Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

[wca_tim]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

I have seriously abused some power tools from harbor freight - such as an electric buffer (have put large sanding disks on it and sanded glass until it was caked with dust beyond recognition, etc...) a hand grinder and a couple of sanders. paint guns have had very good luck, air tools not a chance, etc...

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Well, I figured that with the HF 7" sander, if I find that I have enough use for it, I'll buy a better tool down the road. This is cheaper than renting one, and the good ones are still more money than what I paid with an extended warranty at the local pawn shops.

I've got some plans today, but the weather should be good for grinding anytime of the day.

I'm going to talk with my Step Dad today about wood. He can get me 1 1/2" mahogany plywood for my transom ...no laminating pieces together for me! And I can get the rest of the plywood from him too, and since it's cabinet grade, I don't have to worry so much about moisture content

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

I have that harbor freight sander... I'd say it's a good polisher and pretty good sander, but for grinding fiberglass the motor is weak, frankly.

For glass I use one of their 4.5" grinders with a flap disc, preferably a 3m sandblaster disc, as they last more than twice as long as the ones HF sells. I've gone through maybe 4 of these grinders on my 4 boat resto jobs so far, they work well. I've considered getting the warranty on 'em, but frankly if they die it's due to my abuse and not cleaning them, so I feel bad sticking HF for the cost.

I just got (on sale) at HF the OSHA hoods for the grinder too, so I can hook up a vacuum hose to them.

They've got a coupon sale coming up soon if you want to pick something up, FYI.

Erik

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

I'm definitely going to look at it. I'm on vacation the week of fathers day, so I can get down there for the sale. I'm pretty impressed at the control I have with the larger sander and sanding pad. That being said, I've got damage control to take care of sooner than later....

Cut through the hull in a couple of places using the diamond disc on the angle grinder to cut through the flaps of fiberglass...I'm pretty disappointed that I did this, but I already had two cuts from the circular saw to repair, why not just give myself a little more practice/experience!

I'm certainly willing to entertain suggestions on what I can and can't get away with when I fix these areas.

 

[JustMrWill]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

I'm definitely going to look at it. I'm on vacation the week of fathers day, so I can get down there for the sale. I'm pretty impressed at the control I have with the larger sander and sanding pad. That being said, I've got damage control to take care of sooner than later....

Cut through the hull in a couple of places using the diamond disc on the angle grinder to cut through the flaps of fiberglass...I'm pretty disappointed that I did this, but I already had two cuts from the circular saw to repair, why not just give myself a little more practice/experience!

I'm certainly willing to entertain suggestions on what I can and can't get away with when I fix these areas.

I just laid a couple band-aid pieces of glass down on the inside...went from smaller to larger. On the outside I did the basic gelcoat repair... All of my "oopppss" were on areas above the waterline...I am not sure that if they were on the floor I would have done it any differently.

-Will

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

I dont know Mike , I didnt go threw my hull !!!!!!! hahahahaha


a few of then are where your stringer are going to go back down , so I would just use some peanut butter then glass right over them , with a few layiers !!! then marine tex from the out side !!! John

 

[oops!]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

just a few more hours mike.....then you are done that part!....

then the itch goes away!

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

just a few more hours mike.....then you are done that part!....

then the itch goes away!

But...I'm growing fond of the itch...it's the itch of progress!

 

[88BLiner]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

yea, somtimes the itch is the only way I can tell that I did anything to the boat.

 

[bear_69cuda]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Ahh the itch... I miss it!

Hey great progress dude... I love flapper discs... make short work of glass!

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

The one thing that is great about not doing work in a garage...less mess to clean up after grinding.

The one thing that isn't great about not doing work in a garage....subject to weather Rain forecast and seemingly going to go on all weekend

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Well, having a father in law with a cabinet shop has its perks....looks like I'm going to be doing pretty much the same thing John did with his transom..if that baby can hang onto a hundred horse Merc, then Inch thick Mahogany should do the trick for me....it's a great wood type to use as it's straight grained, relatively rot resistant, and I got 6 inch sections glued and clamped right now. It's just shy of the same thickness as the original transom, so I can put a layer of 1708 on it, or I might laminate something else over it and then glass it. I can go as thick as I want really, I just have to make sure that the area that the cap rests over is the proper thickness. I might just take advantage of this and beef the transom up a bit along with some Knees the boat never had. Not going to be bullet proof like Oops! made his, but more than strong enough for anything I'm going to hang onto the boat, and I've got plans to make sure the wood doesn't get the chance to absorb water....ever.

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Well, having a father in law with a cabinet shop has its perks....looks like I'm going to be doing pretty much the same thing John did with his transom..if that baby can hang onto a hundred horse Merc, then Inch thick Mahogany should do the trick for me....it's a great wood type to use as it's straight grained, relatively rot resistant, and I got 6 inch sections glued and clamped right now. It's just shy of the same thickness as the original transom, so I can put a layer of 1708 on it, or I might laminate something else over it and then glass it. I can go as thick as I want really, I just have to make sure that the area that the cap rests over is the proper thickness. I might just take advantage of this and beef the transom up a bit along with some Knees the boat never had. Not going to be bullet proof like Oops! made his, but more than strong enough for anything I'm going to hang onto the boat, and I've got plans to make sure the wood doesn't get the chance to absorb water....ever.

