Day 224 - More glass going in

More progress was made with the glass and the painting tonight.

First up was dealing with the glass work from last night. The silicone on the side of the glass facing up had hardened nicely and a few minutes work with a razor blade trimmed it down smooth with the wood. After flipping the door over and trying to trim the silicone on that side I discovered that it hadn't fully hardened yet. Since it hardens in the presence of humidity, the only reason I can come up with is that because the door is laying on plastic it must have created a partial air seal and only the moisture trapped under the door was available. Anyways, I made sure when I left tonight to leave the door hanging slightly over the edge exposing the bottom to fresh air.

I continued with the door work tonight by gluing down the corners of the frame. On the insides edges overlapping the glass I put a bead of silicone and on the outside edges overlapping the wood I put a bead of 4200. The corner pieces were then firmly pushed down and lined up. Tomorrow I'll install the strips between the corners after cleaning up the new squeeze out from tonight as well as the squeeze out from last night.

The front windows were next. The three pieces were taken into the cabin and unwrapped. The center one fit fine, except the frame is slightly warped, but you'll see how I fixed that below. The port side one dropped right in. The starboard side window however... I messed around with it and messed around with it, but couldn't get it to quite fit. I finally figured out that it was cut so close that it had to be almost perfectly evenly lined up and then pressed into place. It's a tight fit. I popped all three windows out and put a bead of silicone in place for the center one. After setting the glass in place two wooden blocks with tape on them were used with clamps to help press the glass tightly into place.

Then it was back to painting. More loose pieces were painted white as well as another coat on the floor of the cabin.

2.5 Hours

Day 223 - Through the looking glass

As planned, I started working on the rear door tonight. After lightly sanding the primed area to smooth it down (priming seems to really roughen the wood) the glass windows were unwrapped for the first time. Even though they were about a hundred bucks each they still look like glass. :-)

A thick bead of silicone caulk was run around the inside edge of the small window and then the glass was carefully lined up and dropped into place. I was pleasantly surprised to get just a little squeeze out upward around the edges, while most went out and down. That'll make it easy to clean up.

Worked so well I promptly did the big window. :-)

Then it was off the the races with painting. The flip sides and edges of the pieces that didn't get primed yesterday did so today. And a different color was broken out tonight, black! I'm using it in only a single place, inside the door slider tracks to match the UHMW, so it got painted with a brush.

And the corner pieces for holding the door windows were cut out and sanded. I'll trim the silicone tomorrow and then attach the trim pieces to sandwich the glass pieces in their grooves.

All the divots on the floor of the cabin that were missed yesterday were filled today and then white paint was used to paint all the areas in the cabin that were primed yesterday.

Good progress and I'm pleased with the work.

2.5 Hours

Day 222 - Painting my way out

Pretty good day today.

Started by pulling all the screws and washers from yesterday. Grabbed the sander and worked on smoothing all the epoxy goobers and screw hole bumps. Spackle was next and filled all the holes and cracks I could find. Then started putting down more primer. I had just about finished in the cuddy when Brian showed up, so change of course!

I've been waiting for a second person to work on the side windows. I knew the process would take another set of hands, and I was right, and it worked out really well. After explaining to Brian my thoughts on the process and adding in his feedback we got to work. Brian sanded the back of the plastic strips while I got other things organized.

The process is pretty simple in theory, a little more complex in practice.

Basically, I worked my way around the outside edge of each window marking the transition from a straight edge to a curved edge. I then measured the distance from my starting point to the first curve and marked that distance on a window strip. I had previously figured out that cutting slots 1/4" apart was about ideal and I knew how many I needed to go around a corner, so those were marked next. Then I measured the next straight length, marked it, and marked the slots for the next corner. Cutting everything was next. After setting the table saw up to cut the slots, they were all cut and the window frame was cut to length. We learned the hard way to only work with two corners at a time, there's too much uncertainty in working a third.

A bead of 3M 4200 was run down the back of the window frame, then we very carefully lined up the first straight length of the window frame and taped it down, set in the second straight edge working our way around the corner and taped it down, and then the third straight edge, also taping it down.

