Day 170 - Hours and hours...

Today started out with another errand run. I realized last night that I hadn't installed any way to run wire from the front arch up to the roof. Now that's relatively easy to fix; drill a hole; but I then needed some way to seal it up. 3M 5200 to the rescue. 5200 is the most tenacious stuff once applied and hardened, kinda like silicone, only orders of magnitude better. So off to the store to buy a small tube.

After getting back to the shed I figured out which size pipe I would use (1-1/2") and then very carefully measured and drill a hole through the roof into the arch.

As you can see, I very nearly hit the exact center of the center roof rib!

I cut a 5" section of pipe and then cut a section out of the end.

Now it was no accident that cut out is lined up on the lettering on the pipe. I used it to help line the pipe up in the hole. That pipe sits all the way down in the hole and the cut out section is oriented towards the hole at the end of the arch. This will help feed the wires that direction.

As the pipe was fed down in the hole I spun it and applied 5200 at the same time coating the inside of the hole to help waterproof and seal it. I'll apply another dab around the pipe again tomorrow as a final measure.

Then it was on to prep work on the roof for painting. First up was cleaning up the rear edge of the roof with the sander to flatten it out and get rid of all the squeezed out epoxy. Then I screwed up a piece of 3/8" plywood and traced the top and bottom of the roof. Cut it out with the skilsaw and verified it was what I wanted and set it aside.

And then the sanding commenced. You'll notice in the pictures above that the roof looks kinda pebbly. All that had to be sanded down smooth.

So I started sanding, and sanding, and sanding...

After vacuuming the piles of epoxy dust up I realized that I hadn't sanded nearly enough.

So I went back to sanding, and sanding, and sanding...

All the while doing so while essentially standing on the balls of my feet as I had to stand square on to the roof to be able to reach the middle. My calves hurt.

Then I vacuumed again and found I'd gotten the surface where I wanted. It's never going to be perfect as I could spend a week fairing and sanding. I'm not looking for perfect. I made a mixture of hot water and ammonia and wiped the entire roof down.

The paint was next. I had two partial gallons of white, one with some mineral spirits, and an almost full quart. I poured the quart into one of the gallon containers, then poured them back and forth several times, stirring in between to get them thoroughly mixed.

I went back to the rear edge of the roof. I made up a small batch of epoxy and coated the rear edge, then the wood strip, then the rear edge again and finally I screwed the wood strip to the rear edge.

By this time the roof had dried from its washing so I grabbed a roller, 2-1/2" brush and the pan. Poured some paint in the pan and starting at the port rear corner I painted my way around. I'd lean over the grab rail and paint the inside of it with a brush, then roll paint up towards the middle of the roof doing a section at a time, use the brush to fill in any areas that I'd missed with the roller and then tip the paint.

Now I learned a trick while researching my paint. It seems the best way to keep your paint from running is to roll horizontally across the surface, then tip vertically. Apparently doing this "trains" the paint to be oriented in a vertical manner and it supposedly helps to keep it from running. We'll see. :-) One thing I did notice was that with the mineral spirits in the paint and the tipping it seems to self-level in a hurry. Without the tipping it wanted to stay pebbly and not smooth out.

After doing an upper section, I'd do the other side of the handrail and the lower section of the roof. Back and forth I went until I'd worked my way around the roof. Hard lesson learned though, the paint line up near the center of the roof had hardened sufficiently by the time I started working down the starboard side that I think it's going to have to be sanded out. Won't do that again.

It can't be seen in this photo, but I didn't paint the area around the pipe up front. I need to build a radar and GPS mount to put up there and it needs to be epoxied to the roof before painting. I'll work on that tomorrow night. I may get to put a second coat of paint on the roof as well. The added mineral spirits should help the paint to "flash off", or dry faster.

9 Hours

Day 169 - Hold on!

More progress on the roof today, but first was running errands.

I went to Home Depot for paint and painting materials.

I went to Valley Lumber for foam rollers.

