A step back for two forward.
Just when I was about to feel good about getting steady work done on the Wa’apa, I get a reality check. It’s really no surprise, of
Stern deck rent asunder.
course, that it would be the miserable climate we’ve had around here lately. Fifty degree mornings and steady rain for weeks makes for very poor epoxy curing air, which allowed the deck on the stern to pop off after I removed the clamps, literally tearing the plywood apart. Still- I did resolve the problem with bad fillets by using all-purpose flour mixed in to the epoxy instead of sawdust (thanks for the tip Trevor!) and it’s brilliant. Makes a perfectly smooth paste, inexpensive, and completely organic- can’t go wrong on any level. Hopefully it won’t become bread on a hot day. In the future I hope to try it with a fairly new epoxy product called Entropy Bio-Resin, which is less toxic than the current petroleum type, being partially produced from the paper industry waste stream.
Next is more fillets and the bow deck, and am working on the mast step while the epoxy cures on those tasks. Stay tuned, but please do something about this weather! At least the forecast is showing that the winds will be dying down finally as we approach the weekend, and while that doesn’t guarantee dryer air, it does mean that I’m actually starting to plan on getting some kayak fishing in on Saturday, for the first time in well over a month. That should go a long way towards clearing my epoxy-fogged head.
December 28, 2011 at 06:13
Glad it worked for you. The paste I made with flour seems pretty bulletproof. It’s hard as a rock around the mast collar and ama struts. I plan to use more here pretty soon, when I finish up my Wa’apa’s boom jaws.