No epoxy

It has been really cold this week, so for the most part, working with epoxy hasn't been much of an option.

One of my top priorities this week was to lay out and cut out the bilge and topside panels.  In this endeavour, I succeeded.  Laying these panels out was quite an adventure.  Aside from using an awl to transfer the sixteen foot long panels, stitch locations, locations for the bulkheads and floors, and the portholes all had to be transferred.  The manual says this a lot of awl work.  I say it's an awl-ful lot of work.   Making the dots was one thing.  Going back with a pencil and rule to ply connect the dots....yipes.  Once all that was done, the circular saw make quick work of the cuts.

 

Cutting out the bilge panels

The topsides panels emerge.

 As I had feared, the scarf joint on these panels were as ugly as those on the panels.  So, there will be some epoxy filling and extra sanding required.  I'm really disappointed with the way that these scarfs turned out.  I'm really kicking myself for chickening out and using the circular saw and jig instead of the hand-plane method for cutting them.  Live and learn.

Another view of the bilge panels

 I've also worked a little one and off, trying to get more lead poured into the keel.  I have maybe half of the required lead poured.  For the reasons that I mentioned in an earlier post, it is slow going.  If I were to by a heavier pot (like cast iron), it would probably be over in a hurry.  Yet I persist with my rinky dink little pot.  Norwegian stubbornness...a blessing and a curse.

Getting more lead into the aft compartment.

Today was so cold that doing anything with epoxy was totally out of the question.  So, instead, I sanded the floors and bulkheads a bit, and then cut out the keelson.  With that, I have now cut out all of Pocketship's plywood parts.  Hoorah.

The freshly cut out keelson

 With the keelson cut out, I couldn't help but test fit it.

The keelson dry fit to the keel assemble

With the keelson fit, I couldn't help also test-fitting floor #4.

 Most of the the rest of the day was spent cleaning up the shop.  With all the cutting and gluing madness, the shop had become quite a mess.  It'll probably require one more good day of cleanup before stitch 'n glue operations begin.

Shop cleanup underway

I have a bit of filling and sanding to do on the hull panels, and then fiberglass the insides of the lower side and topsides panels, sand some more, and then those will ready for hull assembly.  On the keel side, I still have to get the rest of the lead poured, fit a cap on to the aft end of the keel, and install the keelson.  And I have layout, cut out, and assemble the building cradle. And the bulkheads and floors will need to take a couple of coats of epoxy to seal them.  Then, a little bit of shop cleanup, and it'll be time to start putting this thign together for real.