markfitz

Quick question -- while the weekender plan doesn't give actual dimensions for the partners, the look pretty thick -- like a 3x3. We were wondering what the ramifications of using thinner stock would be - if any. It seemed like it would take an awful lot of force to rip that thing out, and we were wondering how crucial it was to use that thick stock, or whether some 1x hardwood would work just as well. Thanks!

Thanks Frank. My dad and I have been working on it once every week or so for a while now...we just bought a trailer for it, so hopefully it'll see water this fall. I don't think we roughed up the epoxy enough before we painted it though -- it chips pretty easily.

Just wanted to show you guys the results (so far) of all your hard work training the newbie. I posted some pics: http://www.messing-about.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=25

Thanks guys, this is no piano! But still, we ended up doing what Lewisboats recommended -- although I didn't use doughnuts. . It wasn't so hard once we knew who to ask -- turns out my father's friend the building inspector knew a guy who does sheet metal -- and the frames he sometimes builds for the sheetmetal a pretty similar to our chainplate material. So we gave him 4 pieces of stainless steel and he made us some beautiful chain plates for nothing. Thanks for the help. Pictures soon!

What's the best method for bending chainplates to the correct angle? We tried clamping them in a vise and whacking them with a hammer, but that gave us a pretty bad radius on the bend -- and the first chainplate didn't sit flat against the hull. We ended up going through the rubrail like in the plan, so we'll probably fill it with epoxy to try to keep water out. Didn't know you could go around the rub rail until we read it here....thanks!

Thanks. I hope to post some pictures soon. It's actually getting there!

Thanks Frank. To hijack my own thread, is a 1 1/4" (closet pole is all we could find) thick enough for the gaff part of the mast? I think the plans call for 1.5"

That saw has saved the day for us so many times I can't even count them. We bought it before we started the weekender and never, ever regretted it. Best tool my dad owns. If you don't have one, you need one.

Ha! Wow. I guess maybe my 6 years isn't so bad. I figure we'll be done by spring. Also, just an addendum -- the wood I have for the boom is a true 2x2 - planed to those dimensions. So I'm thinking just rounding the edges will give me a little bit beefier "2 inch diameter" Even then, I'm hoping it's heavy enough, because it does feel pretty light. I guess I can weight it if I have to!

That's what we'll do then! Thanks for the help. This is the longest project in the history of boat building.

Really? I thought the plan called for a 2x2, although the plan book is at my dad's right now. What size should it be?

I have an eleven foot 2x2 piece of mahogany that I'm planning on using for a boom. I was looking for some advice on how to make it round, and whether it indeed needed to be round, or could just have rounded corners like the mast. I tried searching the forums for weekender boom construction, but didn't come up with anything specific to how to make it. If anyone can give me some ideas, or point me at an existing thread, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

I'm in upstate NY, near Saratoga....My father will be rolling on the third coat today - (btw, using the 1/8" foam rollers purchased from Larry) and he said the second coat seemed to even things out quite a bit. I'm sure the second half will go better. The inside and decking should be a lot of fun.......

I don't know for a fact that is what we received, since I don't have anything to compare it to. I've done fiberglass repair work on my old canoe and old car when I was a teenager, and this cloth seemed about the same as what came in that Bondo kit. I will try warming the epoxy a bit. I am fairly certain I can tell when it's about to kick. I used the same epoxy in the heat of summer, so I assume that it won't be any faster than than how it was on a 92 degree day...

What is a slotted roller? This cloth looked pretty heavy. In the video that came with the plans, it seems much more 'formable' and thin than what we had. For instance, where the side hits the bottom rub rail....in the video, he'd dry fit it down, and it would stay in that 90 degree angle. Ours kept popping out. My father is checking with Larry to make sure he got the right stuff. As for heating, I can't see it buying us much, you're right. The garage is heated, and the epoxy stored inside, so it's at least 60 degrees or so. I noticed when squeegieing it around (is that a word?)the epoxy seemed to turn creamy white. I assume this is blush, or tiny air bubbles. I think this was due to moving the squeegie around too quickly, because were were paranoid it was going to set up too fast. Like my old college prof used to say, "There is no such thing as a stupid question. Just stupid people who ask questions."

