All I want for Christmas is a Ductstat.

S0, I just got back from the Home Depot, got a nice haul of goodies for the cure oven.

1 x cheap smoke alarm @ $4.45
4 x 6' cheap extension cords @ $1.19 ea
4 x water proof light sockets @ $3.27 ea (nicer and cheaper than the regular ones)
1 x cheap power strip @ $3.27
1 x plug in thermostat @ $21.00 (on sale)
1 x king sized Snickers @ $1.59 (it satisfies)
1 x 4pack of 100 watt light bulbs @ $3.78

So, about $50 for that hardware (plus foam which was free) not bad.



This little guy is pretty cool, found him in the sale bin. Goes up to 110f (most wall mounts only go to 90) and it has a plug on it so I don't have to go through the hassle of hard-wiring anything. My plan is to cut off the ends of the extension cords (they were way cheaper than buying all the ends and wire separately) and connect them to the light sockets (which will have the bulbs in them) and space them evenly hanging from the roof of the oven. Plug those into the power strip (on the outside of the box) and then plug that into the Thermostat which will be centrally located in the oven and be plugged into the wall. ( I have the fire alarm and an extinguisher handy just in case) I might add a "Fart Fan" to the mix as well depending on if the heat is even enough.

Hope it works out, think it will.

Work is happening........

I have been busy over winter break fairing the plywood skin in preparation for the Epoxy/qcells compound, Its getting very flat, I like how you can see where all the ribs are.


My friend Steven is making a wood shop in his backyard, He bought a semi-truck load of recycled R10 industrial insulation for the project and had some left over, so now I have the most important of the raw materials for my cure oven. (It should get plenty toasty inside) I'm running out the door to go get a fire alarm, some extension cords, raw fixtures, 4 X 100 watt light bulbs, a light timer, and a thermostat so I can get going on this thing.

Plasticy balloon goo.

The Epoxy kit that I ordered from US Composites finally showed up, so let the sticky games begin. Thanks to everyone over at SA for the home made cook oven idea's (Here). hope to get one assembled over the Christmas break, along with the other little things I need to get buttoned up before I start slathering the plasticy balloon goo.

I'm not dead.

With Christmas coming, and winter here, and all the BS that accompanies it, I'm not finding a great amount of time to work on the boat right now. See you when I get back around to it (probably the new year). I have been thinking of a way to build a little oven in my garage to cure the mould in. I'm thinking cardboard/foam and halogen lights. (want to get up around 100 deg). Any thoughts?

All hands on deck.

I'm cutting out the mounting tabs on the deck frames. Going along well. On the garage front I'm waiting to find time to go pick up a compressor I'm borrowing, and for Epoxy and filler so that I can start coating and fairing the hull mould. (US Composites Brand, price was right, we'll see how it works. I've heard good things.)

Getting the band (saw) back together

Today's task was to get all the deck mould frames trimmed to their actual dimensions, band saw with a 3/4 '' bade is the way to go for sure (1/2'' blade for the curved edge).

****I'm still long boarding the hull mould at night as well****

Phase 2

It's time to start my "break time mini project" which is assembling the sub frame for the deck mould. I have this little binder with all the tech drawings for the whole boat, I figured I would start including pics of those.




So here's the plans, I blew them up so I can actually read the numbers.


The pile of materials: hope to start throwing it together this afternoon. It's a lot smaller than the hull mould, and I'm glad it will fit "IN" my van, not on it for the trip home.

What a long strange trip its "being"

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to move the Plug/mould thingie today. I was hoping to do it next week after I got the Bog on, (for extra strength), but it ended up being fine.


Here she is all strapped up and ready to go. 260lb all up weight.



With the help of my Co-worker "Clark", I was able to get the mould in the air without hurting myself. It's nice to have steel beams, foam, and ratchet straps around. I did pop one of the bow frames lifting it (look at the bow strap in the pic), but epoxy and a clamp fixed that right up.



I was a little worried about the strength of the Forester's roof rack, but it held up like a champ.



My Little Sister Sarah was in town for the holidays, she was happy to help, and I was "thankful" to have her.


On the road, 12 miles (5 on gravel) and 3200vft to go.


(Blogger only gives you 5 pics per post, so I've continued on in the next one)

Today, continued...

After driving real slow for 45 minutes, we made it home, the mould didn't move, shake, bend, or fall apart like some people said it would (where is the "sticking tongue out" emocon when you need it?). One piece, safe and sound. After it was built I thought I might have gone to beefy with the frame structure, now I'm glad I did.


Home at last, in the garage. Now I can work till my hearts content, weekends, till the wee hours, after work, whenever, that and I can finally start eating dinner with my wife and kids again.

ooooohhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm.............

Sanded some on the port side, still a ways to go till I think I'll be satisfied enough to start bogging. I know it would fill and smooth everything but I want to get the wood down closer to perfect before I just start slathering everything. Its times like these where being a perfectionist (ocd) pays off..........or not. I am really starting to enjoy my sanding sessions (insert "karate kid" joke here), I can just get into it and turn my mind off, it has turned into a little vacation for me.


Here is what it looks like in "full view". It kinda has that "you'll probably spend a lot of time being wet" look, or that "went so fast I can't get the smile off my face" look, not sure which one yet...........I'm sure both.