And I went to Don Abels to get a 2x6x12' piece of clear Douglas Fir. I was going to make my handrails on the roof with 1-1/8" plywood, but rethought that this morning and decided to use the Doug Fir.

Hauled it all down to the shed and got started by mixing my paint. I'm using Rustoleum oil based enamel and their color selection is limited to primary colors mostly, so after my experimenting a few days ago I've decided that the color for the hull that I wanted was best made by using two parts red with one part blue. Four quarts of red and two quarts of blue plus a third of a quart of mineral spirits in a two gallon plastic bucket got thoroughly mixed and set aside. It will get mixed again before I use it as little pockets of primary color kept popping up.

Next was a fill coat of epoxy on the roof. I tried it with the foam roller, and while it worked, it's a little too thick and I suspect it will sag. Hopefully I'll be able to sand it out.

Then the big project of the day, the handrails. I measured the 2x6 for length and handhold spacing and cut it to length. Then I measured and marked for the 1-1/2" holes on either side of the 2x6. Four recharged batteries later I had all the holes drilled. Connected the holes with the sabersaw. Used the router to even out the holes and then round off all the edges. Cut the 2x6 in half lengthwise, then cut the edge of the pieces that would meet the roof at a five degree angle. Drilled holes through each foot, then drilled countersunk (sink?) holes from the top down. Epoxied the bottom of the feet and the inside of the handles. Double checked my distances on the roof and then carried each handrail up and screwed it to the roof. No peanut butter needed as the epoxy on the feet and the epoxy fill coat on the roof provided just enough for a little squeeze out.

I used the left over epoxy to make some peanut butter to fill the holes in the handrails and to fill various other things around the boat.

Tomorrow we'll see how well the epoxy has set up. I need to have it fairly hard so I can lean on it to install the rub strips. I also need to get a strip on the back edge to channel the water off to the sides. Don't want it dripping down my neck!

8 Hours

Day 168 - Coverin' it up

Whew. Long day but once again I'm thrilled with the progress. The next few days are focused on the roof and today was the start of it.

Lots of sawdust to start the day out. The first thing to do today was to trim the edges of the roof. I drove locating screws through the top and then used a chalk line to snap straight lines down the sides and around the front. I set the saw for ten degrees to match the slop of the roof so the trimmed off sides would be vertical then started cutting.

Mildly annoying, as I was doing the cutting from the ladder. It just wasn't safe to be standing on the shelf, I was too close to being off-balance. So, up the ladder to cut a couple feet, down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder, cut another couple feet, repeat.

After cutting the sides I reset the saw to ninety degrees and cut the front and then using the sander I rounded off the front corners.

All that cutting made a ton of sawdust and it all ended up on the roof. I grabbed the hand broom and started sweeping the roof off. When I had reached as far as possible I gingerly got up on the roof. Because of the height of the shed I was able to work my way from the front to the back on my hands and knees, just missing the insulation with my back. I won't fully trust this roof until the fiberglass is done and the forward windows are in for the support and rigidity.

Next I set up the table saw to rip some 3/8" plywood for the panels that would go on the sides of the roof. I was originally going to get all fancy and do a tugboat roof, but the existing roofline has grown on me the past few days so I've decided to basically leave it alone. The strips along the sides are only 1/2" taller than the roof and are there to act as gutters so the water isn't dripping off the sides and instead will flow either forward or backward. I mixed up some epoxy, liberally coated both the strips and the roof edges and screwed them into place. With the flat plywood and the newly cut edges there was no need for peanut butter.

I set up the table saw and ripped some 2-1/2" wide pieces of 1-1/8" plywood. I'll continue working on those tomorrow preparing them to be used as hand grips to be attached to the roof.

The green edges of the fiberglass I had put on the shelves yesterday had been bugging me all day so I trimmed it off.

