Cutting corners

Another week shot to pieces. As usual epoxy triples the time it takes to do anything. I do believe that I have mentioned it in the past that I HATE EPOXY! Budge believes in it. That is, until his joints start popping off of his boat. With all media in which you work, you must learn it's faults and embrace them. Nothing is magic. Wood is not plastics. Plastics are not wood. Take a living thing and encase it epoxy and see it in action. It isn't like a fly in amber. It wants to move. Lately I have delved a mite into Viking boats. Riven oak, clinker built ships that took them across oceans and deep into rivers. They  were built within the materials capabilities. They leaked. They were true to the materials. They worked. Modern materials attempt to eliminate the faults of the materials. Cross laminated plywood eliminates (mostly) wood movement, but the material's laminations can be problems unto themselves. We coat wood with epoxy like a Krispy Crème donut. The wood expands, the epoxy cracks.

​Hey......thanks to Ken, ATW, for his music appreciation.

Ben's experiment with the compatibility between oak epoxy and normal epoxy. Coat oak with oakpoxy, coat plywood with normal epoxy. Let cure. Whang away with a hammer. The weld did not break the ply/oak bond. just the ply laminations=lamentations on the laminations.

So......our accomplishment for the week? Sixteen blocks, three falls, more frustrations  than you can count. These sixteen blocks had to have lashing holes, notches cut in and align with it's counterpart. We had to glue these said blocks to the hulls and pod sides to support the side decks. The space between them is as small as 11 inches. We have to squeeze between them to work. The weather is hot enough to make things uncomfortable enough to exacerbate the epoxy frustrations enough and generate much bowelship language.
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Frustrating????? Naw, we always ram scissors a half inch deep into benches.

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So Ben was squeezing up into the tight space between the hull and pod and the ladder kicked out from underneath him.

He fell. He got a scraped forearm and a twisted ankle. I am still recovering from my fall last week (twisted knee). Don't build boats under these conditions. Don't build boats at all.

Apply epoxy coat both surfaces, apply thickened epoxy position, screw from the opposite side, repeat. Each block must be properly aligned. Tight spaces, epoxy working time diminished, precise alignment, sixteen blocks. It drove us bonkers!

Make sure they line up. This took ALL WEEK. Ben is in the process of getting the blocks coated.

Oh, yeah.........recut as necessary.

Coffins have more space than we had to work. Jammed in!

Don't forget to remove the screws before the epoxy completely sets up. We didn't..........twisted off a half dozen torx bits tips. Next take a chisel and pound it in on the edge of the screw and attempt to free it up that way. Broke a couple chisel tips. too.

While ben fought frustration with the blocks, I tiptoed away and removed all the hatches to get some gaskets in. I first had to finish installing the final two hatch hinges. My sore knee prevented my kneeling for a week. Kneepads on and my knee screaming in protest, I got the final two hatch hinges bedded and screwed on. Next repair minor problems.............

.....like corner joint cracks. Cut the crack and work epoxy into the corner. Next: gaskets.

Meanwhilst, Ben fought on. He fell again. Rocks are not a stabile surface to work. The ladders cannot necessarily find solid surfaces. I also fell when the ladder shifted. Luckily the wood stack caught me. When we leave, Budge will be alone working on his boat..........I worry about this.

Ben fighting the frustration............... It sucks your soul and the essence of your being.

I considered hatch gaskets. I toyed with the corners and the type of glue to use. I looked at the corners and could not get a clean miter cut and considered just butting the gasket at the corners, Budge said that I must miter the corners, Apparently you don't cut corners when you're cutting corners.

The problem with cutting D profile rubber gaskets is that it is, errrrrrrr, rubbery, so when you cut it, it distorts and the cut  and, ergo, the joint, is not clean. Why does every small thing require a solution? I shaped a piece of oak to roughly fit he interior of the gasket material so I could cut it gently and maybe have a nice miter joint. We shall see next week.................

Ben fights on....................................................... Boat building is soul sucking!

The Music♫: Charlie Crockett "I Am Not Afraid"

Ben's choice this week.