Gluing in the centerboard case

We decided to spring for a belt sander

Recently, some coats of epoxy failed to cure smoothly. The outside of the boat is now covered in ridged epoxy, leading us to discover how annoying it is to try to scrape basically the entire hull of the boat with loud, repeatedly dulling sharpeners. Faced with another couple of hours of scraping, we decided to purchase a belt sander. Probably it'll be even louder, and take just as long, but, whatever. Maybe it will be less annoying.

We went to the box stores. Shhh. We thought that if worse came to worse, we could take the thing back. Here are a couple of videos of our visit. The first one is Lowe's, the second Home Despot. Enjoy:





In which we review the Porter-Cable Compact belt sander, the Black and Decker Dragster, the Skil belt sander, Dewalt belt power sander, and more?!

New Shop

I've mostly completed setting up the new boat shop on the west side. We're now in a pole shed with quite a bit less space than before, but a lot more light and air.

In preparation for continued work on the boat I've built a new work bench, and just today finished a big cabinet that will store our tools securely and accessibly. I'm very excited.

Tomorrow I'll be able to work on the boat straight away.

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Edit:  Many moons later, we added plastic walls so that we could heat up the boatshop for the purpose of getting some of our epoxy to cure....check out a graphic illustration below. 

More Landing Gear

I've been working on all the pieces that will attach to the bottom of the boat to protect it. I've pretty much finished the skeg, and the rubbing strips I think I'll finish up today. Once those pieces are installed, the outside of the hull will be ready for paint.


This picture (above) shows the two pieces that make up the skeg being glued together, the bow-block coated with epoxy and down in the distance to the left are the two rubbing strips with their scarphs.




Here you can see the finished skeg sitting approximately where it will eventually be glued down. I made it substantially heavier that the designs called for, and tapered it down to 3/8". Looks pretty handsome, no?

Bow Block

I carved a nice oak bow block to protect the bottom where it'll hit the beach a lot. It needs a little more shaping and sanding, but I think it looks nice. I also cut strips of oak for the rubbing strips that will go on either side of the bottom. Sorry, no pictures of the strips. Maybe later when I'm putting them on.

Gift Certificate Time

My mom, Susan, bought a fifty dollar gift certificate for Olympia Supply at an auction supporting Safeplace recently. She gave it to me, and the picture below shows the stuff I bought with it.



A bunch of sandpaper of various grit, acetone, nitrile gloves, and a little brush attachment for the shop-vac: $45.

Scraping and Sanding