After a brief break to get some dinner, I got to work fiberglassing the top of the roof. This was the last of the really big areas to fiberglass and it was big! 10' 5" long by 7' 2" wide! I decided to cover it with two full size pieces of fiberglass running side to side and one small strip. I borrowed the garage, swept the floor real well, rolled out the fiberglass, cut it to length and rolled it back up on my PVC pipes. Then I made a large batch of epoxy, carefully climbed back up on the roof and spread the epoxy where the first piece of fiberglass would go. The fiberglass was unrolled across the roof and then using the serrated epoxy roller the fiberglass was pushed down into the epoxy. I then repeated the process for the second large piece of fiberglass and the small strip. More epoxy was made and used to paint in the dry areas. And finally I used the utility knife to trim the fiberglass right in the valley between the roof and the sides. No need for a fillet there!

Looking good!

Tomorrow I'll trim that green glass and roll on the fill coat of epoxy. I'm running low on epoxy so I need to figure out how much more I need to order to finish. :-) I'll be able to work on the grab rail as well as getting a side strip on the back edge of the roof. That edge needs some work as it's a little rough right now. And I still need to cut some strips to go side to side between the grab rails for stuff to sit on and rub the paint off of. ;-)

10.5 Hours

Day 167 - Closing in

While there's still a few areas like the roof and the cabin sides yet to fiberglass I feel like I can actually see the end of the major fiberglassing road.

Tonight I finished fiberglassing the shelves extending into the rear deck area. After cutting a couple additional pieces of fiberglass, doing some final sanding and brushing to get the sawdust off I made up some epoxy and coated the last of the shelves, cabin sides and hull sides where the fiberglass would overlap. Then I finished the fillet along the cabin sides and put fillets at the back where the shelves meet the transom.

Fiberglass was then laid down, smoothed out and pressed into the epoxy with my hands and then the dry spots were filled in.

I'm very pleased with the unplanned result of the width of the shelves at the transom. They're about 32" wide and 14" deep which will make for great work surfaces! I'll have to think about how to mount a cutting board back there.

Anyway, here are the pictures from tonight.

The blue tape in the last picture is supporting a large amount of peanut butter (to keep it from sagging) that is being used to fill in a spot where the shelves got cut slightly wrong. I'll pull the tape tomorrow and sand or fill as appropriate to finish it up.

It's surprising just how much time it takes to do something like this, three plus hours, but you pay for it up front with a good job, or you pay for it on the back end with the cleanup.

Tomorrow will be roof day. I need to trim and clean up the edges, fill the holes with epoxy and fiberglass the top. Beyond that there's the trim piece to go around the edges, the grab rail to make, the sacrificial strips to go across the top and paint. I'd like to have all this done by the end of the weekend. We'll see, it's an ambitious schedule.

3.5 Hours

Day 166 - Not tonight

Didn't do tonight, cause I didn't say yesterday what I'd do.

Huh?

Never mind...

Short night tonight as work interrupted both ends. Pulled the screws from the shelves, sanded them smooth, then rounded all the corners with the router and the sander.

I also routed out rabbets (notches in the edges) in the window frames and the door frame for the window glass. I'll drop those off tomorrow to get safety glass cut for them.

No pictures tonight.

2 Hours

Day 165 - Just for once

I actually did tonight what I said yesterday I'd do. :-)

Sanded the shelves. Epoxied all the contact surfaces. Applied peanut butter where appropriate. Screwed the new pieces down. Filled the seam between the sides and the shelves.

Pulled the screws from the roof.

No pictures, nothing really to show.

See? Did what I said I'd do. :-)

3 Hours

Day 164 - Movin' on back

Got a late start today, but I'm pleased with the progress made.

I decided the first thing to do today was clean up around the shed. The sawdust on the floor has been building up and was finally getting to the point of being annoying. So I started in one corner and swept my way around, generally cleaning up and organizing while moving things out of the way. By the time I finished I had probably fifteen gallons of sawdust! I took the bag of sawdust plus various scraps of stuff down to the firepit and had a small bonfire. Kinda windy so I didn't wait long. :-)

Back up to the shed I decided it was time to finish up the shelves running to the back. I had stopped part way back as I thought I'd be widening them more than the six plus inches I have already on the sides, but after working around them for the past few months I've decided to leave them that width. Now from the bow back to about the rear cabin wall I've to two layers of 1-1/8" plywood. That much all the way to the back was going to be a bit much, so I took the 1-1/8" back to where the angle on the sides meets the shelves and the continued the rest of the way with 3/4" ply.

