As promised, the epoxy arrived today.
(You've got to get this smiley for the forum BTW).
So with all the encouragement, I decided "no guts, no glory." Never mind the test piece, let's get it on! Finished cutting the bottom pieces, then clamped everything together for edge sanding. I have a block plane, so I used it to good effect to get everything close before sanding. Apparently, I need to work on making straight edges with a jigsaw. Ahem. Lesson learned: I used a very fine blade to reduce splintering, but it also doesn't track well - harder to get a straight line. There's a balance point there somewhere.
Alex helped again. First time he's used a plane, but he took right to it!
Then my wife (Kym) volunteered to do all the face sanding. 150 grit with a ROS (random orbit sander). Awesome, I *hate* sanding.
Since she's the Official Photographer for this build, here's her hand, LOL!
I went inside and read up on the next steps. When I came back out she was all done.
Then it was time for the epoxy. I laid down saran wrap on garage floor and got all the canoe pieces close to where they belonged. Here's me measuring:
Then I mixed my first batch of epoxy. I wet all the edges with epoxy, then added the wood flour until I got it to ketchup consistency, just like the directions. So far, so good. I then began applying the filler and putting the pieces together, using the string method to find the offset. The Merrimac has six pieces total - 3 each side. The first 3 went great, then it started getting tricky.
Apparently, when you live on the surface of the sun, AKA Florida, even the slow hardener is too fast. I was less than fifteen minutes into this and the pot started heating up in my hand, and the center of the epoxy started hardening up.
AAAAAGGHH!
Quick, how fast can we do the last three pieces!!! Well, it seems we were *just* quick enough. Here's the result:
I also mixed up more epoxy than I actually needed. I'll have to work on that. For anyone else building one of these, the epoxy fillets are really not very wide, so not much epoxy is needed, and the wood flour adds volume. For me, about 60 ml of epoxy + 30 hardener
should have been enough. I used 100 and 50. (Got the graduated measuring cups from RAKA.
Finally, I decided to do a little prep for the stitching. I did two things: I built a jig for even spacing of stitch holes. I'll probably show it later, but I followed the direction on this site, placing two holes - at 6 and 8 inches. This way, I can use 6 inch spacing around tight curves and 8" spacing elsewhere. Then I decided to do the "drill a hole in the kraft sticks" for spacers between seams. Since I have a drill press and little patience, I made a VERY simple fixture for drilling a bunch at a time. Just place a wood block as a fence behind the drill bit, spaced so you drill through the center of the sticks, then stack a bunch against the fence:
And in about one minute I was able to make a whole bunch of spacers. The one in the front shows it complete with zip tie:
So, tomorrow I can begin the next step. I should lightly sand the seams so they're flush, then I can apply fiberglass.
1st question: I have fiberglass tape 3" wide. Is it acceptable to use several strips of tape side by side *across* the seam, or do I need to use a single piece of fiberglass cloth to cover the whole area?
(sorry for dots, but the forum compresses spaces so it doesn't look right):
-------------------------------------------------------- board
\ ...................................| <- seam................ /
.\ .....................=========== tape.........../
..\.....................============ tape......./
...\.................................|........................./
....-----------------------------------------------
2nd question: If I have any voids, do I need to mix some epoxy with wood flour to fill them, or just fill with epoxy and apply cloth?
3rd question: Can I start in the morning, or do I have to wait longer for the epoxy to harden sufficiently? Please don't make me wait!
