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The Building of Old Codger


Chick Ludwig

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Gosh, PAR, you've burst my "bubble of ignorance". Here i thought I was happy with the re=bar tie wire. Just went out and bought me a whole new roll of the stuff.

Heat for removal? i guess you must poxy right over it. I don't do that. i just clip the back, grab hold of the twisted side with my pliers, and pull it out.

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For heat, just short out a car battery.  That sucker will get hot in a New York minute!

 

Copper wire is a lot more pleasant to work with, that’s for sure.  I think I used too light a gage, though.  It kept breaking for me, it I had to really reef down on it.  

 

My buddy Don R and I paid Chick a visit today.  We took measurements, including eye-to seat height.  Yeah, OK, he’ll be able to see over the cabin top. At least he’ll be able to see the horizon, anyway. 

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No pics today, y'all. Between Debbie-dos, family excursion to get BBQ lunch in Waynesville Saturday (About a two hour drive.), and church today, things are moving kinda slow. You know how it is. But, at least I have pretty much gotten the fillets done on all the parts that are wired together. At least fillets between wire ties. Tomorrow I'll remove wires and fill in the fillets, and add the layer of glass tape over the fillets. My poor old back is talking to me after standing on a ladder and stretching to reach down into the bowls to do the fillets.

 

So for now, as porky pig says----"Th-th-that's all folks...."

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FINALLY!!!!! In between "life stuff", going to the sawmill for a couple of 16 ft. pieces of rough cut poplar and ripping and planing it, moving everything in the shop two or three times to get to the planer and table saw, I finally finished filleting and taping all of the corners. I'll let it set a couple of days to allow the poxy to harden up. Then I'll holler for Thrillsbe to come HELP turn the hull over to finish the outside. I like to do all the glassing, fairing, priming and painting while it's upside down. Too hard to keep flipping it back and forth.

 

Here's a coupla pictures to entertain you. it may be awhile before I have anything new to show ya.

The strip clamped around the sheer is from the poplar I told ya about.

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That little light spot up in the bow is the back-up block for the bow eye.

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You'll notice the saw and planer shoved outside to make room.

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It's been a few days since we last met. I'll catch y'all up. It took until Saturday to get all of the boat-flippin' crew together. My good buddy Don (Thrillsbe) had to make the long trek up the mountain from balmy Tryon, all the way up to the lofty, snow topped peaks of Hooterville (More commonly known as Hendersonville. H'ville for short.). Then my blackberry farmer friend, Austin, and his young protege, Brock, who is also our pastor's kid, PK for short, had to break away from fence building duties at the farm. But, it all worked out. They all got here at 9 and we commenced to discussing the best way to flip this puppy. One said to pull the saw horses out and set it on the floor where it sits, then roll it over, lift and carry it out of the garage to set it upside down on the carefully crafted cradle. Another said, "No, let's carry it out right side up, and set it on the cradle to flip it." Yet another suggested to roll it right where it is, then carry it out." After a bit of other half-hearted suggesting of ideas, and cogitating over them, we went with plan B. You'll just have to count 'em up to see which one was plan B. (A little hint, the first idea was plan A.)

 

Finally the task was accomplished and the "yacht", cradle and all, was rolled back into the shop---er, garage. Then Miss Debbie invited all in to a well earned after breakfast snack of muffins and hot chocolate. We retired to the living room with our feast to discuss various and sundry subjects. All-in-all, a very pleasant morning. After the crew left, I took Miss Debbie for a ride and feed to a little town off the mountain called Forest City. We'd planned a nice seafood lunch at Dave's, but Red, our Honda Fit, got us lost and we wound up eating in a little greasy spoon, hole-in-the-wall. Actually, we had pretty good home made style burgers and fries. (No Don, they didn't have Vienna sausage. But they DID have good Southern sweet tea!) By the time we got home, it was too late for much work on the boat. Actually, I did spend a few minutes planing the corners down flush where the plywood panels meet.

 

Never fear, though, this afternoon after church and lunch, I finally spent a little time on the boat. In the pictures, you'll see a bit of a "wow" - dip in the bottom, near  the bow. (A bow-wow?) I mixed up a batch of poxy with my wow-filling blend of one part Cabosil to two parts of Q-cell and troweled it into the dip as best I could. Dragging a flexible strip of wood across levels it all down pretty well. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get Mr. Long-board out and sand it all fair. So, now to the pictures.