I discovered in the process that I can be a real artiste' with the table saw too. You'd think with all the supposedly straight lines that I should be able to just rip things to width and length with the appropriate angles, but no so much. I'd get things close, then set the piece on the existing shelf piece, trace the piece out and then free hand cut it on the table saw. I'm pretty good at it!

So after cutting and gluing in a 1/2" strip of 1-1/8" plywood to widen the port shelf to match the width of the starboard shelf (how did that happen? :-), I cut pieces to go down the sides and then wrap around the stern. With the stern pieces I cut their width such that a vertically mounted piece of 1/2" plywood will split the difference between the holes in the deck for the conduit and the deck access plates. Amazingly enough, I can run a straightedge from side-to-side and it lines up exactly with the cuts on those stern pieces!

Tomorrow I'll get the edges of the side panels cleaned up so they'll take peanut butter then I'll epoxy the shelves in place and get peanut butter in that gap between the shelves and the sides. I'll pull all the screws in the roof too.

7 Hours

Day 163 - Roof skins

After making a run to Home Depot to pick up a gallon of white Rustoleum that I forgot to get yesterday I got back to work on the roof.

After pulling the screws and washers from yesterday the insulation was next. Two plus sheets later it was done.

I put a single long screw through the middle of the square of plywood as a marker and went inside and circled it with a Sharpie.

Then it was off to installing the 1/4" plywood panels on the roof. Typical mark the lines, paint the big areas, epoxy the line areas, epoxy the strips on the roof, apply peanut butter to the critical areas, set the panels on the roof and screw them down.

It's starting to get a little close to the roof on the starboard side, but I can still slide between the boat roof and the shed insulation. I'll be glad when this area is done as I end up pretty sore after working bent over in that area.

So I'll give the roof a day or two to set up, then I'll trim all the edges, fiberglass the top, install grab rails and rub strips and then the outer trim piece will go on. Paint, and it'll be done. Hopefully by next weekend.

Tomorrow I'll work on routing out the door and windows and do some sanding on the sides. I may also do some work in the rear deck area. Maybe the side windows too. We'll see.

8 Hours

Day 162 - Filling in the gaps

A big day today of little things again.

Got to the shed late after sleeping in. :-)

Started off by cutting out the windows of the three window panels and the door.

As soon as I finished I headed off to the glass shop to talk about, what else, glass! They've got 7/32" (or nearly 1/4") laminated safety glass that will work a treat. I'm going to inset the windows in the door and frames, so they didn't want them until I rabbeted the edges so I headed off to Home Depot.

I've decided I'm going to paint the boat with Rustoleum Enamel, an oil based paint, but the color selection is limited; white, black, gray, almond, red, yellow, blue and hunter green. Now none of those colors work for me, so I bought a quart of each to bring home and practice mixing. I also picked up a 3/8" rabbeting bit for my router.

Made a stop by the Post Office in hopes that my window molding would be here and sure enough it was. They did a slick job of packing it. They stacked the molding together, put a 1/2 on either side and stretch wrapped it. Nifty solution!

Back to the shed and I cut one inch strips out of some of the left over 1/2" plywood and then climbed up on the boat to cut them to length. They're going 19" away from the side, fore and aft, and are being placed to support the grab rail that will be on the top of the roof.

Then it was epoxy time. First I painted the areas of the roof were the strips would go, then I used a syringe to fill all the holes, then I painted all the strips like the other night and then I screwed them in place.

Gave the epoxy about an hour to start to set up and then I painted the plywood. I could have coated the roof with epoxy, but I decided to use the paint instead.

Tomorrow I'll pull the screws and washers, sand down the high spots from the epoxy, cut the insulation to fit and install the second layer of plywood for the roof top. I need to work on building the handholds and the vertical panels that will attach to the outside edge of the roof to provide a gutter of sorts and visually thicken the roof line.

