The wooden Boat
3-18-13 I did very little work on the boat this week. Most of my time was spent fixing up the trailer. I did however get the VIN numbers on the boat and trailer that the state sent me. Conveniently the BMV was not open on Monday so I guess I’ll try Tuesday morning when they first open. The little work that I did do on the boat was to sand down and patch up the mess we made last week when we flipped the boat and pulled half the side off. I started to paint over the patched area and dad will finish it up this week. The trailer I purchased was not bad but it needed to be sanded and to knock of the rust and flaking paint. I then painted it with the bed liner paint that should help with scuffing. I also worked on the brace at the front of the trailer that will hold the wench. After I removed the old wiring Dad wired up the new lights. I also added some treated 2x4s which I will cover outdoor carpet. It looks better than it did and the only remaining problems are getting the license plate and the hull number plus getting some new tires for the trailer and we should be set. Next week should finish it up. Hard to believe. I started just after Christmas and pretty much did a day a week. So under 15 days.
The wooden boat project
3-11-13 Ooops. This is what happens when you flip the boat with only one screw holding the middle seat in place. The result is a bent screw followed by the epoxied board ripping off the side. They only positive thing was that I had a better reaction than my dad. I just struggled he was more annoyed that I had to do more work. It is odd to do my first repair before I get it on the water but this thing is made to work and not sit there so I’m sure more is to come.
The wooden boat
3-10-13 Almost done. My father worked on the benches and the oar locks this week. He put a few clear coats on the wood and the red oak really looks great. We started to screw the benches onto the hull. We need to get some smaller screws for the middle bench as the combination of a not so tight fit and the angle of the side conspire to make the screws go in a little weird. I stained the gunnels so that they are closer in color to the red oak. These will be clear coated by dad during the coming week. He will also cut out and clear coat some oak plates for the transom so that a motor has something to grip and oak will hold up better to the clamps. We tested out the oarlocks with the seat to make sure their position was good and also to let me know where I need to wrap the leather around the oars to make them quitter to row. I also cut out mats for the floor. These of course will help keep the boat quiet, help us stay out longer with less fatigue, and also protect the floor. I then worked on the bow. I added the rope that will be used as a tie it down. I also painted a design and the name on the bow and also placed a cross of St. Benedict at the top. I also cut out some boards that I hope […]
The Wooden Boat Project
3-4-13 This week I flipped the boat upside down and painted the Hull. I put three coats on after I primed it. You can see more flaws in the boast after you paint but overall I’m still happy with it. Not much else to report other than I started the paper work to get the trailer and boat registered. Next week we will put the seats in and install the oar locks. I will most likely work on making the casting platforms and cutting the mats for the floor and maybe do some work on the trailer.
The wooden boat
2-25-13 This week I started priming and painting the boat. I gave one good last look over on the sanding and hit a couple of spot that were bad. I then cleaned up the inside, wiped it down and got it prepped for the primer. The primer was a two part epoxy primer. At first my plan was just to cover the epoxied areas on the inside and then use another primer for the bare wood but I decided just do the entire inside with one primer to make it simpler. Once the primer was on I hit it with some sandpaper and cleaned it up again and then started applying the paint. The paint was a little glossy for my taste but that’s the way it goes. Most of it will be covered up with anti-fatigue matting. It took two coats of paint to get the coverage I wanted. After this was complete and it dried up a bit. I opened up the hull paint and used it to cover the bow and the edge. This gave me a good idea of how it will look when it is complete. The only other interesting thing was the fumes from this paint and primer. It was overwhelming and a bit hard to work with because it is still chilly outside so I had to heat up the place then paint and open up the windows and doors and blow the fumes out with a fan. There was one point I could actually […]
The Wooden Boat
2-18-13 It looks like a boat and I can see the end. This week brought more sanding but it was at least interesting as it involved shaping. Most of this was on the bow. There was a lot of epoxy between the side and gunnels so I sanded and shaped it down as well as the top of the bow. It really turned out well. I had to fill in some pits here and there but it looks good. I then sanded down the rest of the gunnels and worked on the stern. Once the boat was flipped right side up and I sanded the corners of the chines and the ribs a little more. These areas are still a little rougher than I would like but I’m done with them. I also built up some epoxy in the back because the walls did not line up with the gunnels very well. So once that was built up I sanded it down to match the walls and the gunnels. After the sanding and shaping was over Dad and I worked on making the benches. He went and bought some really nice red oak some of it was almost twelve inches wide. All of it was almost an inch thick. So this stuff is sturdy and will certainly hold me and a few of my friends. All of them turned out to be varying widths which is a little odd but gives it some character. We are also going to […]
here’s to warmer days
It does not happen very often but every once in a while I long for warmer days. Today has been one of those days. An oldy but goody. Good memories thanks to my friend at Flatswalker. click here to see the video he made
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 […]
The Wooden Boat
2-5-13 I took an extra day off this week for three reasons; first it’s my birthday, second Lent starts next week, and third the boat is ready for fiberglass. I really wanted to make sure that I have days to work on this part since I’ve never done it before and I know that it takes a few coats of epoxy. I’ve seen this done a couple of ways. First is the dry method which means you put the cloth on the boat then saturate it with epoxy. This is the way I did the tape on the chines on the inside of the boat it took a tone of epoxy and a lot of time. The problem with doing this on the outside of the boat is the sides. Trying to keep the cloth on the side and saturate it seemed impossible so I went with the wet method. This method has you applying the epoxy to the surface of the boat then unrolling or draping the cloth onto the side. This worked well. I could stretch and pull the cloth in spots and really didn’t have many spots that I needed to cut the cloth to make it lay right. It took some working but it laid down well. I found that the cloth saturated much faster than the tape, mostly because it was thinner than the tape. I put the cloth on both sides and cut it so that it overlapped the corners by about four inches. I then […]
