Yet one more SNAFU

After yesterday's SNAFU with the epoxy I was hoping things would get better. I was wrong.

This is part of one of the seams I taped and epoxied. It's not normal to have these small voids.

Normally the weave is totally filled with epoxy. Voids can cause a problem with water getting trapped and causing blisters. It's also an issue with structure and possible de-lamination.

I contacted the designer and vendor of the tape and got their views. It may be a roll that got wet or is otherwise sub standard. The tape on the left is from the designer and the one on the right is from another distributor. I've had no problem with the tape on right.

So I'll possibly be able to fix the problem with a good belt sanding and more epoxy. I've ordered more tape from the supplier on the right.

Going to be hot again next weekend! *sigh*

When it's too hot in the kitchen

get the hell out! How hot was it in the boat shed today? This hot!

That's about $10 worth of epoxy that kicked off within 6 minutes at about 95 degs F! Grrrrrr!

This stuff gets hot lemme tell ya! I had to rip the glove off and toss the tray outside. It was smokin'! No shit sherlock!

I started out in the shed this morning about 8:30. It was already about 80 degs F in there but with the fans going full blast it was tolerable. I wanted to get the final layers of tape on the keel.

Working alone doing this type of job sucks. I had to resort to a lil' 3M Super 77 to keep the tape from blowing around and ending up in the dirt. I know it's not ideal but it's what I had to do.

Once I got the tape all laid out it was onto the epoxy. I knew I had to work quickly and resorted to the roller instead of the chip brush. Both are messy but the roller a little bit less so. I made it from the bow back a little farther than the tape in the lower section of the pic above. That's when I ran into problems with the epoxy kicking off too quickly. I had two paint trays in rotation because a little uncured epoxy will hasten the curing process. I'd leave one to drip out while using the other. I think I'll need to pick up a couple more trays! *sigh*

Oh well, get an early start on it again tomorrow and see if I can get the rest of the taping done. Then it's onto some really big fiberglass! :-)

It's a good thing

Walker Bay dingy's have a one way valve in their garboard drain! We forgot to put the plug in! Well, sheeesh, it was the first voyage of "Lil' Peace" and we were a little anxious to get going. Haven't been on the water at all this year!

Here's the monstrosity rigged and ready to launch!

I was a little worried the Jeep wouldn't be able to pull this monster! :-)

Underway with the Admiral looking for hazards & snags!

We're going forward dear. The deadheads and rocks are usually the other way! :-)

The Minn Kota 55 lb thrust trolling motor worked well. It pushed us along at a max speed of 3.85 kts and we averaged 3 kts. Half power we were about 2.2 - 2.3 kts.

Time to renew my fishing license methinks! :-)

More Custom Bling!

I actually prefer simple unless complicated is really COOL! :-)

My lil' mimic panel came in today and I just couldn't wait to stick the LED's in it!

It turned out pretty good. I almost goofed on the switch. It comes really close to the edge. It won't show but it's very close! You can just see it buried under the mess of wires in the lower left hand corner.

Next step will be organizing all the lil' tiny wires! *sigh* I got a few ideas of how to do it but if anybody else has any ideas let's have 'em!

Tomorrow the boat shed again! Standby...

A half day in the boat shed

is better than no day in the boat shed.

I spent this morning sanding and prepping the fwd section for more carbon fiber. Using the peelply sure saves on sanding. It seems a bit wasteful to just peel this stuff off and toss it away though. The work it saves is great though. Catch 22 I guess.

Anywho, got the carbon fiber on and peelplied.

Tomorrow I hope to get up on the keel again and get it ready for fiberglass. Weather is moderating a bit so that's good.

The ole' shed needs a few repairs too. We'll see if we can get to that this evening if it doesn't rain.

Standby.

Update:

Went back out to the shed a few hrs later. The epoxy was hard to the touch. This slow hardener usually takes 3 times longer than that. I peeled back the peelply to see how it turned out. It's ok

Here's something we haven't seen in awhile. It's the main cabin roof that was attached to the outside of the shed.

