2005/09/10 [ 2 hrs ] Filled in all the foam support batten screw holes with epoxy. One new trick I've learnt is to leave some epoxy on my putty knives and let them hardened. Once hardened, I just bend them slightly and all the epoxy comes off in one piece. Then end up being cleaner then when I wiped them off when the epoxy is still wet.
| |
| Fig 102 Letting the epoxy on the putty knives harden. |
2005/09/11 [ 3 hrs ] Had to get the forward bulkhead paper pattern out and cut a measing piece of foam for it ( one small piece got lost sometime ago ). Also made up the HD insert ( marine ply ) for it and glued it all together. Then cutout the 2 HD inserts ( A1200 ) for the transom and glued them in.
 | |
| Fig 103 Transom with foam HD inserts |
2005/09/12 [ 1 hr ] Another record breaking hot day. Spent about an hour sanding along the inner keel foam getting it ready for laminating. About an hour to go. A shipment from Noah's arrived. A bunch of half price (!) 25mm Core-Cell ( but not full sheets - ~2' x 4' strips ) and an epoxy measuring pump ( Sticky Stuff Dispenser ) was included. I've been wasting alot of epoxy for small jobs since I have a minimum amount I can make with the measuring cups I have, so using this dispenser should cut waste down alot.
 | |
| Fig 104 The new epoxy dispenser. Works great - wish I'd gotten this from the beginning! |
2005/09/13 [ 4 hr ] Sanded the epoxy join lines for the fwd and transom bulkheads. For a change, I thought I'd use cottom fibre as the epoxy filler to see what it was like. Wow - huge difference in the sanding. It is _much_ harder to sand then just the cabosil and bubbles mix I usually use - definitely a high strength filler.
 | |
| Fig 105 The sanded hull half - at night. |
2005/09/14 [ 2 hrs ] Was going to vacuum bag this morning but resin temperature was still 22C which would only give me about 15 mins of work time - not enough. Still going through a heat wave here. Hopefully tomorrow morning. Instead, cut two lengths of glass, one 33' long, the other 35' long to finish the laminating of the hull half Saturday morning. I was hoping to use a new roll of 24oz glass that I ordered from Ian 2 weeks ago, but he still hasn't shipped it yet - so I'll have to use what I have on hand ( not the best quality ).
More sanding fiberglass at lunch. I was better protected this time, but I've still got itchy arms. I read somewhere ( the multihull boatbuilder's list I think ) that covering yourself with talc before sanding helps.
2005/09/15 [ 3 hrs ] Epoxied some low points in the inner hull that I found while sanding. Installed the HD insert for the chainplate into the hull. Cutout the glass for the transom as well as all the support layers needed for vacuum bagging ( in total, there's 9 layers, though only 3 end up being part of the bulkhead ). Parents coming down tomorrow to help with hull lamination - weather not looking good :(
 | |
| Fig 106 About to install the chainplate HD insert. |
2005/09/17 [ 3 hrs ] No hull laminating this weekend, rain started Friday afternoon and is still going today. Vacuum bagged the transom instead. Tried a couple of new things this time. Instead of mastic tape to seal the bag, I used latex caulk. This worked well. I was able to get a must faster and better seal - plus it's alot cheaper. The main problem I had was not cutting the top poly sheet quite big enough so it ended up spreading the caulk around since when sealing one side, the other side would pull off - got it all sealed eventually though.
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
The other change was not joining the top poly layer to the bottom poly layer. Instead the top poly was caulked directly to the table with the bottom poly layer only there to stop the epoxy from sticking to the table top. This also worked really well. The transom was forced directly against the table top with no bend and no need to put weights on top. Of course now, it seems like an obvious thing to do! Oh well, live and learn I guess.
 |  |
 |
2005/09/18 [ 5 hrs ] Cutout all the fabric for the forward bulkhead. Since I'll probably be putting a door into this bulkhead, there's 12 fabric pieces that need to be cut for it. In places there will be up to 10 layers of 24oz fiberglass.
 |  |
 |  |
 | |
| Fig 110 Whenever I work late at night, this huge insect aways seems to come in and 'watch' - every single time - whether it's outside in the shed or in the garage... |
2005/09/19 [ 1 hr ] Cutout all the vacuum bagging layers ( peel plys, poly and release film ).