I spent time tonight mixing paint combinations and while I came up with some interesting (and weird!) colors, I think I've actually found the color I want. It's a deep red wine. I still need to choose an accent color, but I'm thinking something like a sand would work. We'll see.

9 Hours

Day 161 - Little bits

Kind of a broken up night as I had three visitors. Much less productive when that happens! :-)

Anyways, I picked up another sheet of 1/2" marine plywood for the third forward window frame and a sheet of 3/4" plywood for the rear door.

People have come up with lots of ideas for building a rear door, everything from making a panel door to using canvas. I'm going simple, cut the door out of cabinet grade plywood, cut out for the windows and fiberglass both sides. We'll see how it works out in the long run.

First up was cutting out the final window frame panel.

Then I measured for the rear door and laid it out on the plywood. I spent some time pondering how to lay out the windows (the door will have two for maximum visibility) and it finally occurred to me that the Golden Ratio (a mathematical ratio of two measurements such that one is 1.61x the other, probably first used by the Greeks, and known to be pleasing to the eye) applies here, so that's the ratio of the top window to the bottom window.

Back up on the boat I went with the last panel and put it in place with the other two. I measured and drew lines on the roof so that I'll have a four inch overhang in the front. More of those one inch strips were cut, fitted and screwed to fit to the lines.

The window panels were taken down, measured and lines drawn for the windows.

It was way too late to run any power tools, so all the stuff will be cut tomorrow.

3 Hours

Day 160 - Two outa three ain't bad

Tonights work was mostly on the forward windows.

First off though, I pulled all the screws and washers put in yesterday to hold the ribs in place. On the back edge I thought I might have to add some strips running fore and aft between the last rib at the back and the next to last rib for more support. But I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to support most of my weight on that last rib before it would start to deflect. The addition of the top piece of plywood on the roof will stiffen that even more.

I cut four 6"x6" squares of 1/4" plywood to go in the roof where I will be putting a vent for a heater. The hole for the vent is only 3" in diameter, so I've slightly overengineered for any boo-boos. :-)

Then it was on to the forward window frames. I've been thinking about their placement for a while and the angles I wanted, so it was really just a matter of carefully measuring, scribing and assembling the patterns, then cutting them out. Turns out that because the frames are more than 24" in both directions I'm going to have to buy another sheet of 1/2" marine plywood to be able to get my third frame cut out. Darn.

Lookin' good!

So tomorrow I'll get that needed sheet of plywood to cut out the third frame, then I'll figure out how I want the windows cut out and do so. I might get so far as to installing and epoxying them as well. Once that's done then I can measure for and cut the forward roof line and fit and install the forward rib pieces.

3.5 Hours

Day 159 - Really?

Five hours for this?

:-)

Yep, five hours to install the seven ribs over the top and the two along the edges.

So here's the routine. Ready?

Take a stack of four 1/4" by one inch strips of plywood. Line them up so they're just offset on the ends to account for the slope of the roof. Drive a single screw near the end.

Put the stack up on the roof. Climb up in the boat and carefully screw the end of the strip in place. Move around to the other side. Mark the stack for cutting. Move back to the first side and unscrew the stack just enough to free it from the roof. Get out of the boat.

Take the stack off the roof. Remove the screw. Line up the pieces for cutting (notice that because we've gone from a curved stack on the roof to a flat stack on the bench, thus moving the lines.) Cut the stack. Put the screw back in and put the stack back on the roof.

Climb back in the boat. Screw the first end back down. Move to the other side of the boat and put a screw in the other end.

Repeat for the next six ribs. Whoof. :-)

Now unscrew one end of all the ribs on one side. Move around to the other side and partially remove the screws to free the ribs. Set the ribs off to the side of their mounting points. Climb out of the boat.

Make some epoxy. Climb back in the boat. Climb up on one side and paint the areas where the strips will go with epoxy. Move around to the other side and do the same. Climb out of the boat.