 

Here she (it - the boat) is, flipped and back in the garage.

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The carefully crafted cradle.

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The "wow".

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There's the "wow" filled.

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No hurry Steve. Cold and rain are settling in again. Kinda slows down the poxy from curing hard enough to sand with out gumming the paper. I'll try to fair the patches tomorrow. Maybe. Then another bit of filling and fairing. Then the glass. Then keel. Then primer. Then paint. Lots of "Thens". Yuck!!! Guess it'll be a couple of weeks at least until re-flipping and starting the fun stuff.

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It's finally warmed up enough here in Hendersonville where the climate is almost like Southern Canada. Got the filled spots faired out and all of the sharp corners rounded over. Oh yeah, holes and seams filled and sanded, too. I just came in from the cold from where I covered the floor with cardboard and spread out the glass on the hull bottom in readiness for poxy-resinating tomorrow after taking Miss Debbie out for some shopping and a good lunch.

 

I like for the bottom layer to cure enough that I can feather the edges where the bottom glass laps over the chine. Hopefully it will be ready by Tuesday. Yes, y'all, I know I don't have to feather the edges like that, it's just my OCD winning out over my ADD. I'll do the same thing where the glass laps over onto the transom. Works for me.

 

Just 'cause some of us kids like pictures, I'll stick one on here for ya.

You'll notice the brush laying towards the back. I've found that it works GREAT for smoothing out the lumps and wrinkles in the dry fabric. By-the-way, the bottom is 10 oz. and the sides will be 6oz.

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Awww, most any old brush'll do.

 

I told Steve that I'd post a picture of my bottom glassed. I glassed it yesterday, and will feather the edges tomorrow---if it's not too cold, then laminate the sides. I lay the glass on dry, then wet through it. In this cold weather, it takes a lot of work to get the resin to soak through the glass and saturate the wood underneath. 'Cause the resin is thick. If ya do it this way, keep an eye on it too be sure that the wood doesn't draw resin out of the glass and leave dry spots. The dry spots will look white. Some folks prefer to pre-wet the wood. For me it's easier to get the glass smoothed out when it's dry. "Different ships, different long splices."

 

Ya can't see much, but here 'tis.

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There are Mr. squeegee and his buddy the brush. I mixed the resin in a butter tub that's big enough to get the squeegee down into to scrape the rest of the poxy out after most of it has been poured out. Sorry, you can't see the poor old butter tub, I tossed him out yesterday. Miss Debbie saves 'em for me so I have plenty.

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Steve, I fretted about that, too, when I built the Breeze, but it turned out to not be a problem. I had expressed my concern to the Master, and he said it would all work out, and it did. Just pre-wet and then hang the cloth at the top (Bottom of the boat, since boat is upside down.), and smooth it against the surface, working your way from top to bottom. May be good to have a helper or two to ease your mind, but I did it alone. I read a suggestion somewhere to let the pre-wet area set a bit until it starts to get tacky.

 

We're all looking forward to seeing your creation at the B&B messabout!

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Just to keep y'all updated, too cold in the shop to glass the sides until Thursday. Meanwhile, I'm kinda changing my mind on a couple of things. I've been "burned" with old motors, so I'm thinking about a new Tohatsu 20hp, long shaft, electric start, tiller steer. It would be $34,79.00 plus tax.  Maybe even add power tilt and trim for about $350. Sure make it easier on my old back too have that. I dunno. Puts a BIG dent in what I got from selling the Breeze. Then there's a trailer to buy. I'll have to build up the transom height from the short shaft that I cut out for. No big deal. A long shaft will work better I think.

 

That's the thoughts for the day. See y'all later.

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I just read Chick’s comment about “the weather being almost like Southern Canada”.  It made me chuckle.  Chick’s a Florida “Cracker”, I’m a Lake Erie “Muskrat” from Michigan.  We now live within 10 miles of one another in North Carolina (halfway in-between).  He has no idea what a Michigan/Ontario winter entails!  It does get down into the 20’s here, especially at his elevation.  The good news is that the temps are going to almost kiss 70 in the next few days.  I think I know where I’ll find Chick.  

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