Going back to the first straight edge, after making sure the corners were lined up right, Brian very carefully drilled a hole through the window frame and then drove a small nail (just larger than the hole) just far enough to tack the frame down. Nails were put in on either side of each corner, and one at the end of the last straight edge.

A second piece of the frame was cut like the first to finish the window.

Brian and I managed to get the two windows on the port side done before he had to leave. Thanks Brian!

I then shanghaied my brother who is here on vacation with his family for the week to come help me do the starboard side. Thanks Ross!

Now you'll note that in the upper picture that it looks like the window frame is sticking out. And you'd be right. In reality, there's a long straight edge piece of frame on the bottom of all four windows that's floating free right now. The Lexan I'm using is way too thick, almost 1/4", to flex far enough to just pop it into the window track, so I'll cut the windows to shape, slide them in, then glue down that last strip. It'll be messy and a pain, but the only way to do it.

Obviously the nails still have to be pulled and the gaps between the frame and the wood edge filled, but that will wait a couple days for the 4200 to cure completely.

After Ross left I went back to the first window and carefully removed the squeeze out around the frame with a metal putty knife and mineral spirits. With a little elbow grease all four windows were done inside and out.

Then it was back to primer. All the loose pieces for door windows, the hatch doors for the port side, the fixture over the center fuel tank, the sliders for the door and the back side of the door itself were done. I went back inside the cabin and painted the side panels, the filled area on the port side deck, the support panel under that area and finally painted the aisle floor painting my way out.

And that pretty much did it for today.

Tomorrow I'll work on getting the glass windows installed in the door. I may not get much done other than that as I can see that might be quite a project.

Brian - 1.5 Hours
Ross - 1 Hour
Me - 8 Hours

Day 221 - Exhaustion sets in

Another strange day. After visiting a friend in the hospital this morning, and doing my laundry I was really hungry. So I went and had a steak for lunch! Went over to the shed and after opening things up I went in the cabin and sat down.

And almost fell asleep sitting there.

Huh.

So I went into the house and laid down on the couch for a nap.

And woke up four hours later. :-)

Felt much better, but it kind of shortened the work day. :-)

Spent the evening doing epoxy stuff. Not quite the last, but pretty close.

I epoxied the support strips for the hatch over the porta-potty.

The fill-in strip on the starboard side was liberally peanut-buttered and screwed into place.

Then the same was done on the panel on the port side.

More peanut butter was pushed under the bottom edge of the panels, port and starboard, to fill the gap to the floor.

The fixture that will be used to cover the center tank fitting and hoses was first glued together and then fillets were put in the corners.

A thin slightly runny batch of peanut butter was made to fill the low spot created when I had to cut the port side plywood deck to get it leveled out. After taping off the end to create a dam the peanut butter was poured in and left to self level, which it did very nicely!

Excess left over was used to do the final fill work on the top edges of the transom at the transom well.

Building these areas up has been a multi-stage process of first putting in a large amount of peanut butter to the rough shape, sanding it roughly to shape, adding a second filler batch and sanding it to the final shape, and then this third almost skim coat to fill in the small to tiny divots.

I didn't take a picture of it specifically, but I used what was left of the runny stuff to fill the gaps left up front in the forward cabin wall where the plywood meets the rounded corners of the 2x4s. All four sides of the opening were done and you can sorta see that in the top picture.

Tomorrow I'll be back to painting as well as working on installing windows. If I have time I'll work on the wiring as well.

4 Hours

Day 220 - Mixed up day

A very strange mixed up day with a lot of interruptions and not much work time.

No pictures tonight as the camera battery died!

All the parts for the top and bottom sliders have been built for the door, and then taken apart to await painting tomorrow. I've started prepping and cutting the pieces to hold the glass in the door.

That's all!

3 Hours

Day 219 - This and that

A lot of little stuff got done today. Long day, so I'll keep this short with lots of pictures.

Fuel tank vents got installed with a little help from my brother Ross. Starboard and port.

Hoses got connected, starboard and port.

Rear battery doors got installed and extra screw length was cut off.