Take the first stack of strips off the roof and put them on the bench. Remove the screw and carefully undo the stack keeping track of how the strips were stacked up. Paint all the contact sides of the strips with epoxy (making more epoxy as needed) then restack them. Put the screw back in. Flip the stack over and paint the bottom.

Put the stack back on the roof. Climb up in the boat. Tighten down the first screw. Move to the other side. Tighten down the other screw. Push the strips side to side to get them lined up and if necessary drive additional screws to suck them down to the roof or hold them in aligment.

Repeat for the next six ribs. Whoof, whoof. :-) :-)

Next, the side ribs. Now these are longer than eight feet, so while offsetting the butt joints I simply took strips and cut them so that there were two pieces per strip and no joints overlapping anywhere in the stack. Excess length will be cut off later. Paint the contact sides with epoxy. Stack the strips and drive one inch screws down the length making sure there's one on each side of every joint. Paint the bottom of the stack.

Carry the rib up in the boat and set it on the roof. Drive screws with washers approximately every six inches.

Repeat for the other side. Whoof, whoof, whoof. :-) :-) :-)

The little bit of epoxy left was turned into peanut butter and most of the corners where the over-the-top ribs meet the side ribs got tiny fillets.

So that's what you do with five straight hours of work.

After all that, you deserve a break. Here's the sunset from yesterday.

There are several places where supporting ribs still need to be installed and in one place the roof will be solid. That solid area is for a vent for the future heater to be installed on the rear cabin wall. I also need to plan for a conduit from inside the cabin to outside to run cables for things like GPS antennas or radar.

5 Hours

Day 158 - Roofage

Late start tonight so not a lot of progress.

Tonight was mainly a prep work night. First up was drawing new lines on top of the roof to define the two inch overhang. From yesterday you'll remember that I discovered that the forward part of the cabin is narrower than the rear. I thought about leaving the top a consistent width all the way back, be decided that would look funny, thus the new lines.

Next was a lot of thought about how the ribs will go. These will be easier to install, especially the ones that run up the sides as there's no funky curve to deal with. :-) I've decided to run the ribs over the top and space them 15-7/8" apart. That will allow me to get maximum usage out of the foam insulation by cutting it in 16" wide strips and getting a pressure fit between the ribs.

I built the first rib at the back running from side edge to side edge, temporarily screwing it down at both ends. Next I ran a single 1" strip along the new lines on either side to give me a definite set of points to work off when measuring to cut to length the ribs.

Then I very carefully measured and marked for those 15-7/8" gaps.

Finally I picked up all the strips off the floor and counted them out. Turns out I'm several short, so the table saw will get some use tomorrow.

Following the cutting of the strips I'll start the installation of the ribs. Not sure how many I'll get finished as each one is a custom length.

2.5 Hours

Day 157 - Lows and Highs

Today was a tremendous day!

When I got to the shed this morning it was all about prep. Getting the first three roof panels on and doing so before epoxy and peanut butter set up was going to take some coordination and hustle. I cleared the floor space, moved my two step stairs (normally back at the transom) around to the side, set the big ladder up at the bow, made sure both drill batteries were fully charged and got all the extraneous stuff moved out of the way. Moved into the boat and got the post installed to help prop up the center roof rib. Two screws were added, top and bottom, to keep it in place. It will be there for a while, so I don't want it moving. I also made a helper for the second ladder as two of the legs are on the upper deck.

Then the frantic controlled chaos began. Epoxy on the top of the two sides and the three ribs. Epoxy on the bare wood of the rear panel. Set the panel up on top. Make peanut butter and apply it to the two sides, the center rib and the rear cabin wall. Line up the panel at the port rear corner and screw it down. Line up the panel at the other rear corner, verify the panel is lined up on the center line and screw it down. Draw alignment lines over the sides and ribs and starting on one side screw it down, working over the top to the other side.

