Makin' Dust

I wasn't going to do a blog entry today, just a video but decided to call it quits a bit early and enjoy the remainder of a nice, but cool day.

I know you've all been waiting anxiously for the next Sandinsanity Video so here it is!

Had to tape my GoPro to a board to get it to sit in the hull without sliding all over the place from the sander vibration.

It actually worked really well. I do have to work on my composition a bit more.

Making swirlies in the dust!

Couldn't find anything else more interesting to photograph, sorry. ;-)

I think I have figured out a way to extend my boat building season by at least a couple of months. More on that later.

Standby......

Bad day to be Sandpaper

Still working in and around the bow area cleaning up seams & drips etc.  In the first 5 minutes I went through one brand new sanding belt and three disks, all 40 grit. The 3 yr old epoxy glue is hard as diamonds and just rips them to shreds.

One of the hardest areas to get at is the bow and around the bow thruster tube. The hull bottom slopes up quickly and there's no place to stand so when I have to work low I'm on my knees sliding out of my knee pads! *sigh*

I'll eventually have to go in there and sand by hand but the little detail sander makes quick work of it. Great little tool but you have to be careful, it's a 'Weapon of Mass Destruction all on its own! ;-)  Big benefit is it can be operated with one hand quite easily.

The air powered RO is my next favorite tool. It really is the workhorse of the whole operation. I make double sure I oil it every day before use and it's holding up better than the first one.

When we laid the side panels on the forms ohhhhhhhhh about 3 yrs ago I had two of the butt joints fail. They didn't break just bent in a way they shouldn't have. I can only guess it was the stress of the long sheets being bent over the forms to shape up the bow.

You can see th white line running down the middle of the joint. The fiberglass tape has buckled indicating it has been crushed.

Opened up the joint today with the detail sander to see what was going on inside. The glue join looks fine so it was just the fiberglass tape. I'll fill this as I go and retape the joints. This happened on both sides. It's what caused a bump in the panels on the outside that took me weeks to fair out properly.

I'm about 1/3 done the sanding on the inside. If the weather cooperates I'll fill the kerfs in the bottom panel and do some filleting of the seams etc. till I run out of materials.

Standby.....

Let the Sandinsanity begin

and the dust fly (again). Moved inside the boat to start cleaning up the seams etc. They all have to be sanded smooth to get them ready for fillets & tape. I used pretty much every sander in my repertoire and my electric hand planer as well! :-)

Didn't take long to fill the boat with dust to the point I couldn't see what I was doing. Up and out again to fetch R2D2. This poor old shop vac has been with me for almost 30 years. It's seen duty from sanding car paint off of a bedroom wall (tenants *sigh*) to evacuating backed up toilets and now it's being pressed into service for the first time on the boat.

Just before lunch break I stopped sanding and laid back to look at the shed roof trying to figure out how we're going to recover it tomorrow. It was so peaceful and quiet and relaxing I fell asleep! :-)

One just has to stop and admire their own handiwork every once in awhile!

More Sandinsanity to come.

Standby......

Another Serious WTF

Got the keel blocked up yesterday and the cross bracing/form out of the way today. I had to bodge together a set of steps to get into and out of the boat this morning. Decided to take a pause to reflect on my handiwork and had another one of those WTF have I gotten myself into moments.

Sitting pretty much where the head will be. A likely spot for a respite from the rigors of boat building! :-)  I corrected these photos for fisheye and it makes the hull look longer and narrower than it really is.

Approx. location of the helm position. I think the deck will be about 20" higher once it's installed.

I think where I'm standing above is Station H which is the aft bulkhead for the main cabin. Everything aft of that is cockpit.

Had to call it quits for today. Got errands to run etc. Back at it tomorrow. I have a date with my belt sander!

Thanks for looking in.

Standby....

Video from yesterdays flip

Here's the edited video from yesterdays flip. The 'crash boom' happens just after the 6 minute mark. Only casualties were a 2x3 & my undershorts. Boat is fine and no one got hurt.

Carry on....