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.