The middle panel was much a repeat of the first, but part of the alignment process required lining it up with the rear panel and the lines I had drawn on the bottom side relative to the sides. For some reason the lines were off, but I made sure to split the difference and screwed it down. This was interesting as I was working on the roof by standing on the shelves. Felt a little weird and took some getting used to to be comfortable, but not bad. Plus I was working within a couple feet of the roof of the shed so it was very warm!

Was able to take a short break, so took a quick picture.

Now the forward panel was still full width and I really needed to get it closer to its final size, so I did some angles and dangles measuring and got what I hope! is the final size, then cut it down.

Repeat of the first two panels and then I went all around underneath and cleaned up the squeeze out. I think I made a total of eight or nine ounces of peanut butter and squeezed out most of that. While it's good to know the tolerances are that close, most of the squeeze out gets thrown away as it's mostly too hard to use again. I did use some of it to fill all the holes I could find and I also used it in the cuddy to level out an area where the scribing didn't work out so well. :-)

After all that I went outside the hull and took a closer look at the lines I had drawn and how they didn't line up like I'd planned.

Here we're at the rear and as you can see, no line. That's good as I only want two inches of overhang.

Here we're all the way forward. Clearly we're way inside the lines, almost two inches. And it's this way on both sides. Scratched my head for a minute or two and realized I had never measured how wide the cabin was at the rear and then compared it with a measurement at the front. <chuckle>  It's okay as all I need to do is cut the panels to size and there's no way I could have drawn these lines at an angle across the three panels anyways. The one really critical line was the center line on the three panels that ran over the top of the center rib and it was within 1/16" all the way along its length. I'm very pleased with that!

Finally, I stepped back and, WOW!

 

Here's a photo just for fun of the top of the roof.

The scarf joints in these three panels are by far and away the best I've done yet. The joints inside, while not invisible, are very, very good.

I decided to leave well enough alone and give everything time to set up so I called it a night.

7.5 Hours

Day 156 - Back to painting

Little work, lots to show for it. :-)

In reality, a lot of work got done in a hurry, then it was hurry up and wait time.

Slept in this morning and didn't get to the shed until about 10:30am. Continued on with the fiberglass work by cutting out more strips of fiberglass as I was all set up for it. Two more strips for the side-shelf-hull joints and four strips to go along the sides. All were carefully folded up and set aside.

I decided to start work on the roof next. Two reasons, I'm tired of looking at the plywood just leaning against the wall and I want to get the plywood and the insulation off the floor so I can have the floor space back!

I carefully measured the width of the roof, added two inches on each side for the overhang and cut all six panels to width at the same time. Then I set up the scarfing jig and cut the scarfs.

Next I measured where the two sides and there support beams would line up, marked lines on the plywood and then started with the painting. It's much easier to get the first coat of paint on the plywood working this way instead of trying to do it when it becomes the roof! I'll still have to paint upside down, but this is a start.

Yep, for the sharp-eyed among you, you'll notice a stack of plywood in the bottom picture. I was able to put spacers in the unpainted area and stack and paint. Pretty cool eh'?

Last I went and put a straightedge on the center roof support beam (the one with the handles) and there's a lot of sag, and certainly not enough stiffness to handle the pressure from the bent plywood so I clamped a 2x4 to it.

Turns out even that's not enough to straighten it, so I'll have to temp in a post. Those clamps have black tape on them to soften the sharp edges in case I hit one with my head. It'll be a little cramped in there while I'm working on the first layer of plywood, but I'll make it work (I hope!).

Anyways, couldn't do anything else for the night, so it ended up being a short day.

5 Hours

Day 155 - Getting reaquainted...

Lots of work, very little to show for it. :-)

First thing this morning I continued the fiberglass work. As I was going to fiberglass the shelves I needed to touch up the joint between the shelves and the hull. So I grabbed the sander and worked the sides, shelves and hull down to finger tip smooth.

