Building the duck barge

sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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Aug 2, 2005
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Thanks. Tool wise the shop is great, room wise is another story. Being that it is in the basement I run into two problems. No where to go with anything. If it was a garage shop I could at least open the door and move things outside if needed. The other problem is everything needs to fit up the stairs that are in the back corner of the basement and turned 90 deg. So I cannot even fit a full 4x8 sheet down the stairs since I cannot make the corner while still going down the stairs.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Glued and screwed the floor back in place. Also trying something new, using caulk as a gap filler. This should amke placing the fillets easier and also making the fillets require less resin to complete.
 

sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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Aug 2, 2005
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Putting in the stub walls for the blind. I am also contemplating where to add extra support to hold the deck up in the wide spans on the bow and stern. I think I am going to just add an extra beam going across the boat on each end. IT will be the easiest to do. I will get that figured out today. I have already completed all the glass work inside and done the first coat of glass on the engine bracket. Engine bracket goes on today and the deck will start going back on. I should hopefully get caught up in videos by mid week. Less than a week to opening day so I got a lot of work to get done.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Time to start adding in some pics.

This one shows the interior floor and side walls all dry fitted.

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Floor all glued and screwed in place.

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Random picture of the boat on the trailer.

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sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Starting the stub walls to hold the deck and the blind.

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Stub walls finished.

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Deck dry fitted in place.

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sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Fitting the CSM for one side.

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Wetted out with poly resin. Yes I am using both epoxy and poly on this build. CSM makes such a good surface for a floor that I just had to use it. Conversely I hate CSM because it sucks up so much resin.

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Getting ready to run the center strip of CSM down the boat.

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All glassed in. Notice the different color. I ran out of my good resin and had to go buy the bondo brand from home depot. Did not work as well as the the good stuff. The positive is that it is a waxed resin so I went back over the original glassed in area to finish it. I was going to just paint over the unwaxed resin, but this worked better.

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sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Glassing the outside of the motor bracket.

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Motor bracket all mounted to the boat.

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I had to haul butt to get the deck on before it started raining so I did not get any picks of putting the deck on and screwing it down. Lucked out, got the end put back on the canopy just as it started raining again.
 
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sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Cutting out the floor to put in the sump for the drain. Also found a screw the hard way. I also do not know why youtube will not show the proper cover image. I don't think you all want to see the inside of a garbage can as the video cover.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Dry fitting the deck. More of an overview since I was trying to beat the weather and did not stop during the work to film. You will see what weather I was trying to beat at the end of the video.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Laying down the CSM with poly resin inside the hull. Show how to cut the corners to get everything to lay properly.
 

Woodonglass

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Dec 29, 2009
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Adding more resin than needed to wet out the CSM is actually Not making the laminate stronger and in some cases worse. Let me explain. Poly resin NEEDS the csm fibers to make the resin one homogulous unit. When the CSM goes clear it's absorb as much resin and possible. Additional resin will just lay on top of the semicured resin and will NOT have any CSM fibers in it to make it NOT become brittle when totally cured. Since it has no fibers it can and will crack and check and most times effects the rein and glass below it. This is not the case with epoxy but it IS with Poly.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Thanks for the info. I have spent too much time working with epoxy. I know the poly needs the glass for the strength, but I never thought that a layer of just poly resin over a glassed area would cause an issue. Not a whole heck of a lot I can do about it now. I will just keep an eye on the floor for any crack through.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Went duck hunting for opening weekend up around Sturgeon Bay in a farm field and got home this afternoon to do some work. Went around the boat and sanded all the edges over again with the ROS. Could not figure out why it was throwing so much dust. I took it apart and found it plugged with fiberglass from when I sanded off all the overhanging extra cloth. Cleaned it out and finished sanding everything. Filled the holes on the bow and put the first layer of glass down. Did the deck from the blind forward. Also put one strip of heavy glass on the bow as extra protection. I hope I can at least get the rest of the glass on the deck after work tomorrow. Looks like I will have good weather Monday and Tuesday this week. Want to have it ready for the water by Friday.
 

sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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Finally getting around to putting the rest of the videos together on this one. Boat was splashed mid-October. I will post them up as I get them done.
 

sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Glassing the deck in place and showing how I do fillets for the deck to blind joint.
 

sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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Aug 2, 2005
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753
I will start adding some more pictures in for those that don't want to watch the videos.

Here are some shots of the blind box being built.

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sheboyganjohn

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Finished blind exterior after a wash sitting out in the sun to dry.

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sheboyganjohn

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Aug 2, 2005
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753
Watch the drips with the resin, otherwise you end up gluing the boat to the trailer. At least it was only paint damage.

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