Upright Again

Monday, February 16, I had a few hours of sanding to cut the epoxy back and feather the edges.  Last attempt at grinding epoxy was using my big Makita variable speed grinder/sander.  This time, I wanted to use the lighter and less aggressive orbital sander.

That sander was equipped with velcro pad to hold the sandpaper.  years of grit and over heating the sandpaper caused the little hooks to plug up and perhaps melt a bit with the heat.  To remedy that, I had glued on a circle of light plywood covered with some counter-top arborite.  When I tried that, the sandpaper flew off with the vibration and speed of the disc.

One of the sites I visited with this problem, suggested heating the arborite face with the heat gun before sticking on the paper.  That is a miracle!  Paper sticks like crazy!

As I mentioned, it took a couple of hours to grind back all the seams and the bottom panel of the boat too.

Yesterday morning, I washed the dust off the boat and took a few pictures.  Nothing like a wet surface to show off every run and depression.  No time to fix them now.  I am anxious to get on to working the interior!

Using slings, I rolled the very light boat back onto its base.

I levelled it, both fore and aft as well as abeam.  I am adding seats and they should be level when the boat is on the water.

I replaced the temporary bulkheads with cross braces.  They help to firm up the boat, but it needs some stiffening along the top edges, so I think the rub rails ought to go on soon.

From there, I will use one grinder or another to minimize the little epoxy fillets I put into the seams.  That will allow me to make nice smooth fillets and cover them with fiberglass strips.