Inside the starboard battery bay, the electrical equipment was installed. From top to bottom: automatic charging relay, battery cut-off switch and master grounding lug.

On the port side, the fuel filter was installed.

Wood working was next. The deck and supports over the porta-potty space were cut and put in place. Hrmmm... out of focus, sorry.

The brace under the port side deck was put in place, nailed down from the top and the holes filled. Then the lower side panel was cut to fit and the doors cut out.

On the starboard side the filler piece was cut and screwed into place.

And at the rear, the structure over the center fuel tank fittings was built.

Tomorrow all the wood stuff will get either epoxied into place, or in select places 3M 5200 will be used in case it ever has to come out.

I also spent some time working on the slider trays for the rear door. I didn't get enough UHMW, so I'm working on being creative. We'll see how it goes, but I may start over on that project.

Also today I went through all of my scrap wood and kept only a couple pieces of each thickness. The rest went down to the beach for burning. The process of finishing and clearing stuff in the shed is well under way as projects finish!

10 Hours

Day 218 - Surface area

Want a great example of how much increased surface area sand has over a flat surface? Try to paint it. I would guess it took three times as much paint to cover the sand covered paint from last night.

This morning started with another coat of white paint on the loose pieces. When I finished I glanced outside and noticed it seemed awfully bright and upon stepping outside it looked like it might clear up a little. Family came to town last night and I wanted to get them on a flightseeing trip, but the weather reports were calling for nasty weather for the next week so I thought we should try to go today. Well, by the time we took off about 2:30 it was almost completely blue skies and the icefield tour was amazing! Here's a few photos.

Afterwards I ran a couple errands and then had dinner with the family.

I ended the night by putting on the last coat of steel-blue and pulling up the tape. It peeled the paint a little on a couple corners so that will have to be cleaned up.

Long day with not much boat building, but there's always tomorrow!

3 Hours

Day 217 - tack and sand

More painting <le sigh>. However, the good news is that I've today and the next two days off so I can put down two coats of paint in one day. Thus the loose pieces got a final coat on one side and a first coat on the other side. Yay!

Between coats I did get more work done.

The two pieces of 3/4" plywood that were cut to go in the rear battery bays were drilled and the parts mounted to fit, then the parts were unmounted and the plywood was put in place with 5200.

Then pull string was run through all the conduits after sorting through the wiring stuff. I decided to pull in the 6AWG wire that runs from the battery bays to the forward wiring location in the forward cabin wall. If you remember, I put in two conduits from the front to the back, one 2" and the other 1-1/2". The wire got pulled into the smaller conduit. The bigger conduit will be used for control wiring and the hydraulic hoses for the steering.

After dinner the big project of the day was started, putting in the non-skid. Earlier in the day I had opened one of the sand bags and put some of the sand in a paint tray in front of the fan to dry. Now it was time to put it to use. Starting on the rear deck a thick coat of paint was put down and then sand was tossed into the paint.

Now the irony to this was that as I was painting my way out of the deck area I was wiping the deck with a tack rag. Why? I don't know, habit I guess. :-)

The gunwales and the forward deck were next. Started on the port side and worked up, around, and back.

Had a little time after this, so that second coat of white paint went on the loose pieces, then I called it a night.

Tomorrow the loose sand will be vacuumed and the big rocks picked out, the last coat of steel-blue paint will go down and the tape pulled. It will be interesting to see how it turns out!

8 Hours

Day 216 - Cutting in line(s)

More painting tonight. All the white stuff got another coat, some will need one more, some will get flipped and the other side started. The non-skid areas got another coat of steel-blue, the color is growing on me.

Yes, the edges look horrible. Trying to paint a straight line on a curved surface is hard! And forget about taping these edges, they're not smooth enough to do that to.

Last for the night I worked on the spray rails. I had some almond paint bleed under the tape and it looked awful. So I bought a real fine angled paint brush and tried that.

For about six inches.

And realized what a stupid idea that was. The brush couldn't carry enough paint to get me two inches. I threw it away and grabbed a chip brush and went to town. Like most things on this boat, the more I did, the better I got, and by the end of forty feet, top and bottom, of spray rail I was doing pretty good. It looks much better.

