Wacko Ways to Build a Boat

 The hot coat cured overnight and looks... ok... although it will clearly need a pretty good sanding. Hopefully the gloss coat I'll add next week will go on better.  This morning I took a bowl of hot water and a clean rag and wiped down the epoxy to help get rid of any amine blush that might have risen. It looked like there was a little and I'll probably do it again later before sanding.  I intend to only sand the rail edges for now to prepare to glass the bottom and will let the deck cure fully for the next few days. Then I'll sand the entire board, top and bottom, later this week. Fully cured epoxy sands SO much easier than 'mostly' cured.  Today though, I drilled holes in the board! One for the vent and one for the leash cup thing.  This picture below is cockeyed and makes the holes look off-center to each other but they're actually pretty well aligned.  I had already drilled a vent hole before even gluing down the deck and then have kept the hole open w...

The fiberglassing has begun!  It's always a thrill to see the rich colors emerge when the epoxy hits the glass.    I started by running blue tape along the seam of the bottom panel. I propped up the edges with bits of shavings.            Having the edges of the tape hang down instead of adhering to the board allows excess epoxy to run off and not accumulate on the other side. Once turned over, as in the picture below, you can see how the tape allows for drips to fall off.        Here is the fiberglass laid out and trimmed. I added slits to the nose and tail where the cloth would have a hard time conforming to the curves.      And here's how it looks after the "Lam coat" (Lamination coat). I started at the nose and spread epoxy over the first third of the board with my spreader. I then worked it out to the edges on both sides, and then over and under the rails.    Then I went back and squeegeed off...

My Grain Surfboards "Waterlog" 10' surfboard is almost ready for fiberglassing.  I've been working on a number of final details before glassing though.  Shaping was harder than I thought it would be. I used mostly my block plane and it took a long time. I never perfectly matched the templates the Grain supplies but I think I'm close enough for my first surfboard.    Overall I think the shape looks good, and I don't think I got anywhere near taking too much off. To better match the templates I should have kept going.  The nose and tail also look good but don't perfectly match the templates either. Oh well. I'll still float.  I cut the tail off and added a laminated block of Peruvian walnut (to match the pinstripes) and white cedar from one of the cutoffs. I didn't want to put in too many colors like some people do and end up with a rainbow of colors. This is pretty classy and not tooooo busy I hope.   Here's the final look after shaping the tail...

The deck of my Grain Surfboards Waterlog surfboard was installed today.  Here is how the bottom and frames looked right before installation.    Here is another closeup of how I dealt with the ends of the lands. Not really by-the-book, but I think it worked out well.      I am not using the glue that Grain sent me as I have a lot of WEST System epoxy sitting around. Plus, epoxy has a very long setup time so I could take all time I needed.  I started by using a roller and a very thin nap designed for epoxy, and rolled on unthickened epoxy everywhere the two surfaces would meet: All around the perimeter of the deck and board, and over the frames, and under the deck where the frames would meet. Everything that would touch got a thin coat of epoxy to wet it out.  Then I used thickened epoxy on the perimeter and the tops of the frames on the board (not on the deck). Then the deck was set on top of the board and centered very carefully. I started clampin...

 Since my last post I've made a lot of progress.   I've completed the rails and the landing strips.  Here is the chine log being epoxied in. By the way, I'm using epoxy for much of this. I ended up using Titebond III for most of the rails because they didn't have a lot of force on them and I could get them clamped down quickly (Titebond III sets quickly). But for anything that has any stress on it, I'm using WEST System epoxy that I have left over.   The nose strips had to be steamed. Read the manual for how to do this. It works well enough.  For the landing strips (the 'lands'), I'm doing the "alternative" method that is shown in one of Grain's tutorial videos . I'm running the outside one out the ends. It worked out well and I'd definitely recommend you do it instead of the convoluted approach they say in their manual.  I would expect that at some point in the future that they make this the primary way to do it and change their ma...