Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Bottom Treatment & Sawdust

Kind of a mixed couple of days.

After several flow coats on the side, plus a couple on the bottom, and after hours of sanding, with both the the block sander and random orbital one, it was time to finish the bottom coat.

The dory was taped and masked




Followed by a thick gel coat finish of epoxy resin, Cabosil and graphite.


Said to make the bottom more slippery and better able to slide off rocks.





Somewhat controversial, but who cares, it looks great to my eye.




Meanwhile, down in the basement wood shop things are starting to happen.  After finishing the hatch lid lams, I started on the gunwales.  Three big 14' boards of rough 4/4 ash go through the planer.  And back into the planer.  And then through the planer again, and again.  This takes a while to get them down to 3/4".  Eventually I may go thinner, even down to 5/8", but haven't decided for certain just how thick I want my gunwales.


The dust collection port kept getting clogged, followed by all of the sawdust sticking to the bed and jamming the planer knives.  By the time I was done, there was a pile of sawdust twice the size of the trash can in the foreground.



Then it was time to rip them 

- where I discovered my max rip length in my shop, due to walls, a pillar, and other immovable objects, is 11 feet.  And the boards are now 12', having cut them down a little after planing.

No problem when you know a woodworking friend with a larger shop.  Here's Craig, friend and retired partner, helping rip the ash into 1 7/8" rails. Notice the hole in the back wall of his shop.  He's run into the same rip length limitation in the past, but solved it with a removable opening.





Next up in the woodworking area will be to start milling the Port Orford Cedar for the hatch frames.  And coming up with a jig to cut the gunwale scarf joints.  Thinking about either the chop saw or band saw for this.

Meanwhile, it's time to turn the boat back over.  Maybe that's why it's been so quiet around here lately.






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