Making a Switch

Moving the Blog

I have created an online presence with this project and I invite you to follow this progress through the new blog at;

reopinguino.blogspot.com

I have also created a Google+ page with the name of Red Eyed Owl Outdoors.  Check it out and put me in your circles.

Thanks for following so far.

Fiberglassing the Hull

With the help from a good friend I was able to check off the fiberglass on the hull.  It was fairly straight forward.  Applying the fiberglass tape was a bit tricky on the rear stem, and at times the epoxy was getting tacky and hard to work with.  

Check out the new video that will show the steps towards the second coat of fill epoxy on the cloth. 

Filling in the Seams

Some time has passed since my last report, but progress is good.  As I filled the seams there were a few things that I discovered.

• The epoxy can be soaked up by the panels quite easily.  The epoxy dries with convex concave nature.  The manual instructs to go back over these seams with epoxy thickened with wood flour.

• I would say a thicker epoxy that would be expected is needed to fill the seams.  2 or three coats may even be necessary to ensure a more concave  convex nature to the seams as shown before sanding.

 

•  After drying I sanded the boat with a 120 grit paper to make all seams have a rounded nature.  Rocking over the seam and applying a bit of pressure when needed took care of the epoxy quite quickly.  I sanded the entire boat in a couple of hours.  
• The sander also allowed a flush edge on the ends of the boat where a peanut butter thick epoxy was applied.  I will go back and use a file and sanding block to shape the ends.
• Take care to not sand to much as this will exposed the next layer of the ply and give a black appearance.  

Over all the boat is smooth and screams to be flipped over and put in the water.