The Wooden Boat

2-11-13

Back to sanding, and it’s worse because it is sanding epoxy, hard stuff that tends to gum up the sandpaper. I had to sand the entire bottom so that including the keel as well. I shaped the keel on the bow and stern and got it to match the sides pretty well. I then had to smooth and sand so that there was no longer any shine. This is because the primer needs to have something to grab ahold of. When I did this I noticed some flaws, like small pits from bubbles that I think occurred because the temperature increased as the epoxy setup. I added a little epoxy to fill them in so Ill have to sand that down next week. I also sanded a little too much in some spots so I started to see the glass cloth. I don’t think this will ruin it but I’d rather not see it at all. There were a couple of really rough spots so I used some pretty abrasive sandpaper to get it down then used 80 grit to do the overall sanding.

Once this was done Dad and I flipped the now heavier boat and we worked on adding gunnels to the sides. These were sixteen foot 1×4 pine. They went on pretty well except at the bow. On the rest of the boat we simply clamped it to the wall with a healthy dose of epoxy, then screwed it from the inside to really get it tight. As we moved forward we ran into trouble. We just couldn’t get the board to bend and twist the way we wanted. I’m sure we could have steamed it and got it there, oh well. Instead we did get the boards bent with the help of a number of clamps in a very intimidating cluster. We let it sit overnight and cure up. We trimmed the extra board off and I sanded the ends down to look decent. We then flipped it upside down again. The bottom of the gunnel was still flared out so we just filled it up with epoxy. Heavier but that’s the way it goes. I also filled in some areas that did not have a real tight fit against the wall. Next week Ill sand this down and then flip it over again and begin working on the seats and maybe even make the knee braces for front and back seats.