2005/09/20 [ ] Spent several hours on the phone trying to buy a couple of rolls of good quality 24oz stitched glass within Canada that I can use to finish the inner hull lamination. I don't want to use the stuff I currently have since it has lots of ripples and would mean I'd have to grind them out and patch if I use it on the hull ( there's already several places in the current hull laminations where I'm going to have to do this ). Much frustrations - got a couple of leads but nothing yet - waiting for them to get back to me.
2005/09/21 [ 5 hrs ] Vacuum bagged the forward bulkhead ( attempt #2 - the first attempt in the spring failed miserably and ended up needing to be tossed and was a huge morale destroyer.... I'll write up that experience sometime soon ). Everything was going well until I started to draw a vacuum. After about 15 mins I noticed that it had stopped pulling a vacuum. Spent about 30 minutes searching for leaks when I finally figured out what was wrong. I had forgotten to seal the table top joins and this was where air was getting in. Tried to seal it from underneith the table but no help. Eventually figured out that I could 'push' the latex caulk up to the bottom poly layer which then mostly sealed the seams - wasn't perfect but I got down to about 18" of vacuum. Took about an hour :( but did end up working fairly well. Some dry spots in the fiberglass when everything was removed ( probably wouldn't have been if everything had worked perfectly - but no big deal ) so brushed some epoxy on. There is a large epoxy bulge in the centre where I didn't have any breather fabric ( i.e. regular home fiberglass insulation ), but that will be on the door, so I'll just sand it down and put a new layer of fiberglass on it. The door isn't really structual, so it'll be fine.
 | |
| Fig 111 The vacuumed bagged fwd blkhd |
 | |
| Fig 112 This shows how much the fiberglass insulation that I use as the breather is compacted when vacuum bagged. |
2005/09/22 [ 2 hr ] Started getting the mast bulkhead ready. Sanded the join lines and started cutting out the fiberglass. Still trying to find some good 24oz glass for the inner hull lamination. Everyone seems to want you to order a pallet of rolls since it has to be custom made. Sent some emails out to fellow builders seeing if any of them have an extra 90' I could buy.
2005/09/23 [ 5 hrs ] Cut the remaining glass for the mast blkhd and most of the remaining vacuum bag layers ( peel ply and release film ). I'll do the rest tomorrow morning. Still no luck with finding some good 24oz glass.
2005/09/24 [ 5 hrs ] Vacuum bagged the mast bulkhead. Everything went great this time - definitely my best one to date. The side that was against the table is perfectly flat and smooth. The up side also looks very nice. Looks like I'm getting the hang of it now :) Took only about 10 mins to draw a 26" vacuum and kept it there for about 6 hours. The latex caulk does seem to work better than the mastic tape, though it's a bit messier to clean up afterwards.
 | |
| Fig 113 The vacuumed bagged mast blkhd - my best one so far |
 | |
| Fig 114 The used breather fabric. You can see the excess epoxy is soaked up by the fabric - the even spacing is due to the release film |
2005/09/25 [ 7 hrs ] Lots of cleaning/organizing. Assembled and glued together the last major ( and biggest ) bulkhead, the cabin bulkhead. It looks like my 194 litre barrel of resin is almost empty - although I'm not positive exactly how much I have - looks like about 10 gals - not enough for everything I want to get done in the next couple of months. Trying to decide whether to buy another drum or a smaller amount.
Finally tracked down some glass - Graham, who's building a F-41 in Vancouver has offered to mail me some of his glass! Thanks very much Graham! I'll now be able to get that lamination done next weekend.
 | |
| Fig 115 The cabin bulkhead - it's almost like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Here, I've got 3 pieces of foam and 2 HD inserts to glue together |
2005/09/26 [ 4 hrs ] Starting building the daggerboard case mould. Cutout first layer of fiberglass for cabin bulkhead. I was going to make the dabberboard first and then make the case from it, but I'll use a mould instead. That way, the two boards should be 'identical' and I'll be able to work on them over the winter using the second daggerboard case as the test ( well - at least that's the theory anyways :)
2005/09/27 [ 5 hrs ] Cutout all remaining layers of glass for cabin bulkhead and all the extra vacuum bag specific layers. Got the table setup for bagging in the morning. More work on the daggerboard case mould.