Hay Mike , the transom that I did with the boards I had to ditch , it was to thick , I scraped it and went with the plywood !!! I love Mahogany thoe, its a great wood for boats , if you can get it to work that would be cool !!

I went and got my vinyl yesterday, the red is a perfect match !! I will post later , got called in to work !! John

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Well, Iboats is finally working for me, and I've got 2 bum fingers ( ripped open the fingertips on protruding nails while hand sanding next to trim...ouch! ) Hurts to type, but I'll suffer though it

The vinyl looks great, can't wait to see the finished interior!

Say John, which resin did you order though us composites? I was looking at the different types and saw they carry a general purpose resin and then there is a "premium" version which costs a decent amount more, but has a longer working time....with all the work I've done with different polyurethanes and knowing you get what you pay for, I'm curious as to what you went with and your experience working with it. I'm going to get a gallon or two for the transom and some of the repairs I need to do.

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Hay Mike , I went with the epoxy, think it was the 635, know it was the thin set !!! when I was doing heating and air we used it alot !! I only used the poly to seal my boards before the install !!! and that was just something from home depot ,a polyuerathane !! John

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Man, the epoxy is just too much for my budget...even the vinylester is a bit much. They built this boat with polyester resin, I think I'll stick with it, though I'm still tempted to bond the wood to the outer skin with PL 400 and then glass the inside. I'm curious as to whether that would be a good idea or not...it's a little unorthodox.

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Man, the epoxy is just too much for my budget...even the vinylester is a bit much. They built this boat with polyester resin, I think I'll stick with it, though I'm still tempted to bond the wood to the outer skin with PL 400 and then glass the inside. I'm curious as to whether that would be a good idea or not...it's a little unorthodox.

I would use the pl 5200 that the perment stuff !! other then that goo for it , you seen what oops did to his with poly !!!! John

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Well, I got the Mahogany from my FIL and shaped it today with my table saw and stationary belt sander ( the handiest tool in wood working! ).

I made the basic shape by taping paper together to get the shape of the transom, then did a rough cut. Then, I set the table saw to 15 degrees and beveled the cut and then rounded the edges of the wood with the sander.

Once I was happy with that, I coated the edges of the whole thing with spar urethane. I figure if I can get the wood to soak up the spar in the end grain, it won't be able to soak up water in the event it gets to it.

However, I'm seeing a red flag go up and that is the way the hull is sitting right now in relation to the transom wood being "fit" into place. The wood doesn't just rest nicely into the fiberglass. I have to push the glass into the wood to get it to sit nicely.

So, that automatically throws up a huge flag. If I bond the transom to the empty shell and end up getting the angle wrong, I'm going to play hell getting the thing back together again. So, it looks like I'll be lifting the cap up and fitting it back on the hull before I commit to bonding the transom to it. This might get tricky....I'll be sure to have the camera handy and document what I'm doing, because this step is going to be critical in the alignment of everything else that I'll do from this point forward.

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

UPDATE***

Well, here's some pictures for your amusement. If things go well this week ( vacation ), I'm going to try to get that transom bedded and glassed in. In the mean time, I'll take suggestions or comments.

Heres the old transom and the new wood going in. Since I'm going to be glassing the inside of the transom, the thinner material is perfect as you'll see in later pictures.

There it is, sanded and coated with Spar Varnish. I still have some work do to though.

 

[redfury]

Re: Ooo! Sparkly! Redfury's Grinding again!

Dry fit the transom. Everything looks great...but.... http://picasaweb.google.com/Redfury111/2009GrindingSeason#5348099055913098562
If you look at this photo magnified ( can't see it normally , which is why I posted the link ), you can see that with the transom wood flush with the glass, it's not contacting the hole in the bottom. I have to figure out what is going on there before I proceed any further. I'm not sure if it's the fact that the hull is deflecting or if I need to further shape my wood. I cut the lower bevel at 15 degrees, and the top at 15 degrees. I find out when I put the cap on that glastron didn't go to that kind of trouble and molded the cap for a straight cut. I should have figured on that, so I'll have to fill that in with peanut butter once the cap is joined together. Glastron used a liberal amount of bedding compound in there anyway that I have to grind out, so I don't think it's going to be a huge issue for strength.

dry fitting the cap shows the gap I currently have between the transom and the splashwell. the old transom made contact with the splashwell as evidenced by the wood grain imprint. This area I know for sure I have to have filled so that I don't break the fiberglass when I tighten down the upper engine mount bolts.

On a side note, I LOVE having a digital camera...I would have never attempted this shot with my old 35mm SLR.