Now way back when I put the second layer of plywood on top of the shelves there ended up being a gap, sometimes as much as a quarter inch that I had filled with peanut butter. Problem was, it was a little too dry, and peanut butter that's a little too dry makes it "sticky" and it's impossible to get it smooth. So today I made a batch was was just a little runny and used that to fill all the tiny little gaps in the original work. I also filled any gaps I found in the plywood and then used the rest to continue the fillet on the port side. I made a couple more small batches of peanut butter to continue the fillets on the starboard side too.

Next up I cut 12" wide strips of 7oz fiberglass (not triax, I don't need the stiffness) and set them to the side. These were wide enough to lap up the sides two inches, across the shelves at six and a half inches, and over and down the hull about three inches overlapping the hull to shelves joint.

Last I marked a two inch line on the sides for reference and a nine inch line up at the bow deck area as I figured I might as well start all the way up there to make it simple. Then I made a medium size batch of epoxy and I was off.

Paint the areas that would get fiberglass, lay down the fiberglass, pushing and pulling it into place, cutting it where it wanted to bunch up, rolling it into the resin and filling in the dry spots, all the while trying to be very careful to make sure I didn't end up with any oopsies. From the front towards the stern three strips of fiberglass were layed in, each overlapping by about two inches. Obviously, this doesn't get me to the stern, but until I finish the shelves in the rear deck this is as far as I can go. I then went around and did the starboard side, repeating everything, and even overlapping the fiberglass up at the bow. There will be some method for storing an anchor up there so the extra strength will be necessary.

I went off to get lunch at this point, plus I stopped by AIH to get a drum sander that I could chuck up in my drill.

When I got back I took out my Dremel and a cut-off wheel and went to work in the cuddy. A bunch of the screws in the hinges and latches were too long and thus were cut off flush. Made a real pretty light show working in the very dim space. Sparklers and it's not even the Fourth! :-) I also cut off the tips of the screws in the roof that had had their heads snap off.

And then it was sanding time. Me and the 5" orbital sander got three hours of quality time. The entire cuddy got sanded inside, including the scarfing seam in the roof (what a pain!). All of the fiberglass edges in the cabin got feathered out and then I did the same on the outside. Back inside I went and sanded the roof support beams and their joints to the arch and rear cabin wall. Finally I sanded the edges of the windows to smooth and flatten them out.

Then I chucked up the drum sander and went to work. I started in the rear deck as I had an inside rounded corner that needed to be cleaned up. I did the rounded corners of the windows and then back into the cuddy. Where the cuddy sides overlap the shelves needed some serious work. Even though I scribed and cut them as best I could, in the process of installing them things never end up the same way twice. Also, because the of the acute angle of the hull to the shelves there was no way to get the orbital sander in there so the drum sander was the only way to go.

I quit about 8:30pm. I could have worked for a while longer, but my forearms are killing me and my hands still feel like they're vibrating. :-)

9.5 Hours

Day 154 - Do, or do not

Yes, I worked last night. No, I didn't post. Got to the shed last night and was going through a major case of pity party. Pulled some screws, trimmed some green glass and went home. Not hardly worth mentioning.

Tonight, I went to Home Depot and wandered the store, really with no plan, but did pick up a six pack of thin poly sheeting and went back to the shed. After moping around for a while; me, myself and I had a serious butt-kicking conversation. Basically I chewed myself out, cranked out a few motivational statements and decided it was time to get it in gear.

"Do, or do not. There is no try" - Master Yoda

Grabbed the small sander and sanded down smooth the cuddy roof. Then went up one side and shelf and down the other. Swept everything clean, marking the spots that needed to be filled in with peanut butter. Then made said peanut butter, filled in the spots and used the extra to start a fillet down the port side starting near the bow.

Measured the cuddy roof for size, cut a full size piece of triax to start with. Marked the cuddy roof for the width of the fiberglass and made the first of three large batches of epoxy. Coated the roof where the fiberglass would go and laid it down, overlapping the edges by about six inches. Rolled out the wrinkles, filled in dry spots on the top, then did the same on the sides.

Measured what was left of the uncovered roof, and repeated the process. Used what was left of the epoxy to make peanut butter and continued the fillet down the port side.

4 Hours