We had it covered with a tarp that the wind ripped to shreds. Had to get that cleaned up. I think I'll just paint it for now to protect the epoxy & fiberglass from the UV. The exposed side is the bottom side so it'll never be seen.

Planned to climb up on the shed roof and patch some holes but Mother Nature had other things in mind. Hail, rain and thunderstorms for the next four days so that'll have to wait.

Standby again.

I love to feel the rain in the summer time

is the title of a song by the Welsh band "The Alarm". It used to be one of my favorites. So far this year we've seen a lot of weird weather. Today we got plenty of rain almost constantly and it was welcomed. It's been pretty dry around here for awhile and some of the farmers are in trouble having to plow under dead crops.

I took a break from the boat shed and got some cleaning up done around the yard and spent the remainder of the day tinkering with the dingy trailer to get it setup.

All I have to do is adjust the bunks and it's ready to go. The Minn Kota trolling motor should be in next Friday and we'll be good to to on "Lil' Peace's" first voyage on the Galop Canal.

A cold front rolled through right after some major rain so hopefully we won't return to the higher temps we saw last week. Standby....

It's probably cooler in hell right about now

Holy Crap is it hot outside! 34C and hotter in the shed 37C even with all the fans going!

I had planned to get the first carbon fiber reinforcement on the bow & keel today along with a couple layers of tape. By the time I got the carbon fiber on the heat was oppressive and I had to get out of the kitchen!

The carbon fiber tape I had (got cheap from eBay) runs from the bow to about midway down the keel. This should provide some extra reinforcement in the case of a collision. There's more carbon fiber going on the bow below the waterline and around the thruster opening. These layers will be buried deep under multiple layers of fiberglass tape and cloth. Should a collision occur the carbon fiber is the last line of defense in a hull breach. The upper layers of glass would be easily repairable. That's my twisted logic behind using it anyways. The remainder of the keel will be built up of a couple of layers of basalt fabric and fiberglass. About 5 layers in all.

This is a close up of the bow with the carbon fiber. The epoxy kicked off inside an hour in this heat and was hard to the touch in 3 hours. I peeled back some of the peelply to show the result. Using peelply I don't have to do any sanding before putting on more layers of fiberglass which in this heat is a real bonus!

Extreme close up of the carbon fiber after the peelply was removed. There's a few tiny voids that are only on the surface of the fabric. These shouldn't be an issue. I had a hard time getting the peelply to lay down properly. The peelply I'm using now is really heavy material. It doesn't seem to get any more flexible in the heat!

Picked up this small trailer to use with our dingy "Lil' Peace". I have to modify it a bit but it should work well.

Off to consume another cooling beverage. Stay thirsty my friends!

No putt putt putt .....

for Lil' Peace! We're going all electric for the dingy.

 Minn Kota Traxxis 55-lb Thrust Freshwater Transom Mount Trolling Motor, 36" Shaft

We'll use a Series 27 Deep Cycle battery and that should give us plenty of range. Picked up the trailer today so a few mods to that and we'll be out dingying soon! Standby!!

Up up and away we go

I climbed back up on the hull for the first time since I had my lil' accident. Managed the ladders pretty good. Knee felt tight but ok.

I had almost forgotten what it looked like up there! I did some sanding for an hour or so on the taped seams getting them ready for another layer of tape. That's what I was planning to do when I had my lil' setback.

When I looked at the temperature it was a very comfortable 24.5 C on top of the boat then I noticed the "max temp" which records the highest temp since the last reset! 49 C (120 F)! That's hot by any standards!!! Wow, am I ever glad I wasn't up there that day and that was with the exhaust fan going too!

I'm going to try to get as much done as I can this week. I may get some help on Saturday and will fiberglass the keel then. I've decided to do the hull in three stages, keel, bottom and then the sides. It's not ideal but this is a big job, too big for me to do in one session. I'll be using the peel ply to get good mechanical bonds between the steps.

Standby...