Texas LB22

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Dougster
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Texas LB22

Post by Dougster »

Hey folks, I've come down here to start a thread where I can just carry on when I don't even know enough to bother Jacques with a specific question upstairs. You may have seen me in the marathon recent thread where half the forum struggled mightily to help me through getting the panels on the frames. I do have some pictures posted in the gallery that I think should be called Dougster-LB22. However, a search of that in the gallery finds nothing. Indeed it is on page 25 however. Oddly enough a search of "Dougster" finds an album with only one picture in it. God knows what I did, but the real thing is on page 25 of the gallery.

Recent news is continued tweaking of the panels, getting closer and closer. All straps and turnbuckles (see gallery or above mentioned thread) are finalized and I'm just fiddling with little edges and things. Everything takes longer than I think. Tomorrow I intend to wind down the fiddle and crawl around underneath the hull and put packing tape along all seams. Or so I say. I'm not stalling at all. No fear of jumping in with the 'poxy and tack welding. Not a bit. No, no. Did I say I say no nerves? Yes, well, so I did.

Glad not to be alone here Dougster

WobblyLegs
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Re: Texas LB22

Post by WobblyLegs »

"Dougster"

Tomorrow I intend to wind down the fiddle and crawl around underneath the hull and put packing tape along all seams. Or so I say. I'm not stalling at all. No fear of jumping in with the 'poxy and tack welding. Not a bit. No, no. Did I say I say no nerves? Yes, well, so I did.

Glad not to be alone here Dougster
Hi Dougster,

I was following your "marathon" question thread, and am glad you are now preparing to start joining it all together. To make it easier, when you start with the 'poxy, mix in batches small enough that you can use it all without rushing. Rushing is not good...

Even though you only have minutes (10? 20?) to mix and spread/fillet epoxy, as long as you do it methodically (finish one section before moving to the next), you will have hours available to do the whole job.

As you get on with the project and you gain experience using the sticky stuff, you will look back at this moment and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Having said that, I still find I need to mentally prepare myself when starting a long epoxy session - check you have all the tools necessary. Check you have enough mixing cups and enough sticks. Check that your woodflour (or whatever filleting mix you prefer) is close by and open - you don't want to fiddle with stubborn lids with sticky gloves on. Check you have all the glass measured, cut and ready to lay. Make sure you have some cleaning materials close at hand (acetone) for wiping up spills, cleaning wood etc. Make sure you have enough gloves availble so you can change them often - although epoxy is very sticky, it's also very slimey and slippery when you gloves are covered with it. Running out of gloves is a major pita.

I also make sure I have a bucket of water close by so I can wash my hands without having to touch a tap (faucet?) with sticky fingers.

Go though the process, step by step, in your mind (even act it out) several times before mixing. Make sure that you won't end up halfway through, and suddenly find you need something you can't find.

Most of all, enjoy working on it and DON'T PANIC. If something's not going right, stop, step back, look at it, figure out why it's not right, find a solution, and move with it. Even though you don't have too long to WORK with epoxy, you do have an extended period where you can scrape it off if needs be, clean up a bit, and try again.

I look forward to watching your wood turn into a boat.

Best of luck (and you're never alone building a Bateau boat!).

Tim.
Last edited by WobblyLegs on Sun Feb 04, 2007 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dougster
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Post by Dougster »

Thanks for the tips Tim, I like the bucket of water idea and realize I need to "organize" a bit. I did build the Devlin Dinghy "Pollywog" as an excercise to see if I was up to this sort of thing and if I really did enjoy it. That dinghy is stitch and glue and glassed on the outside. I struggled with that glassing and taping, and had lots of bubbles in the glass that had to be ground out and faired. I work slowly and wet on wet won't always be possible. The project is so big to me I just take one step at a time and don't much think of the next one. Otherwise it feels overwhelming. I have followed your C17 thread and admire your craftsmanship. Things look so neat and well fit. My work is more primitive and obviously amateur. Still, stubborn will get me there I think. Hope you get some warm weather.

Got to get it going on Dougster

ks8
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Post by ks8 »

Once the skills are developed, you'll find you can work fast in a panic. :lol:

But you need to learn when to throw away a batch that is *going off* and not try to stretch it. I've toossed about a dozen *small* batches*, but foolishly tried to use 3 others, one of which I had to grind off, and the other two, I pretend to know nothing about (not critical structural areas). 8O

Dougster
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Post by Dougster »

It's hard to toss a batch. I "cheaped up" once on the Devlin Dinghy learning project and payed the price. On payin' the price I'll say this: rather not. 'Poxy, in my extremely limited experience, is damned unforgiving, sticky stinky, make you break in blister rash, miracle stuff. One must hate and bless it, I suppose. I'll do both. It is wonderful. It allows wood butcher amateurs to build a boat, but no free lunch.

Enough on the negative. I finished the fiddle today, spent 2 hrs. happily crawling underneath Ms. Nina's skirts putting packing tape on the joints to catch 'poxy fillet bleed throughs. She's warm and pleasant up there, like it's supposed to be. I was gentle.

Tack weld on his mind Dougster 8O

Dougster
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Post by Dougster »

Hey guys I tried a little bit of tack welding on the vertical seam of the bow. I have some of the Silvertip Gelmagic and, like another poster I've read found it way to runny. More like honey than peanut butter, and an hour after application half had run out of the vertical seam. I had taken a tip from the Devlin book and covered the seam with packing tape after the fillet was put on, which helped some. But basically I don't like it. Maybe ok for nice flat seams like the keel. I'm thinking I'd do better mixing my own with wood flour and some marinepoxy, saving the Silvertip resin I have for wetting out the glass. I can add wood flour to the Gelmagic I guess, do folks think that's acceptable? Seems kinda silly to pay $$ for Gelmagic, and then mix wood flour anyway. Also the stuff is a pita to mix, 'cuz it's too thick for pumps and pours in big globs. Now that Gelmagic in a cartridge sure looks like a slick timesaver, but what good if it all runs out of vertical seams? Anybody had better luck with it?

Not likin' that Gelmagic Dougster

Super Spook
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Post by Super Spook »

I believe you may be using the Gel Magic in an application for which the EZ Fillet is intended. The Gel Magic is used to replace the glue mix. I've played around with the EZ Fillet some and I think that it will work for what you're doing, especially with the tape under the seam.

Dougster
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Post by Dougster »

Well, good grief, yeah of course you're right 'Spook. :oops: It may be that I'm too stupid to live. Good Lord, if I can build this boat it will prove anyone can be Noah. Well no harm done, the little section I did needs some sanding but a half hour of trouble will make it right. I will say putting packing tape on top of the fillet worked very well, a kind of poor man's peel ply. The seam there is smooth.

Been a fool before so I'll get over it Dougster

Spokaloo
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Post by Spokaloo »

No worries doug, no worries. The nice part about a joint that flowed out is you can go back and put more in! Im a mixer myself, get it the way I want it with woodflour, silica, fairing compounds, wheat flour, etc.

I am finishing up the panels on mine today and possibly friday, so stitching should be coming up next week. Fit out should be done by the end of feb and glue should start in march.

You should post your photos at www.photobucket.com so you can post them in the threads!

E

MadRus
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Post by MadRus »

Image

At least I thought you could.

There's got to be a way. I'm sure Joel posted something about it just a couple weeks ago.

There we go...

1. Go to your gallery.
2. Choose the pic you want to include in your forum message.
3. Right click on the image in the gallery and select "PROPERTIES" from the pop-up list.
4. Highlight the entire URL displayed in the "PROPERTIES" dialog box and copy it.
5. Paste it into your forum message between Image tags.

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