A Bunch of Little Things

So I've been working without blogging.  Guess that might be some sort of Pocketship sin.  While I was off being selfish and not sharing I got a lot of little things done.

I finally finished the interior fiberglassing.  Since I had been glassing over the limber holes as I was going I needed to clean those out.  As I was opening them up I noticed that they had grown much smaller with epoxy and I was concerned that water wouldn't drain properly.  The solution was to put a de-burring bit in my Dremel tool and go to town opening those up again.  The tool (along with the flexible extension) made quick work of the problem areas.

From there I turned my attention to some of the rough areas where I didn't do a good job of removing all the excess tab material from the bulkhead.  Again the Dremel tool with a  sanding big was an easy way to resolve those areas.

Since it had taken me so long to finish the interior fiberglassing I did a light sanding of the entire fiberglassed area.  According to the MAS epoxy instructions there is no problem with blush but that if you wait very long you should rough up the surface so that the next coat has something to "bite" into.

The second coat of epoxy went on fairly nice.  I'm going to do one more coat to make sure the weave is filled in every where but so far the results look nice.

Hours this session: 18
Hours total: 175
Hours remaining: 235

Rinse and Repeat

Nice weather in FL.  Kinda wet but I'm working in a garage.  I finished up scarfing my floorboards to length and to my dismay I'm short not in length but in amount.  Not just a little but by 1/3!  Luckily where I order my white oak from has free shipping so I don't feel so bad.

I finished glassing another bay and am working my way forward.  As a check to see how well I got things aligned I ran a tape measure from the point of the bow to each corner of the transom.  It came out with 1/4"!  Made me pretty happy.  I often find myself test fitting pieces and just sitting in my garage contemplating my work.  So far I'm very happy with the way this thing is going together.  Can't wait to finish the interior fiberglassing and sanding so I can move on.

Hours this session: 4
Hours total: 165
Hours remaining: 235

Floor Board Work

Beautiful day here in FL.  Temp is topping out at about 83.  Nice for boat building.  So what I did was to go out early and fiberglass another bay.  While I was waiting for that to dry to green so that I could do the trimming, I cut dados in the ends of my white oak floor boards so that I can graft them together

I cut the dados in the end of 18 5' sections of floor boards.  Then mixed up a resin and 50/50 mix of wood flour and silica.  Slathered it on the ends and clamp them together.  Clean up as much of the excess as possible and wait for them to dry.

Once these dry I will run them through the planer and then relive the edges with a round over bit.  I plan on finishing these with oil.

Hours this session: 4
Hours total: 161
Hours remaining: 239

Cooling off in FL

 So it cooled off enough for me to start on the next bay.  Just a review of the process for those who have been asking.

1.  Tape off the area to be fiberglassed.  The INSIDE of the tape represents where the fiberglass edges will fall.  In the photo below there is an overlap of the glass from this bay to the ones on each side of it.

2.  Create a template from butcher's paper.

3.  Use the paper template to cut out the fiberglass.  I allow several inches on each side so that the fiberglass will overlap the tape.

4.  Do one LAST run over the area to be fiberglassed to make sure everything is absolutely smooth and every little crumb is removed.

5.  Lay down the fiberglass with epoxy.  Just enough to fill the weave

6.  Wait a few hours until the epoxy turns "green".

7.  Trim around the inside of the tape with a razor knife.

8.  Lift the tape (and the excess fiberglass) to leave a perfect edge.

Hours this session: 2
Hours total: 157
Hours remaining: 243

Floorboard work

Not much happening in the way of the boat.  Florida is still in the grips of stifling heat.  I've been chomping at the bit to do anything and as soon as I start the heat turns me back.

One little project I did start was ripping my floor boards to width.  A little background on my choice of woods for the dimensional lumber.  For the floorboards I wanted something light in color and heavy in weight.  I figure the more weight I can get down low the less ballast I will have to use to trim out the boat.  So for the floorboards I went with white oak.  It's moderately heavy with a pleasing light color.

