Steve's FS18

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AGreen29
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by AGreen29 »

Looking good Steve, wish I was still in town to help you out. I'll let you know when I am in town again so I can check it out and give you a hand. Will probably be around a bunch with the holidays looming. Keep the pics coming and can't wait til you head my way with her so we can slime the decks. :D

Dutch1
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Dutch1 »

AGreen29 wrote:Looking good Steve, wish I was still in town to help you out. I'll let you know when I am in town again so I can check it out and give you a hand. Will probably be around a bunch with the holidays looming. Keep the pics coming and can't wait til you head my way with her so we can slime the decks. :D
Thanks man! Hopefully it will be in one piece when you get back over here. We'll have to plan ahead. I'll have the rum ready for a fiberglass party! And yes, we'll scout around your new neck of the woods soon enough to slime it up!

All of the long panels are spliced together. I'll post some more pics soon. It's been a long week at work. I didn't work on it any last night so I'm a day behind where I wanted to be for this weekend.

Dutch1
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Dutch1 »

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you to all of my brothers and sisters who served! And, happy late birthday to my U.S. Marine Corps brothers and sisters!

OK folks. It's been a little while since I posted any pics. I was mainly working on the long panel splices in the evenings. I'm limited on working space so I could only splice and sand so much at one time. At the present time, everything is spliced and ready for assembly. Which is what I'm going to work on this weekend.

My goal is to do this right. As I mentioned before I hadn't worked with epoxy before this build. I need everyone's opinion on my splices. I think I ended up with what a good splice should look like on my last several splices. All splices are surprisingly strong but I think I left too much epoxy on the top of the fiberglass for my first few splices. I was worried about the fiberglass not being saturated with epoxy enough. And, for some stupid reason I put plastic over the splices, then wood and weight. I had to do this since the wood was wanting to bow up and not be even for the first side but once I flipped the long panels I didn't really need the weight on there. As you can see in the first pic there is a crease in the epoxy. I used a roll of plastic that you had to unfold and it still had a crease in there and it showed in the epoxy. I actually thought about trying to smooth out the plastic but felt it wouldn't have mattered much at all. So...

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This is one of the first splices. Notice the crease. It was very strong but I didn't like the way it looked. I wanted it as smooth as possible since I would be fairing over one side of these long panels. Seeing this I knew I would be sanding this down. And, I started critiquing my splicing method.

Then it hit me. I purchased this tool below and planned to use it but forgot about it. As I sanded through the epoxy to smooth it down I got to thinking about what needs to take place for the splice to be strong and be more glass than epoxy. I finished sanding and went digging for that tool.

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This does the trick. I brushed a coat of epoxy on the splice area, then placed the glass over the spot. Then by rolling the fiberglass with this tool I could tell what area needed more epoxy and I dabbed more in that spot with the chip brush and rolled it more with the roller. When everything was saturated I then used the squeegee (plastic) to get any excess epoxy out and ended up with what I thought was a good looking splice. To the point I didn't put plastic on the splice. My plan was to let it dry as is and if I didn't think it was good I would sand through the fiberglass and do it again.

And for those of you that haven't used one of these tools before it cleans up very easily. I just had a quart container of water that I swished it around in when I was done. The epoxy settled in the bottom and the roller looked great. I don't know why the water did so good but I'd be interested to know if someone can tell me. I don't think the marine epoxy would stick to the metal and the water decreased it's bonding capability. ??

So what do you think? Is this what it is supposed to look like?
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It is strong and the only sanding that is needed would be on the seams/threads that hold the fiberglass together and the edges. I'd read on Cracker Larry's threads that when sanding and you get through the seams and see the cross pattern of the fiberglass to stop. I think I can get to this fairly easily and still have a very strong splice.

The plan was to have all of the stations set up and ready last Saturday but this is as far as I got. Family duties impacted my plans for the day. . . I'll leave it at that. . .
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So I packed up everything until I could work on it again. I took my wife to Louisiana over the last week for our 20th Anniversary. Interesting place and I even got some fishing done while I was there to scratch that fishing itch for a while and give me some motivation to finish this boat. We both needed the break and it was a great trip.

