or so it appears at least in the wood flour world. Being the eternal
cheap skate (remember the 'squeeze the nickle & make the beaver shit thing?) that I am I picked up 12.5 lbs of wood flour off of eBay for
cheap. I saved about 50% over retail. So far so good. Well as you would
have it not all wood flours are created equal. Some are better. Some
are worse. This last purchase wasn't so good.
It's more like wood pulp like they make paper out of. I don't know if it's a higher moisture content than normal or what but it won't screen through my wire strainer. It just balls up into little clumps. I bought a 'Cake Boss' four sifter and it won't go through that either. This type may require special processing tools or something that I don't have.
I was able to get a few batches of it mixed up into glue. I'll let them cure then sand them down a bit to see if they're going to be Ok. There might be some small voids in the mix but I'm not sure till I sand them down to see what's going on inside the fillets.
You can see the fillets in the pic above. They're the lighter coloured ones. It took about 20 oz of epoxy glue just to do the stem! Wasn't fun standing on my head trying to glue in the bow thruster tube either! :-(
I'll show you basically how I mix my glue for fillets. I'm still perfecting the process but it goes pretty much like this....
When we started out building the boat we used 'Pecan Flour' as a filler for our epoxy glue. Here's Lori filling the kerfs on the outside of the hull using the pecan flour filler.
It is really really nice stuff to work with and gives you a nice chocolate brown colour. It would be perfect for any one wanting to do a brightwork finish in a dark colour. When sanded it lightens up a bit but still very nice. The only problem wit pecan flour is it's become very expensive due to cross-country shipping. Once we get to the inside work it might be worth the extra cost to get some more.
We mixed almost all of the pecan flour epoxy glue with old electric mixers Lori got from yard sales & auctions for $2 each! :-) It was a little messy though trying to scoop it all out of the bowl and into plastic bags. The method I'm using now and you've see above is less wasteful.
Before I move on to filleting the keel I have to make a part for the very back of the keel and glue it in. While that's setting I'll sand down the existing hard fillets and get ready for taping.
I often get asked how much effort is involved in building your own boat. My usual answer is 'twice as much as you think'. In reality it's likely even more. Doing it on your own requires a lot more pre-planning and I don't find myself doing a lot of that. In reality I usually end up figuring it out once I step into the boat. Such was the case this morning.
I had very little wood flour and Cabosil (thickeners used to make epoxy glue) left to work with. Having a look around I really needed to do the fillets along the chine and finish one joint with tape.
Using up the last of my supplies I managed to get about 25' of fillet done. The joint that needs to be taped got a little extra thick stuff to fill the small gaps that remained from when it was glued while the panels were on the strongback.
This is one of two joints that I fixed the day before yesterday. They turned out ok. A few small bubbles that'll need to be ground out and fixed.
A little closer. They're good to go now I think. There'll be three layers of glass go over all of these joints next spring.
I made a video today, 20 mins unedited to illustrate the amount of effort that goes into taping just one joint.
I'm sure there are better ways but this is the one that seems to work for me. I'm not a very neat worker and there's epoxy flying everywhere. Hopefully I'l improve on that. It's been quite awhile since I last taped a joint on the boat! :-) That's my excuse so I'll stick with it.
So now I'm right out of materials. I've got no wood flour or Cabosil but they're on order and should be in by Friday. I'm very low on tape and have to wait a few days to order more. The weather's cooling down a bit which in one way is good it gives you more time to work with the epoxy (medium hardener) and bad in others as it takes a lot longer for the epoxy to cure. Oh well, that's life.
Just a few things to report. The shed roof got fixed yesterday. My buddy Andrew came over and worked his magic. It should be good for a couple of yeas now. Hopefully that's all I'll need it for. Sorry, no pics, forgot to put the memory card in the camera. Doh!
Finally managed to figure out how to get a custom channel name for my YouTube account.
So far the video views are still pretty low. Usually under a hundred. The boat flip video is approaching 500 views though. I'm trying a few new things to get more subscribers etc. If you have any ideas or are willing to cross promote each others blogs & YouTube channel let me know. More than willing to particpate.
I fixed those today with a couple layers of tape. Again, no pics, sorry. I'll get some tomorrow after the Dr. appointment. I'm getting low on fiberglass tape and don't know if I'll have time to order some and get it here before the weather turns cold. I've got wood flour & cabosil on order so I'll be able to do the fillets etc.
That's about it. Thanks for looking in. Help spread the word by sharing our blog & Youtube videos. We do appreciate it.
then walk in the house and across the kitchen floor. Don't ask me how I know! :-(
Today I started filling the kerfs in the bottom panel on the starboard side. These needed to be filled before any fiberglassing takes place.
I know it looks a little messy but no one will ever see this once I'm finished. I used up leftover epoxy glue etc. when I was working on the outside of the hull to fill some of the kerfs. It took about two 1 qt batches of epoxy & wood flour to fill them all. I add a little cabosil to keep the epoxy from slumping or running out of the kerfs.
Once I had the kerfs filled I started to fillet the joint between the side panels and the bottom panels. The fillets will make a nice smooth transition for the fiberglass to conform to as it's laid over the inside of the hull.
The fillet is just epoxy, wood flour and cabosil. It can be a bugger to work with and you have to be quick. It was about 80 degs inside the boat this morning and I could feel the epoxy kicking off in my hand. The trick is to get a nice smooth fillet without having to go back over it and rework it which just makes a mess.
So as the title of today's blog alluded to, don't step in the wet epoxy then walk in the house. Doh!
Here's my 'onboard' work bench I cobbled together yesterday. It'll slide back and forth as required. Sure makes it a lot easier to be able to mix up goop inside the boat instead of having to climb up and out and back up and in all the time. Not that I couldn't use the exercise mind you.
I made a little 'walk around' the boat video to give you an idea of what we've been thinking we'd like the boat to end up like. I know it's a little premature at this point but you might get a feel for our thinking on some of the ideas we've had (mostly stolen ideas).
Yet another day when I wasn't going to do a blog entry but I did anyways. :-) Finished up around 13:00 after finishing the sanding & vacuuming inside the hull. Tomorrow morning I'll build myself a work bench for 'INSIDE' the boat. That'll save a few trips up and down the step ladder.
So as long as the weather cooperates I'll start filling the kerfs in the bottom panel on the stbd side forward and maybe move onto some fillets along the joints. There's some small areas that need some filler and tape on the seams.
When I was putting the boat together and had some leftover goop I'd try to get it on the kerfs before it kicked off. Sometimes I was successful, sometimes I wasn't. I've chipped away all the loose stuff and vacuumed out the kerfs so they're ready for more goop. It'll be nice having gravity on my side this time.
For the boys on the Woodenboat Forums. The LPBC cap got a workout today!
Oh, and in case you missed it here's yesterday's Sandinsanity video!
