easier to sand down than up lying on your back, pushing the RO up against the hull, in the dust, dirt etc...

In my case... No more hull sanding, the bottom paint went on yesterday!
 
quote:
Originally posted by Pa Mikee

quote:
Originally posted by KnottyBuoyz

Hey! Guess what? More sanding tomorrow!

Click to expand...

You'll be sanding forever. Where's the project supervisor? Did he take off on summer vacation or is he laying under the hull doing an inspection?

Click to expand...

These days the Project Manager can usually be found on his throne surveying the other parts of his domain.

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He was in the shed yesterday looking over the workin's and barking orders. Apparently the kibble dish was empty or some other such emergency that needed my attention! *sigh*
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

I feel for you... I am sick of sanding! Although it s a lot easier to sand down than up lying on your back, pushing the RO up against the hull, in the dust, dirt etc...

In my case... No more hull sanding, the bottom paint went on yesterday!

Click to expand...

Congrats Pascal. That's a milestone for sure. I guess at some point you have to make a judgement call and say 'enough's enough' and put the sanders down. I'll go check your thread.

Thanks for looking in.
 
My first attempt at a boat shed video. First time I used my GoPro in the shed. For some reason (operator stupidity) the audio didn't record. I had to caption it later. It sort of worked ok.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQC24t70UrA

I do apologize to those who watch the whole thing. That'll be 6 minutes of your life you wish you had back! ;-)

Standby.... Some GoPro photos coming soon.
 
The GoPro camera has a very wide angle view. I think it's 140 degs if my memory serves me correctly. The wide angle view can distort perspective but it's the closest I can get to a full view of the boat so far.

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I get the feeling it's going to look a lot bigger when I flip it over!
 
Would it ultimately be easier to paint the bottom before flipping?
 
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