JEM Watercraft

That's stunning Bruce!

What type of roller are you using - foam or napped? I tend to get small bubbles in the fill coats (wet out is no problem) and don't know if it's technique or equipment.

Thank you all for the compliments. I lucked out with the wood at Lowes. It is sold as 5.2 mm hardwood plywood, and the batch they had when I got this did look much better than usual. They called it luann, but looks nothing like luann to me. The only negative was the back side had many patches and a few flaws, but it's easy to cover it with paint on the inside, and there are no internal voids that I have come across.

Bob, they are 3/16th inch foam rollers (3 mm?). They do tend to leave many very small bubbles, and the dust and such that settles on it in my garage you can't see in the photo. I don't worry about it too much since there will be a final sanding with 180 grit and a wipedown with a tack rag before laying on the top coat of varnish that will leave it like glass.

After looking at it this morning I decided to put one more coat of epoxy on the sides and then do the bottom with graphite before flipping it to start the insides. So today I got it all sanded again and another coat of epoxy just on the sides. Tomorrow I'll sand the sides and mask off for the graphite on the bottom. It's frustrating to have to wait overnight for every coat.

Bruce

Bruce36549 wrote:They do tend to leave many very small bubbles, and the dust and such that settles on it in my garage you can't see in the photo. I don't worry about it too much since there will be a final sanding with 180 grit and a wipedown with a tack rag before laying on the top coat of varnish that will leave it like glass.

Only thing that attracts dust worse than wet epoxy...........wet varnish.

Looks great.

DM

I've been working every day on the Laker, but nothing earthshattering to report. After putting on the first coat of graphite, my compulsive nature asserted itself and I decided to do a little fairing of some spots on the bottom that bothered me. That required some additional heavy sanding that removed some of the first coat of graphite. So I put another 3 coats on the bottom. The last two coats I tried "tipping off" with a brush to see if I could remove some of those bumps that the roller leaves behind. It did help, but didn't eliminate the bumps completely. The outside is looking pretty good now, and tomorrow I expect to finally flip the hull and start on the inside. I'll have some pics to post tomorrow.

Bruce

Graphite is finished and looking pretty good.



I flipped the hull and the first thing I tried to do is to remove the masking tape that has been on since I filleted the seams.





Guess it's the last time I do that! That tape did not want to come off for anything. Sharpened up my trusty old scraper, and worked up a sweat.



Between the scraper and my DeWalt ROS I finally reached a somewhat satisfactory point, and got the sheer clamps on.



The saga continues...

Bruce

Been working all week and I'm seeing some good progress. Got the inside seams filleted and started glassing. The sheer clamps caused problems that would have been avoided if I had just waited to install them until after glassing
was completed. I should know better than to veer from the directions! The inside looks good, though, with only a few
minor blebs. It just took about twice as long as it should have.



The frames fell free after tacking the outside hull seams. I replaced them temporarily with tape so that I could place the deck and get its seams tacked.








The only problem I encountered with the deck was when the tape I had placed to retain the tacking material came loose in one section, and allowed the tacking material to drop into the hull. So now I have a big blob that will have to be sanded out.





While waiting for the deck seams to set, I threw together a cradle out of some scrap boards to hold the deck upside down so that I could work on the bottom side without it moving around or distorting.








Doing the fillets and glassing the bottom of the deck was a piece of cake. I don't know if anyone else uses a cradle
like this, but it was easy to make and was a big help to hold the deck securely while glassing.



While working on the deck yesterday, I also managed to get the end pours done and frames 1 and 4 installed.



As Bob mentioned in his log, my hull is also about a half inch narrower than it should be. I will try putting in a spreader when tacking the deck down to see if that helps bring it out to specs.

Today I got the other two frames installed, then filleted and glassed all of them in place.



Also rolled a second coat of resin on the deck and hull.







What a grand time I'm having putting this baby together. Never having done anything like this before I didn't know what to expect, and so far this exceeds all my expectations. Looking forward to getting it in the water. Carol and I walk every morning and always end up on the community pier that juts out into Perdido Bay and every morning I think about getting my Laker out on the bay.



We are leaving on the 18th for another trip and won't be back till the end of April, so I won't be able to get it wet till sometime after then .

My best wishes to Mick and all others in Queensland. Hope you
weather Cyclone Hamish without any difficulties. Looks like it is going to be a good blow.

The adventure continues
Bruce

G'day Bruce and thanks mate.

All is good here at the moment.


Mate, I love your idea about the deck cradle - brilliant. So is your boat build.

Have a good vacation and I look forward to the continuation of your buld thead.

Hi Bruce..... She's coming together beautifully.
LOVE the deck cradle ......Inspired thinking.....and thanks for sharing the idea.

Bruce, I know what you mean about thinking about getting it out on the water - it's all I can do at the moment not to drag mine down to the nearest piece of water and take it for a little "walk". Shouldn't be long now though. Your build is still looking very smooth .

You have me wondering about something now - I haven't been back over the instructions but I don't remember seeing anything about installing frames 1 and 4 as permanent parts - I thought they were only for supporting the deck panels while tacking and filleting them. Not planning on shooting any rapids though so it should be OK.

With your number one and four glassed in go get you some swimming pool noodles cut them and stuf them in those compartments ,now you have foam floatation that want water log.
Ron