It's not that I didn't WANT to write about boat-building this week, it's just that work got in the way. And, yeah, I made some progress on the boat. It was all about smoothing out all those boat parts after they had received their second coat of epoxy. The manual says I have to bring them to a uniform, dull color -- no shiny spots. Well, heck, there's a lot of shiny epoxy on those parts.
The manual also said I should use 220 grit sandpaper. The idea, I think is to get a nice, smooth surface -- sealed with epoxy, to prevent water intrusion, but smooth. So ... sand it, get it smooth, but leave some epoxy on the plywood so the boat won't sink later -- or at least, won't sink quite so quickly.
It turns out sanding with 220-grit sandpaper is a slow process. Not unpleasant -- lots of time for thinking about important things like what-the-hell-am-I-going-to-say-in-the-father-of-the-bride-toast-thee-weeks-from-now, and also should-I-be-pressing-harder-on-this-orbital-sander? But still, time-consuming.
Countless hours spent seeking out wisdom of other boat builders, 100% of them better qualified than me, revealed the extensive benefits of using cabinet scrapers to remove a lot of the excess epoxy. So I had ordered some from my friends -- okay, suppliers -- at Chesapeake Light Craft, and I tried 'em. They helped. It went faster. Here's one I've been using ... it's just about ready for honing, burnishing, and other scraper spa treatments. In the next few days I'd better learn all about burnishing.
So, after a lot of scraping and sanding, interspersed with firewood-moving chores and a very nice walk on the beach with The Boys, I have a stack of strakes and transoms which would seem to be ready for the next step -- stitching them together into a boat-like shape.
Before I do that I have to figure out (a) the best way to get all that epoxy-dust off the wood -- surely there must be something easier and more affordable than tack cloth -- and (b) where exactly should the first drilled hole be, near the end of the bottom panel and #1 strake?
And then there's the philosophical question: sand everything else (bulkheads, seats) before I start stitching, or just work on that part when I'm bored with stitching? I dunno. Stay tuned.
