Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Temporary Frames and Gluing, Gluing, Gluing

Phew!  Got quite a bit done in the last week.  But it sure seems like I'm going at this a bit slower than anticipated..

Last post, I had completed wiring in all of the hull panels and wired in the temporary center frame.  So I've since installed the remaining temporary frames (2 bow and 2 stern).  And I've glued the inside keel seam.

 
 
The above picture shows the center temp frame, bow mid and end temp frames and glued inside keel seam.  Next step was to install spacers onto the bow and stern frames.  Then turn the hull over and get ready to glue the outside seams.  That's what you see below.

 
 
And then,,,,  glue all of the outside seams.  Simple, eh?  Well, this took some time.  First the keel seam, plus the center section of the boat between 1 & 2 panels and 2 & 3 panels.  That's all that could be done for the first pass at gluing.  That's because beyond these sections the boat is too vertical.  I had to do this first, let it dry overnight, and then glue the vertical sections that remained the next couple days.  First one side and then the other.  So all together, I think this took me 3 or 4 days to complete.  That's what you see below.

 
 
What a mess!  From what it looks like now, I think I'll be several days sanding the excess off and cleaning up the panels.  But first I have to remove the twisted wire fasteners.  That should be fun since they are also epoxied along the seams.  But I'm assured by Pygmy Boats that the wire will come out of the epoxy rather easy.  We'll see.  And I also have to put some epoxy on the inside of the boat at the stems.  And finally, I have to add some more, very thickened epoxy to the outside of the bow and stern stems.  Then I can begin to sand the outside of the hull smooth.  Sounds like another week of work to me.

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