This was Cole's first time working with the epoxy, so I let him do the work while I mixed. First we precoated the parts.......
...... and then went to Whataburger to allow the epoxy at least a little time to set. We then mixed up a couple batches of Gel Magic. I got a kitchen scale to measure out the glue by weight and it was much easier than trying to get the stuff to level in a cup. We applied with a notched spreader, sandwiched the two layers of ply together, and applied weight in the form of what you see here.
Again, this is probably more weight than is recommended, but a few of the pieces were warped and this method worked in correcting the warpage of the transom pieces. This shouldn't be anywhere near enough weight to squeeze all the glue out, so it should be OK. More to come.
2 comments:
Been watching your progress, chuckled once or twice. Farley Mowat would be proud. Looks pretty cool, sounds like you've really done your homework.
You mentioned something about not having any chines on the boat, what are you going to do about spray rails?
Are you going to do like Hell's Bay did on their Guide, attach the spray rails after the boat is built? Or do something cool like a glassed on rail just above the water line like a Buddy Davis Sportfisherman?
The more I think about it, the more I feel that a rail that follows the chine, but is glued several inches higher might be the way to go. I plan on doing a few trim pieces in ipe, and that wood might be a good candidate for the spray rails. It's hard as a rock but I'm told that a thin section will take a bend. It will be tough to glass it in because you need a hard edge to knock down the spray, but the glass needs a 1/2" radius curve to bend around. Hopefully, a piece of ipe, epoxied up well, should be tough enough to last at least until the hull needs to be repainted. That's what I'm thinking for now. I haven't decided what to do with the rubrail. I'd like to add a rubber rubrail over the structural one, but I would like it to be plumb to the decks, so it's not angled downward. Not sure how to best accomplish this. In the production boats, most of the spray is knocked down where the deck overhangs the hull, but that is a little harder to accomplish building this way. We'll see. Now I just need to get my strongback rebuilt.
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