For the rub rails and other trim I wanted something darker.  For this I chose black walnut.  It has all the attributes of a good marine lumber and it is a very beautiful wood.  Now the choice of black walnut for a boat goes against naval superstitions.  The nick name for black walnut is "coffin wood".  I guess associating your boat in any way with a coffin brings bad nautical mojo down upon the craft.  Luckily I'm not superstitious.
There should be plenty of scrap left after doing the floor boards and the rub rails to use for laminating the tiller and the boom arch.  I think the contrasting light/dark wood in layers will look very nice.

I was able to source both these woods from an internet company (woodworkersssource.com).  They come in 4/4 10 board feet craft packs.  I ordered 20 board feet of the oak and 10 of the walnut.  I found that trying to order longer lengths drives the shipping way up since they have to be shipped freight.  So I resigned myself to having to scarf together at least a couple of sections of my floor boards.

A couple of nights ago after the sun had gone down I moved my table saw just outside the garage door and into the relatively cooler night air and began ripping.  In about an hour I had ripped as many of the 4" widths as I could make out of the oak.  I switch to my dado blade and made scarf cuts on 4 of the pieces.  After a little trial and error I got the scarfs to fit perfect.  My next project is to actually glue these together to make 2 10' lengths.

Hours this session: 2
Hours total: 155
Hours remaining: 245

Florida IS HOT

We're having a record heat wave here in FL.  I went out to the garage at 10:00 pm last night hoping it would be tolerable.  I decided to just do some odds and end like opening up some notches with my (very sharp) Japanese saw.  Buy the time I had taken a few strokes with the saw I was sweating like I had just came out of the shower.

Doesn't look like I'm going to get much done until this heat breaks.  Just hope I don't have to wait till November!

That being said I had always known that progress on this boat would be slow for the following (additional) reasons:

1.  I want to do a really good job.  I really like the looks of the Pocketship and don't want to rush anything.

2.  I work full time.  If I had full time to devote to the build I'd probably be done already but I do have a day job.

3.  I don't want to ignore my family.  My wife already mildly resents the boat in the garage.  I don't want to give her a reason to take an axe to it.

4.  I have other obligations that still must be met.  I teach karate 3 times a week and have been involved for more than 40 years.

Consequently, the absolute MOST time that I can put in is about 4-6 hours on weekends and 3 - 4 hours during the week.  So IF the heat allows me I can get in about 10 hours a week.  Not really very much.

I don't really mind.  I still own my other boat (a West Wight Potter 19) that lets me get out on the water.  I will be selling it when the Pocketship gets close to completion so the Pocketship needs to be a superior replacement for the P-19.

I'll keep updating whenever I do any little thing but I need the temp to drop down to at least the upper 80's before I can do anything serious.

Slow going

So I've completed the glassing between bulkheads 7 and 8.  The more I do this the better I'm getting (duh!).  I've prepared the areas between 6 and 7 and it'll be ready to go as soon as I find the time and temperature.  Central Florida highs have been in the mid 90's.

I had to put the project on hold for a couple of weeks to rebuild the master shower in my house.  When I took on the job I though it was going to be a 1-2 day project.  The background about 2 weeks ago a couple of the 4 1/2" tiles that make up the walls of my master shower fell off.  The green board behind was wet so I figured I replace a small area with backer board and re-tile.  I took a day off work and started.

When I began pulling the tile down I realized the wet area was much bigger than I thought.  Almost an entire 5X6' wall.  After pulling down the green board I realized that a prior termite infestation had destroyed most of the studs in the wall along with much of the insulation.  To make a long story short I had to rebuild the entire wall, re-insulate and then install the backer board.

When I got the the reinstall of the backer board I realized that it was only 1/2 the thickness of the old green board (doh!).  Luckily some of the scrap marine plywood stock was just the right thickness to shim it out.  I cut shims for the length of the studs and screwed them on.  In the end it all worked out.  Tile and grouting job looks good even though I'm no pro.

Lessons learned:
1.  Something always crops up that will delay the boat build.
2.  Never throw that scrap away!
3.  I can never finish even the most complex job fast enough for my wife.

Hours this session: 6
Hours total: 153
Hours remaining: 247