BnzFam5

March 27, 2012 My first experience with fiberglass resin is finished. I have one side of the Stringers and Bulkheads covered with a coat of resin. Some of the things that I observed is....it is usually a good idea to have everything ready to go before you venture out to the garage. Running around trying to gather your items before you start is tough to do. Everything's a Dollar rollers are not worth it. They will fall apart right after you start using them!! The Dollar General roller worked pretty good. I think that I will scrap using a roller pan also. I will just pour it right out of the bucket that I am using and roll it out from there. One pint was too much resin to cover so I think that I will only mix up 1 cup of resin to do the back sides of these panels. Some other thoughts about the experience. I bought a pump for the 5 gallon pail of resin and it worked pretty good. Next time I will be sure to have some extra rollers on stand by and ready so that if the one that I...

March 24-25, 2012 I spent my time this weekend sizing the stringers and bulkheads down to their final sizes. Not too much in the line of pictures because I wanted to get as much done as possible. First of all on Saturday I had to take some time and correct a stringer that I incorrectly cut to the wrong height. I cut the left stringer too high and used it and the center stringer to line up the right stringer's height. Since the center stringer is cut to the correct size that caused me to cut the right stringer short. So I had to cut a new right stringer. I still had and have plenty of wood and that was good. To finish out the evening I made the measurements of the deck area. I worked on Sunday to finish cutting everything to the correct height. The left stringer that was too high took the longest to get to the correct size. Not wanting to mess up another stringer I was using my belt sander to sand down the wood. Then I would check the height in the boat to the center and to...

March 17-18, 2012 We are really having some crazy weather around here. Last weekend I was working on the boat with long sleeves and sweatshirts and this weekend it was a tshirt and shorts. But I am not complaining though I didn't think that I could possibly be fiberglassing this early in the year. But never mind that right now I had work to do... I spent Saturday on cutting all of the bulkhead pieces. So now as far as the Stringers and Bulkheads are concerned they are now cut. I made a run also on Saturday and got the following supplies: -Chalk Line -6 small tubes of PL Glue -Caulk gun -Stainless Steel screws (I bought them out of what they had...should at least get me started) I am still trying to find 3M 5200 and a 5 gallon pail dispenser pump. Sunday I mapped out my plan of where all of the stringers and bulkheads are going to go and traced it out with a sharpie... Then I glued in the foam spacers that will keep the wood from coming in direct contact with the hull. After I w...

March 10 & 11 - Saturday morning we went out and purchased a 3/4" x 4' x 8' piece of MDO plywood. I chose MDO because it is made with waterproof glue and is for making of outdoor signs. It was suggested by the good folks at iboats forums that the wood would be great to use. It was a little more expensive than I thought it would be but I will only have to have one sheet barring any problems to be able to get all of the stringers and bulkheads cut. The first cut that I made was the center stringer. It starts off at 8" and has a curve to it at the bottom. I had to make that cut with my jig saw. Then I test fitted it in the boat. After some belt sanding it fits really well. After that I cut the left stringer. With some test fitting I found out that the right stringer and the left stringer are not the same like I had previously thought. So I had to make a new template for the right side. Once that was accomplished I was able to make the cut for the stinger and ...

This weekend I worked on creating some of the stringer and bulkhead templates. I will use those to make the cuts in plywood. I have finished the center and both left and right stringer templates. One thing I got lucky with is that both the left and right stringers are the same size. So I will be able to use the same template when I cut both of those. Next I have made the left and right front bulkhead templates and also the left middle and left rear. The hull has a concave curve to it. So I measured out the area and then I drew the curve of the hull freehand. It had a pretty big gap in it so I used a small strip and some duct tape to get the curve just right. Then I took the template with the duct tape forms and created a new template. And wa-la here is the finished product This weekend I am going to finish the other bulkhead templates and I am going to build some racking to hold the stringers and bulkheads in place while I fiberglass them.