2005/09/28 [ 5 hrs ] Vacuum bagged the cabin bulkhead. Came out looking great as well. Left the vacuum pump running for 7 hours which was probably a little to long - the peel ply was a bit hard to get off in places. 5-6 hours would probably be best. Took about 1.5 hours from mixing first batch of epoxy to starting the vacuum pump - would probably take 30 mins with two people. Luckily, the temp was around 14C, so that gave the epoxy much more time before it gelled. Now just a couple of minor bulkheads left to do. Used 7 tubs of epoxy.
Worked some more on the daggerboard case mould.
 | |
| Fig 116 The cabin bulkhead just removed from the vacuum bagging layers. |
2005/09/30 [ 4 hrs ] Well, of the 4 deliveries that I was expecting today ( 3 from Canada, one from the US, all ordered Monday and Tuesday ), only the one form the US(!) showed up. Luckily it was enough triaxial that I could use it for laminating. _Much_ nicer cloth than what I had been using. Cut to length two long strips for the remainder of the hull and about a dozen different reinforcemnt pieces. Measured out 20 tubs of resin to use in the morning. Finished up my first drum of resin :)
2005/10/01 [ 7 hrs ] Laminated the remainder of the inner hull by myself - probably would only have taken 3hrs if I had a helper - need to do that next time. Took about 6 hours from first epoxy batch to finish. Ended up only using 16 tubs of epoxy ( each about 3 pints ). Next time, I'll lay out the cloth first then put the epoxy on. I tried to unroll the cloth as I went along, but it didn't work so well - better to position it fully first, then squeegy on the epoxy afterwards. Once the epoxy had started gelling, trimmed the glass along the keel - much easier to do now then when it hardens.
 | |
| Fig 117 The inner hull of the second hull half completly laminated. Now to get those bulkheads in! The transom will be trimmed to shape once the hull halfs are joined. |
2005/10/02 [ 4 hrs ] Cleaned up after yesterdays work. Took the top off the 55 gal resin drum and drained out the last of the resin ( about 2 litres ). Continued work on the daggerboard case mould.
2005/10/03 [ 4 hrs ] More daggerboard case mould work. Cutout the forward bridgedeck bulkhead from scrap A500PH pieces. Since the two halves are mirror images, glued together the pieces into two separate sections which I'll glue together tomorrow.
 | |
| Fig 118 Daggerboard case mould. |
2005/10/04 [ 2 hrs ] Glued together the two forward bridgedeck pieces. Insulated the garage epoxy storage area abit better and put the new epoxy drum in there. This time, I brought a drum dolly to put the 600lb drum on first - much easier now to move it around the garage when needed. Expermiented abit with using a blog instead of this format. Put a few test posts up on f41.blogspot.com. I'll play around with the style sheets a bit more and I'll need to upload all previous posts, but it does have a few advantages: bigger photos ( upto 300Mb), RSS feed, looks nicer and is easier to maintain. Anyways, until I decide, I'll keep both this and that blog updated.
 | |
| Fig 119 The three pieces of the fwd bridgedeck bulkhead. |
2005/10/06 [ 3 hrs ] Cutout all fabrics for fwd bridgedeck blkh.
2005/10/07 [ 3 hrs ] Vacuum bagged the fwd bridgedeck blkh. I'm getting better at it - only 45mins from start to vaccum. Was nice and cold ( ~14C ) so had enough work time with the epoxy. The only minor issue I had was forgetting that I'd broken one of the prongs off the vacuum pump's plug and so when I went to plug it in it wouldn't work. I remember putting the broken prong somewhere, so I pulled a bunch of stuff of the shelves until I found it. I jammed it into the broken plug and luckily it worked again.
 | |
| Fig 120 The fwd bridgedeck bulkhead. |
2005/10/08 [ ] Thanksgiving long weekend - not much done.
2005/10/09 [ 2 hrs ] Parents came up again to help put the first bulkhead in, but like last time they came to help, it rained the entire time they were here, so not done. Instead, cutout the door in the forward hull bulkhead and trimmed/sanded it's edges.
 | |
| Fig 121 The fwd bridgedeck bulkhead door into the shower. |
2005/10/10 [ 2 hrs ] Trimmed the transom bulkhead edges. Did a trial fit and it seems to fit almost perfect :) But I want to put the fwd blkh in first so I have better access to the hull.