I got three boxes in the mail today; the chartplotter, the compass and my wire order is here. I also bought a piece of UHMW from a local boat builder and that makes me very happy!

I have the next six days off, so I'm going to see just how close to finished I can get. The two barge companies have two barges each per week, so I'm hopeful the engine might be here soon!

3 Hours

Day 215 - Taping along

Today was a painting day, but it started with taping. There are going to be some areas done as non-skid, which in my case is a couple layers of paint, a third wet coat with sand spread in it, and after sweeping out the loose sand, a fourth coat. The rear deck will be done this way as well as sections of the shelves (or gunwales as they shall henceforth be called) and the forward deck.

Now the entirety of the floor of the rear deck will be done, but the gunwales I wanted to do a little bit differently. There will be sections between the cleats and a short section just aft of the roof, with a one inch gap between the sides and the non-skid, and the non-skid and the edge of the hull.

Of course I can't do it the easy way with square corners where the tapes meets. No, I had to round those corners off, and that takes time to tape, mark the arc and trim out with the razor blade. Took almost an hour and a half.

After taping I used a trick I learned from the paint store guys to keep a nice edge with the paint. Even with the best tape you'll still have places where the paint bleeds under the edge of the tape. But if you put the tape down and paint the edge with the original color paint, then any paint that bleeds under will match and at the same time seal the edge!

Brilliant!

So with that, the white paint was put to work painting not only the edge of the tape, but everything that was painted yesterday too. Inside the cabin, the outside rear cabin wall, the movable seat, the sliding door and all those lovely loose pieces.

Then it was time for the paint for the non-skid areas. I'm using a mixture of gray and blue which I'm not sure whether I'll like or not. It's not real blue (which is good, because the blue in the can is intense!), but it might be too much gray. We'll just have to see after a couple coats how it looks.

The gunwales and forward deck got a coat.

And then the rear deck. And I discovered that I got a little ahead of myself when I installed the deck plates and hatches the other day.

I now have to paint around them.

Oops. :-)

But it got done. The color's a little funky as it's the first coat on white (a reverse of the white on brown I've been dealing with), so it'll take a couple coats to get the real color.

We'll see, we'll see...

Tomorrow will be another painting day, more of the same from today.

3.5 Hours

Day 214 - Winding down...

Today felt a little unusual. While there is still a lot to do, in many ways things are winding down.

After another trip this morning to Home Depot for more white paint (which I may not need) and more primer (which I do), and a stop by Western Auto to get that last piece of vent hose I got back to work at the shed.

First up was dealing with the transom holes. The epoxy from yesterday had hardened nicely, but was still green so it was a little rubbery. That was about the best I could have hoped for as it made the sanding of the protrusion on the top holes and the carving with a razor blade of the bottom holes easy. After trimming the excess epoxy I clamped the jig to the transom and drilled out the 1/2" holes.

After staring at things for a while I decided that the only thing to do was to pick up the sander and get after it. The list of places that got sanded is too numerous to list and too many for me to remember, suffice it to say I spent fours hours sanding non-stop! There's not much more left to sand!

Installing the new piece of fuel vent hose was next (just to get it out of the way). I've left it long and will cut it to length when I install it.

Just to get some more of the parts laying around out of the way I installed the two round access plates and the square access hatch in the rear deck. Each was screwed into place, the screws removed and a dab of 5200 squeezed into the holes, 5200 applied around the bottom edge, the piece wiggled into place to spread out the 5200 and the screws put back in.

Then painting commenced. A whole lot of everythings got primered. Panels, doors, edges, seats, sides, insides, outsides. About the only thing left to get primer is the countertop for the galley and the captains area. Both of those have some special considerations and will be dealt with in the coming days.

After dinner, a whole lot of everythings got painted white. See list above. :-)

Here's the pictures.

Many more coats are in my near future.

There's still a few things left to build, but until I get some of this stuff installed and out of the way, there's just no room for making more of a mess!

I spent some time cleaning up and I'm starting to throw stuff away that I've kept "just in case". It's nice to get rid of some of the "stuff" and make space.

8 Hours