We had given the entire boat a coating of epoxy a week ago, on the bare wood. We figured this would help avoid the wood sucking the epoxy out of the cloth. So this weeks extravaganza was after it had already been sanded once and the dust cleaned off. I Didn't know that about the diagonal. I don't know if we could have done that with this size cloth - but good to know. After searching on some other epoxy threads here, I think we should have heated it up first too, to thin it out some. Using the foam roller on the sides seemed to create wrinkles in the cloth, and sometime even peel the cloth up. In some small areas, i think the cloth may actually be "floating" in epoxy, if that makes sense. Like it raised up from the wood as it was applied. Thanks for all the advice..

OK, last night we dry fit our fiberglass cloth, and attempted to apply epoxy to one half of the bottom. From what I can tell, the cloth RAKA sent to us is too thick. It was brutal to get it to wet out properly, and even when it did, in areas like the sharp transition from bottom to side, it had a tendency to be fine, and then gradually form an air bubble. It was like the epoxy couldn't hold the cloth down sufficiently. We did the best we could, but on the bottom especially, the surface looks pretty uneven. We applied with a roller and a plastic body filler spatula to push the epoxy down into the weave...but I think there are some areas where the cloth may have either too much or too little epoxy under it. What is the best course of action? Do we keep putting on more coats until the weave is completely filled? Do we need to sand between coats?? If this were lacquer, I would simply build up the finish until it's thick enough to sand out the imperfections without sanding through the finish. Will this strategy work here? Also, looking for suggestions to make the other side easier....would thinning the epoxy help or hurt? I was thinking it would help the wetout process, but also might not hold the cloth down to the hull as well as heavier stuff. Plus I have no idea what to thin it with. Help!!

reminds me of my buddy's kid -- filled up the diaper nice, then sat down hard. Shot straight up his back, and all over the wall. Good times....

We've been wearing respirators when sanding, but no shower afterwards. I have just blown off the dust with an air compressor outside, then washed my hands and face. So far so good...

This stuff isn't supposed to give off any fumes, right? So is it acceptable to apply in a heated garage?

I bought the 16" -- the nineteen was too big..they aren't bad -- I figured for 20 bucks I could afford to check one out. The problem I see is that the spokes are pretty tiny. And as the wheels get bigger, the spokes just get longer, not beefier. We'll see how long it takes to break one off. I guess I have no concept of how much stress will be on this thing. Any idea?

Actually, the stats show that hurricanes occurred less often in the latter half of the 20th century than they did in five earlier 50-year periods. From 1701 to 1850, when surface temperatures were cooler, there were nearly three times as many hurricanes in the Caribbean than at the end of the 20th century. And you really can't blame warming on the path the hurricanes take either, because a similar pattern occurred in the 1920s and 1930s that also walloped Florida multiple times.

I didn't think about the possibility of adding BOTH. Duh...also, it seems like even using the slow hardener, the work time is shorter than I would have thought. Also, one more question if I may -- the directions that came with the epoxy say to put a coat of just resin on the wood first, then put the cloth, then more resin. Obstensibly, this is to prevent or lessen "dry spots" when applying the resin over the cloth. Any benefit to doing it this way? What do most people do? Thanks!

We have finally flipped the weekender upside down, and have mixed our first batch of epoxy. We started out filling screw holes using maple flour as an additive, and that worked well. Nice texture, good work time, very spreadable. Next we wanted to do the fillet between the keel and bottom, and we had purchased fumed silica for this part. A few questions about that. It was hard to mix, I'm sure it's dangerous to breathe - (it floated around like dust motes) it set up FAST, and sagged when we put it on. So...my question are -- why did we have these types of problems, and is it OK to just use the maple flour instead, since it is so much easier to work with? (Please say yes, because that's what we did. It would be impossible to rip it out of there now.....) What is supposed to be "better" about fumed silica as a filler?

what is that?