LM18 Houston Tx

To help other builders, please list the boat you are building in the Thread Subject -- and to conserve space, please limit your posting to one thread per boat.

Please feel free to use the gallery to display multiple images of your progress.
User avatar
BB Sig
Very Active Poster
Very Active Poster
Posts: 1750
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:20 am
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Contact:

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by BB Sig »

Fairing mix is not structural. Mock up the skeg and glass first and mark a grind line. Grind back enough fairing to get your skeg glued and glassed. The marks will hopefully keep you from grinding too much.

Better to catch it now than after you rip it off! :wink:

Jeff
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 8435
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:17 pm
Location: Vero Beach

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by Jeff »

Eric, how did you and your family fair with all of the rain & flooding in and around Houston over the last few days? Jeff

ericwensel
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 10:31 pm
Location: Texas

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by ericwensel »

BB Sig wrote: Wed Sep 23, 2020 5:58 am Fairing mix is not structural. Mock up the skeg and glass first and mark a grind line. Grind back enough fairing to get your skeg glued and glassed. The marks will hopefully keep you from grinding too much.

Better to catch it now than after you rip it off! :wink:
OK. thanks for the suggestion. that is in line with my understanding. I did some digging around other builds and noted that some builders have added the skeg after fairing and did what you suggest. it was nice fairing without the skeg in place but if i did it again, i would put on before fairing.

ericwensel
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 10:31 pm
Location: Texas

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by ericwensel »

Jeff wrote: Wed Sep 23, 2020 7:13 am Eric, how did you and your family fair with all of the rain & flooding in and around Houston over the last few days? Jeff
We are OK. thanks for asking. The South and East side of town got hit much harder. I am on the west and got much less rain.

Jeff
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 8435
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:17 pm
Location: Vero Beach

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by Jeff »

Good Eric!!! Jeff

ericwensel
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 10:31 pm
Location: Texas

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by ericwensel »

I have been unable to make progress that last few weeks due travel and other distractions. However, I did get back to it this weekend.
I felt I was very close to having a fair hull but I had not installed the skeg, rub rail or sharpened the chines. I should have done this first before doing too much fairing work. Nevertheless, I was able to accomplish those tasks. However, I still have some more fairing work to do as a result of these late additions.
Image
Image

For the skeg I had to grind back the fairing material to the glass where the skeg would attach to the hull. I did trace a small area allowing for the skeg, a fillet and some fiberglass. The skeg went on nicely. I have not sanded it smooth but it looks good to me. I am open to suggestion on how to get the skeg smooth. I guess I will hand sand the fiberglass down a bit and then coat with unthickened or slightly thickened epoxy and then sand some more.
Image
Image

For the rub rail, I had precut the sets of rub rail pieces from an extra 1/4" plywood sheets. The rub rails pieces were cut to match the sheariline from the hull panel pattern so they went on nicely. I laminated three layers to create the rub rail. I then created a chamfer profile with wood flour and epoxy. I cleaned it up with some QuickFair. I really like it. I feels quite substantial.
Image

I used a dam (hardboard with packing tape) approach to sharpen the chines. I guess it went reasonably well but created a lot of additional fairing work. I have quite a bit of clean up work to do as a result.
Image

User avatar
gstanfield
* Bateau Builder *
* Bateau Builder *
Posts: 4655
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:09 pm

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by gstanfield »

It's looking good. Don't get too bogged down with lack of progress of what you may feel to be slow progress.

Remember; even if you're two steps forward and one step back then you're still a step ahead of where you would have been by not trying.
Previous builds: FL14, NC16, and others...

Current build: FL14 (+10%)

Dougster
* Bateau Builder *
* Bateau Builder *
Posts: 3296
Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:05 pm
Location: Texas

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by Dougster »

You can smooth the skeg out by running over oyster beds after she's launched 8)

Dougster

Jeff
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 8435
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:17 pm
Location: Vero Beach

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by Jeff »

Good progress Eric!!! Jeff

ericwensel
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
Posts: 73
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 10:31 pm
Location: Texas

Re: LM18 Houston Tx

Post by ericwensel »

I decided to coat the bottom with epoxy/graphite. Although I don't think it looks as nice as painting the entire hull, I really like the properties of the graphite/epoxy coating. Given the black will be below the waterline, I think I will be happy I did this.

I applied three coats wet on wet. I am using about 30% by volume graphite which seems to mix well but i would not want to add any more graphite. I used a foam roller. I did get some light roller edge marks and i can see a few low spots i missed. However, it actually looks better than I expected and i am generally happy with the result. After sanding this last coat, I intend to add 2 or 3 more coats and will sand between each further coat. I would like to reduce the viscosity of the graphite/epoxy to perhaps eliminate any roller marks. I am thinking that a solvent is out of the question. Is warming the hardener/resin or warming the hull (with a space heater) an option. Do you think it would make a difference. I am in Houston so it is not like it is brutally cold here.

Image

After I finish the bottom, I intend to move on to priming. Before priming, i think i am going to put down another coat of epoxy resin (not on the bottom though). I am going to use the S3 two part primer. Before painting, I will probably have lots of questions.

One thing i am concerned about is the graphite/epoxy edge and how it will transition to the primer / top coat. I now have 3 coats built up making significant edge. If I put on another Epoxy Resin layer as noted above, perhaps that will lessen the difference. I am considering overlapping (extending) the next two or three coats of graphite/epoxy by a 1/4" each coat. Suggestions? Is this something that is worth worrying about?
Last edited by ericwensel on Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 10 guests