Prospector Sailing Canoe Build

Sunday, June 18, 2006

I have now taken down the temporary workshop and the boat is in the open for the first time, I have discovered that one stem had a rather bad kink to the top planks, although it should not have happened I am going to blame it on the lack of space around that end of the work bench, anyway I was wondering what end was the stern and now I know (so I don’t have to look at it)

A file is the best tool for getting rid of the snipped off stitches that are set in fillets and I found that a wood file with a rasp back did the trick shaping the stems, as I taped the seams I did not have much resin filleting to clear up although there were two fair leaks which were very hard and difficult to sand, again the wood file did the trick




I taped the inside of the chines, it was not until the last few that I worked out a method, the trick is to cut the tape to exactly the right length then roll it tightly up again, wet the seam with resin and then just roll out the tape over it with a slight pressure to make it adhere, then you can wet it out with a brush, the first seams are a little wobbly and don’t go all the way into the stem, I figured that I would cut them short and do the fiddly bits later, this was a mistake as the short lengths were almost impossible to get in, I managed to get a double tape on the outside of the centre chine which used up the rest of the tape so I cant tape the inner stems anyway, they are held with fillets and the stems outers are taped so I cant see a problem (looks like I will be having those stem compartments after all) I figured that I will be painting and filling the entire hull inside and out so I was not too bothered with the neatness of the taping besides it was 30DegC and the resin was going off quickly! I made up some filleting mix to fill some of the gaps in the chines but I wanted to save some to cover the entire outside, this I started to do but as I came to the bottom of the resin bottles the dispensers could not get the dregs out, there is also resin in the pump body so I poured all of this out and mixed it, there was just enough to cover the exterior but with two quarter planks left to do it went off, looks like I will have to use gripfill after all for the little gaps left in the chines


As I sat and pondered my problems and mistakes I decided I would do it differently next time, a workshop is a must, it removes the problems caused by lack of space, lighting and environmental influences, I have spent too much time scratching my head about problems unrelated to the actual craft and reflecting on mistakes that have been made due to working conditions. The shop must have a bench of 16x8 that can be taken down to 16x2 and working space of at least a couple of feet all the way around (a double garage would be fine) there would be another bench for tools it should have sufficient lighting and power and be able to maintain a comfortable room temperature and allow ventilation when using resin I would buy 100m of tape, a 1.2kg resin pack and the dispensers and a bigger pack of resin to top up from, I would look for a method of delivering fillets i.e. a caulking gun. I would “paint” 4 sheets of ply with resin (both sides) and allow to cure this I think would make filleting and taping easier and save time later it would also make a neater job, I would then cut the planks from templates using a router and make sure that the plank edges were primed with resin, I would tape the butt joints all at once (on top of each other to keep them the same) I would cut the moulds with a circular saw as a jig saw does not leave a straight line, cutting holes in the points of the moulds where they contact the chines would allow continuous filleting under the mould, I would also drill small holes for screws on all of the mould lines on the planks and screw the moulds in as I went, the holes can be plugged later, I would use zip ties and place a dowel under each tie to keep the planks in line and I would tape the outside of the chines again but not with parcel tape, I would use insulating taped for ease and clear up


 
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