New boats under construction 05

[crankbearing]

Scottcraft/Roper A-Stock

Here are couple shots of James Armstrongs new A-stock.

Regards,

[mercguy]

I find 80 Grit works well to !! To make West smooth is a SOB in my experience.

spray it out of a paint gun, reduced with either lacquer thinner or acetone and it will come out smooth.........

drawbacks.................will make a mess of your shop/garage if you do not cover stuff up............bad overspray residue!!!

[mercguy]

Here are a couple more pics of my CSH. I hope to have the boat done by Constantine, but only time will tell. This is my first hydro I've built and the wood does not bend the same as a line on the computer so I've had to do some tweaking to the frames and such as I go along, ultimately slowing me down a little.

looks good Joe! Hope to see it in action at the Nat's this year........

[mercguy]

Here are couple shots of James Armstrongs new A-stock.

Regards,

nice work Dave!! How come the powerhead is missin' from that MK30 in the background? Cmod?

[jsilvestri]

Nice work! Are you intending to make the trip to Depue for the divisionals. It is fun tipping a few w/the fellas from the Buckeye State.

Thanks Brent. As of right now, I'm not planning on coming to DePue for the divisionals. Its a good hike for me. We will sit around this summer though and have a couple cold ones together.

[jsilvestri]

Round front? No forks? What are the pluses and minuses of this type of design?

I grew up driving round nose boats and have always liked them. So, when I decided to build my own hydro, I wanted to build a round nose. Also, this is a laydown so I'm trying to trap as much air under the front as possible. Pluses and misnuses, I'll have to wait and see.

[sax]

I find 80 Grit works well to !! To make West smooth is a SOB in my experience.

Hey Guys....try a cabinet scraper on the epoxy before sanding. It knocks off the high
spots and scrapes away the waxy crap that forms when the epoxy cures. You don't
get the build-up on the sandpaper and helps cut down on sanding time. Joe Schwiekert
made this recommendation to me several years ago and have tried it on projects I've
worked on since and really cuts down on the sanding time. Best of luck to everyone
and sure have enjoyed seeing what is being built out there

C U Later,
Ron

[Jeff Akers]

A what?

Hey Guys....try a cabinet scraper on the epoxy before sanding. It knocks off the high
spots and scrapes away the waxy crap that forms when the epoxy cures. You don't
get the build-up on the sandpaper and helps cut down on sanding time. Joe Schwiekert
made this recommendation to me several years ago and have tried it on projects I've
worked on since and really cuts down on the sanding time. Best of luck to everyone
and sure have enjoyed seeing what is being built out there

C U Later,
Ron

Ummm, Whats a "cabinet " scraper ?

[modhydro]

Putting on smooth epoxy coats isn't really that hard to do. I cut down 9" rollers into thirds and roll it on with that. You can get into tight places pretty easily and control how much you put on. I use a small sandwich tuperware thing as my rolling pan. It seems to work great. Wash each cured coat with water with a couple of drops of dish soap (use a scotchbrite pad). With the blush washed off, you can sand the whole top or bottom with one disk. I sand after the first two coats and wipe the boat down with a rag before the third coat. I also tip off the last coat with a sector of roller held in a spring clamp. The finish come out pretty smooth and virtually bubble free. I've found it is a lot easier to be more careful putting the stuff on than it is to finish a rough finish later. If you want to really get it better, try running a propane torch over the fresh epoxy. You won't believe how many bubbles you will see popping. It also helps level the coat.

Steve Roskowski

[Dave_E71]

Ummm, Whats a "cabinet " scraper ?

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/M...TG&Screen=CTGY

there you go...

[Dave M]

Nice...

Nice weblink..... I almost thought it was gonna be a bad one !! Tools for working wood........ hehehehe.

On the West, I only put one coat on, to make it smooth not to bad, I found a roller cover that does decent, still have some sags, but I found on the boat I just completed that if I stay long enough for it to be almost setting up, still not stringy yet, roll over it one more time and she blows out good, sags are the biggest problem anymore for me.

Three coats ? I assume thin coats right ?

Blow Torch, spray guns, holy crap people !! How do you clean the spray gun, and the blow torch, well I know my luck with fire around a wood shop...

Good ideas though !!

[Jeff Akers]

Tools

Thanks Dave,
One thing is for sure, I'm learnig a ton of new things while building my boat. Heck, I didn't know what a "shureform" plainer was till a month ago

so many tools so little time

[crankbearing]

epoxy

I do a coat with a thin roller cut as well to get into tight places. I tip off between coats with a quality brush and then use a heat gun (USE a resperator - A GOOD ONE) on low setting to get the bubbles to pop and level then tip off again. Wait for the hardener to kick and then apply my second coat. The stuff is just a plain pain overall but it works good. If you let the first coat cure and then as steve says scotchbrite the cured epoxy to remove the blush and level you can do a couple coats this way and have it look like a finished product in some case. NO DUST though.

Regards,

[modhydro]

Dave,

I've always done three coats and yes they are all thin. By that and the sanding in between coats, the boats leave very smooth and lessens the work prepping for paint. By going with thin coats, you also don't risk the pain to sand runs and sags. Try the heat gun thing one time and you will like it. You can only do that after the first coat though as doing it on the first coat will make the wood outgas so bad that it will look like beer foam!
I always wait and sand between coats. If you just keep adding layers of epoxy you are also just making high spots taller and making more work on the final sanding.

[MN1]

If you want to really get it better, try running a propane torch over the fresh epoxy. You won't believe how many bubbles you will see popping. It also helps level the coat.

Steve Roskowski[/QUOTE]

It's the CO 2 produced from the burning of propane that pops the bubbles.
Your breath will do it too. But not before your breathless!
Mark N