Woodworking being done for the moment, I'm back to epoxy. Last night I attached the outer stems to the bow & stern. It was tricky because, after the filing and smoothing of the inner stems + strip edges, the inner and outer stems weren't a perfect fit anymore.
So I mixed up what the author of one of my books calls 'dookie schmutz': epoxy thickened with 'wood flour' (which I collected during a lot of sawing, rasping, and filing). The rule of thumb is that you use unthickened epoxy as a sealant/coating, thickened (mustard viscosity) as an adhesive, and peanut-butter consistency for spackling on stuff to fill holes and gaps, etc.
To attach each stem, I first coated both bonding surfaces with unthickened epoxy, then mixed up another batch with the wood dust and globbed it on. Then I set the stem carefully & tightly in place, wiped up the squeeze-out, and held it down with duct tape and the bike tubing. Fortunately I'm pretty safe from the epoxy bonding the rubber to the wood, since the rubber will very slowly relax while it cures. I checked this morning and all seemed to be well, so cross your fingers. I was surprised that the clamped-tubing was still in place, since I pulled on it so hard when securing the stems. They were pretty stiff.
Used some leftover dookie schmutz to fill some of the bigger gaps that were left in the hull from imperfect strip fitting.
Next, it will be back to wood: planing and sanding the hull. I'm looking forward to that.
Posted by mel at June 7, 2005 11:21 AMmassage is scheduled for 6:45 pm Sunday. :-D
Posted by: mel at June 7, 2005 12:42 PMAwesome! That's great timing -- after the move and everything.
But..."dookie shmutz?!"
Posted by: Andrew at June 8, 2005 11:16 PMIsn't it really doggie schmutz that you are
using?
Yup, doggie schmucks. Canines are useful for something!
Posted by: Sachiko at June 17, 2005 03:07 PMMel is downstairs finishing the first of three epoxy jobs. The boat looks great!
Posted by: Andrew at June 17, 2005 03:08 PM