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I'll post some more pics of what I can get done this weekend.

tcason
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by tcason »

second splice looks perfect - less resin better - more sanding now the easier it will be in future

I like my resin warm about 80 to keep it thin...........

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peter-curacao
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by peter-curacao »

tcason wrote:second splice looks perfect -
It surely does

Jeff
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Jeff »

Dutch1, looks good!! Yes, send us some photos when you finish the weekend!! Jeff

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Cracker Larry
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Cracker Larry »

Second splice looks perfect. Like they said 8) And a good Veteran's Day to you and yours.
Completed GF12 X 2, GF16, OD18, FS18, GF5, GF18, CL6
"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made." -Robert N. Rose

Dutch1
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Dutch1 »

Thanks everyone. I thought it looked a lot better than the first splice. I spent a few hours sanding last night to clean them up before I put it all together. I'm probably going to move a few jugs of resin in the house to keep it around 70. It's starting to cool off here and pushing thick resin through fiberglass doesn't sound like it would work too well.

I decided to put the decks on the strongback and then the stations on top as the plans show. Just taking it slow to make sure it's right. I have a few on now and hope to have them all on today. Space is getting tight in the garage...

Dutch1
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Dutch1 »

Good evening. I finished the first part of the glue today. I've taken a lot of pictures so if there is something you want to see that isn't below let me know.

My grandad is helping me with this boat on the weekends. I love having him around and am thankful he is able to help. He made a comment today that he can't wait to get this done so we can go fish! Doing well for 87...

Last weekend we set up all of the stations, stitched the bottom hull panels, and placed it on the stations. Monday night I came home and attached the side panels. Then I worked it for a few hours and had it done but I didn't like the way it was going together without a screw here and there holding things in place. Tuesday night I pulled everything back off and reset everything by using a few screws. Especially on the hull to pull it down on the stations. Each night I did a little more and by late last night I was happy with the way it looked and ready to glue.

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I decided to attach the gunwales since I had the decks on there. I ended up taking them off due to the pic below.

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Hmm, this wasn't supposed to happen and had me stumped for a few minutes. I checked everything. It turns out I didn't cut the sheet I used for the gunwales down to 8ft. Once I trimmed both ends of the gunwales and shifted the front deck back it fit as it should have using the gunwales to check. Then I just set them aside. Thankfully I caught that for all of the other sheets. Can someone please tell me why high end lumber is not 4x8ft?

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Everything is lining up good.

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This had me checking measurements again. It was consistent all the way through the stations. 3 3/8" isn't enough. I lowered them and tacked them in place.

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Getting ready to attach the transom.

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Ready to start drilling holes for stitches.

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I was glad to get to this point last Sunday night.

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I fought the front and ended up just using this for weight to try and keep the wood bent down so I could work the stitches. A third hand if you will.

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The look last Monday night. I couldn't get it to sit down on the stations.

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The look of the bow after SEVERAL tries. I cussed and had thoughts of putting a hammer through it before I got it to this point. A rounded chine would have been easier. The biggest problem was it wanted to fold rather than give me the gap I wanted in between the panels. I like the way it turned out and was pleased with the results. As long as it stayed that way..

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The look last night. There was still a hump from that one piece of 1/4" sticking up. I used that to hold it in place. I took care of it before I glued it up.

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Grandad helping me tidy up a few things and even up a spot prior to gluing.

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Big hurdle for me. I'll check the glue tomorrow. It's supposed to get down to the low 30's tomorrow night so it will delay my cure time considerably. I've moved my resin inside. When it's ready I'll finish up these spots and start shaping getting ready for taping and fiberglass next weekend.

I'm not sure if I would put the decks on the strongback if I built another one of these. It impeded access to those areas and made it more difficult. BUT, it was nice having them as guides. I might cut a copy out in the future with a BIG hole so I could reach back up to the hull from the bottom. I'm also over not wanting to use a screw. It made it a lot easier working by myself. I kept shifting the whole boat around and the screws just kept everything in check.

Again, if anyone wants to see a particular pic that wasn't posted, let me know. Happy early Thanksgiving everyone!

Fuzz
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Re: Steve's FS18

Post by Fuzz »

I envy you getting to build a boat with your grand dad. That is something most people will never get to do. He is looking really good for 87 :D
Boats coming along nicely too :lol:

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