The Last of Thickened Epoxy?

Well, today, I think I'm done dealing with thickened epoxy. I faired (puttied) some gaps between the panels at the transoms. I used epoxy thickened with microlight to peanut-butter consistency. It was "creamy" peanut butter, and I should have made it "chunky" since it sagged a little, but it worked.


Above, is my usual gung-ho masking job. Below is the freshly applied fairing. Note how light the mixture is using just microlight.


After that, I worked on the mast. I drilled a 1" diameter hole centered 1.5" from the top of the 10 foot spar. I rounded the edges of the hole using the 1/4" round-over bit in my router.

Next I put a 1/2" round-over bit in the router and did the four corners of the mast, stopping 10" from the bottom (so the mast step can keep it from twisting).


It went OK, except that the wood started to splinter pretty badly when I ran the router in the "correct" direction. That is, against the direction the bit was trying to pull the router. This is normally the preferred direction, but for some reason it was really tearing up the wood. By the time I realized how bad it was, I had a 3" long, 1/4" deep gouge in one corner of the mast. I probably should have done the round-over operation in two passes, using the 1/4" bit to start.

Score another one for impatience.

Finishing up pre-sanding work on interior

I've spent the last two sessions finishing up the interior before the sanding begins.

Yesterday, I filletted the mast step sides to the bottom panel. It's not really called for in the instructions, but I thought it would add some strength. While I had fillet mixture made up, I also filled in the crevices around both of the transom doublers, just to make them a litter neater. I also filled in any remaining suture holes in the hull and bulkheads. Prior to all this I did my usual retentive masking tape job.


All taped and ready to fillet the step and putty the doublers.


After filleting and filling.

Also yesterday, I widened the hole in the rudder blade to 3/8" and filled it with silica-thickened epoxy. I also glued and screwed the gooseneck "fitting" to one of the spars CLC included in the kit, thus transforming it into the boom and the other spar into the yard. Before adding the glue, I predrilled the holes from boom into the gooseneck.


Here is the post-glued view.

Today was a router day. The less-than-straight daggerboard slot I had cut in the middle seat/thwart had been bothering me, so I decided to clean it up. I put a flush-trim bit into my router and ran it around the slot. It looks much better now.

Then I put a 1/4" round-over bit into the router. I rounded the daggerboard handle, both interior and exterior. Next, I rounded the carry handles in the transoms. And finally, I rounded the outwales, both top and bottom. Before I started, I was worried that a 1/4" bit was going to take too much off. I didn't need to worry, it looks fine. The parts of the various handles that are narrow will require some hand sanding with a sandpaper-wrapped dowel.

The mast will also need to be rounded, but not today. The mast will require a 1/2" round-over bit.


The bow transom handle, after being rounded over.

Oh, one last thing. I managed to drop my boat off of one of my sawhorses. As it fell, the corner of the sawhorse dented the inside of the hull. So I have a little repair work to do there before sealing with epoxy. One interesting thing is that the sawhorse also hit the fiberglassed bottom and first panel. These had some scratches, but no dents. I guess fiberglassing works!