Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hull glass prep

No video for this post, as the task at hand consisted mostly of sanding. And the only thing more dreary than sanding is watching a couple of minute of video of someone sanding. Anyway, with stitches removed, the hull now can be prepped for application of a layer of fiberglass. Before that step, however, the hull must be smooth with no sharp edges. Fiberglass has a limited capacity to bend around sharp corners, so the chines must include a radius, and all the other dings, snags and seams of the hull must be smoothed. I had to use a chisel to lop off a few protruding copper wire stitches that weren't flush. That worked fairly well, except for a few additional gouges I put in the wood with the chisel. Then came out the "Darth Sander" costume, and sanding began. The chines also were rounded off with the trusty Black and Decker quarter sheet orbital sander and some 100-grit sandpaper. After careful work, the result is a nicely smooth and well-radiused multi-chine hull. Before glassing, though, gaps in the chine seams and stitch holes will have to be filled with thickened epoxy, and the hull sanded again. But that's the topic for next post! Total hours 19.50.

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