Introspection: The Thirteen Percent, Carpe Deum: Opportunistic Defenestration, And The March Fourth March Forth

Every week I sit down, peruse the photos and hope that I can assemble the lot of photos into some cohesiveness and describe what we did. I hope that I don't bore you. I try not to delve into any philosophy, but occasionally something leaks past the dam in my head. I did all that philosophizing in my younger days and discovered that I was composed of 87% male bovine excrement. I scraped up the 13%, shut up, and pushed on through life. Now I hope you can see what we do, enjoy a brief read, see some pictures and have a laugh or two. We have emotional ups and downs and, sometimes, philosophical containment is momentarily breached. You must realize that it's just the 87% seeping out and forming a puddle and remember not to step in it. Nothing I write here can guide anyone through life, except maybe to convince people not to build boats. I don't analyse life, I just live it. It didn't come with a set of instructions so I'm making it up as I go along. 

Stuff we did.....stuff we did.................. Oh! Small petty picayune projects proceeding punctually. I painted the interior of the battery box! Two (or was it 3?) coats on the interior. Then I painted a couple coats on the exterior! What? You want something exciting?

Here it is! Remember the many moved holes of the motor box supports? This final hole, the culmination of  trial, error, more trial, more error ended up too close to the outer edge (more error). We were concerned about the strength. So I planed the surface so I could glue a thickening piece on the edge.

OK, so......... glue on a little triangle shaped thingy and glue on a reinforcement piece to thicken and strengthen the oak ear. All I had to do was

Mix a bit of oat epoxy. 

and pop two nails in to hold it while the glue sets! Phuque! Not there. Ben cursed for thirty minutes trying to remove the nail smack dab in the center of the hole! Fate, oh you rascal!

The art of mixing epoxy has become Ben's forte. Heating, cooling, precise measurement thanks to a plethora of containers from Wallyworld: graduated shot glasses from the kitchen area, plastic cups from the picnic aisle and now, these squeeze bottles from the cheap kitchen plastics aisle. Our epoxy (Progressive, 2:1 ratio) does not have pumps that work. We can mix 3 teaspoons if we want. My oak epoxy was in the freezer for over a day and still usable.

Ben had to cut the motor box top supports. You don't just cut a bunch of pieces, you calculate what you have versus what you need. You plan finished pieces, width of cuts, what the saw takes (the saw's "Angel's share") to produce the final piece with minimal waste. Must I go into the Zen of being one with the product, or it that the 87% creeping past again? We move on..............

Ben Needed a couple pieces of plywood to glue on the motor boxes. Guess what? The two pieces of ply that I cut off last week from the pod pass thru were perfect for the task at hand.

Once the chop saw was accounted for and adjusted, the process moved along

So Ben went to put a roundover onto whatsoever oak he was using for the motor boxes and he discovered (already knew) that the router table was warped and he got disgusted and ended up making a flat top using a piece of 9 mm plywood that he had to cut a circle  in the center but first had to refurbish the compass from the latest garage sale compass purchase to draw the circle so that everything was perfect and, my gawd, people  how much details do you need, and, anyway, he finally got the pieces routed once he had a flat table. Simple in the lot of us boat builder types.

I worked on a removable panel to be installed in the pod. I glued up some pieces, let them dry for a day, then threw the whole contraption in the trash and went in another direction.

I shaped a piece of 12 mm ply to fit the irregular shape and cut out the center by partially plunge cutting it on a table saw and finishing the corners with a jig saw.

Front.......................................................................................and Back........... coated with epoxy

The big washers for the motor boxes didn't clear the edge of the boxes, so..................

Something (other than Me) had Been bothering Ben. Then it hit him. This has been the best weather ever that we have had to work. This weather window would be perfect to finally paint the boat. No 100° weather. no torrential rains, temperature in the 60's. Paint application easy. We jumped into the window and started. The last time was over a year ago. The ports were not in and we sprayed it. The beams were not even it. Now, spraying was out of the scenario. Remnants of the previous paint still stuck in spots. We did the best we could with what we had. First we scrubbed the whole boat.

Sanded the whooooooooooooole thing. Then rinsed it again to remove the sanding dust.

Ben taped it off and on Thursday morning we primed it. 

Thursday afternoon we painted the first coat (Lime Pop, the color). Friday morning we  wiped the moisture off and painted the second coat. Friday afternoon we painted the third coat. We filmed it, so look for the video coming soon. Ben will work on it.

Lime Pop??????????????

Last March......................................................................This March.

The window was closing fast. Saturday morning, we covered the Boat, prayed to Tlaloc that the paint would hold fast and called it a week.

So don't cry over spilt paint. Your life's gotta be better than ours.

The Music♪: Chicago "Fancy Colors"

I usurped Ben's selection this week. More Ben's selections next time.