Enter Sandman

Started sanding the strip area on the starboard side today, with the 80grit sandpaper it went pretty fast. The colored mottling is from exposure of all the different ply layers, in reality the surface is as smooth as it gets. After a couple more intense sanding sessions I hope to be able to start with the bog (slang for fairing compound).


Here is the rotary air sander I've been using for truing the flares, its old and beat up, but still works great. I'm able to get into the curved area's because of the thick foam pad. More sanding tomorrow.

Halleluia...........

The last pile of staples. Done with them till I start the deck and foredeck moulds.


After I pulled the last of the staples I scraped all the sharp protruding edges off of the strips that didn't quite line up. Scraping is a lot faster then sanding, (and for getting Glue blobs off nothing is better). I've never tried it on plywood before, but it worked like a champ. I didn't have any curved scrapers around, so I made a couple out of some junked brass plates.


Here's what the stripping looks like after the edges are smoothed out. I haven't touched this area with any sandpaper yet and its already pretty fair and smooth.


My co-workers and I flipped the mould after work so that I could reinforce some area's from the inside (thanks fella's). If the strips have a decent sized gap between them, or cover a steep angle sometimes the glue doesn't hold to well and those area's are weaker. Worked well, those area's don't flex anymore. It also gave me the first look of what the hull shape looks like right side up. Smooth and sexy right?


This is a pic of the inner workings of the mould, the strips look cool I think. Makes me want to build a cedar boat someday (when I'm old and don't care about extra weight, maybe a thistle or something). The whole structure is very sturdy, which is good, because the Vac is like two atmospheres of pressure. Tomorrow I need to trim some things and try to cut and install the aft Vac deck.

Like pulling teeth

Still pulling staples, looks like that's what I'm going to be doing on Monday as well......this is some of yesterday's work.

I'm giving up stripping........

I finally have all the strips in, the skin is done. I do still have to mount the decking in front of the bow and build a little extention off the stern to stick the vacuume tape to,( thats the plan for tomorrow). Besides that, looking good.


Here's a little closeup of the stern stripping, had to cut some crazy little shapes to fill the holes back there. (I'll post some good overall pics once I get the staples out and the vac decks made.)

So Close

I didn't get quite as far as I wanted today, still have to cut out some little shapes to patch into the spots that are left. hope to get it finished tomorrow.


Port side


Starboard



Very shapely. Staples, sanding, bog, sanding, bog, fairing, Durabuild, polish, done........

upper decker

I mounted the decking today, all that's left is gluing a couple more strips on each side. Then a million staples to pull, and onto the bogging and fairing. I love the shape of the flares, I think the over all look right now is "fast". Hope to have all the skin on by the time I leave tomorrow.

More staples........

Mounted four more 3/4'' strips per side, my technique seems to be improving, to bad I'm almost done stripping. After I plaster the whole thing with Bog it really won't matter how pretty the stripping was (or in some spots, wasn't).


My buddy Mark Peterson helping out with some glue and staples, he was also nice enough to trim the strips while I laid things out. Thanks Marky


This was one of the parts I was a little worried about, its where the sides go from strait to flared, so there is this crazy little twist that I was a little unsure of. I used a 1'' strip, then a 3/4'' strip, then 1/2'', back to a 3/4'' that I trimmed into a curved wedge shape so that it would continue the line coming from the stern. In the end it worked out great.


And here's where we are now, almost done with the skin, and just when it was starting to get really fun. Should be able to finish up this next week and move onto slathering plasticy balloon goo on it.

Here we go again

First off, yes those are 70's era safety glasses (couldn't find my ultra hip modern ones), and I do know the winter beard is coming in nicely. The important thing is that big pile of strips laying on top there, should be plenty to finish skinning this bad boy.........

(Thanks for the pic Jake)

So smooth

I had a chance to pull all the staples out of the bow yesterday and start sanding things a little, looks pretty good


Here's what it looks like from the stern, the sides are trued up and it has an actual boat shape going.


The bow close up.....


You can see here the dual tunnel shape that's starting to happen, its not perfectly symmetrical yet, but more sanding and the bog process should fix that.


An inspirational shot of this mornings sunrise from my front porch, symbolic of the first day of the post Bush presidency.

Take a bow........

Finished with all the ply strips on the bow yesterday. So If I can get some more strips cut to finish out the gunwales and mount the flat decking, I could move on to the real fun, sanding, bogging, and fairing.

I think I'm allergic to staples.

I mounted the stern strips, it's a combination of 1'' and 3/4'' strips, It turned out well. I did end up with a couple of "extra low" spots, but I'll easily be able to bog and fair them out (I guess these little "surprises" are to be expected, I have never built a plywood strip mould before, so, all part of the experience....)


I finally got around to adding the bow piece. I needed to get this on before I could start the bow stripping. (for obvious reasons)


Here is the bow stripping in progress, I couldn't get it done because I ran out of time and strips. Can't cut any till Monday so I guess I'll have to go back to working on the Deck mould a little bit at home over the weekend. I used three levels of stripping on the bow area. It starts with wide 1'' strips, than 3/4'' in level two, and finally 1/2'' strips for the tight curve of the bow.


Here is a closeup of the 1'' stripping. I'm trying to find the balance between enough/to many staples. I'm still not very good at that, I tend to just start shooting and see what I have when the dust settles (I'm starting to get blisters and sore wrists).


And this is what the mould looks like as of now, I trimmed up the overhanging strips on the stern and sanded the bumps out a little to see what its going to look like, i think its pretty good. Not bad for a rookie, No?