Make Sure to Use Plenty of Epoxy

CrappyGluing
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

After we cut the excess length off of the rear transom, we decided to test the strength of the epoxy. I figured a drop test would be the best way to get a guage of how strong our gluing job was, and I was concerned with the results.

I dropped the excess from about five feet, to see how well it would hold up to a shock. The results werent good. One of the four layers completely broke away. The second layer, as shown in this picture, split about 2/3 of the way through.

The moral of the story?? Use more glue than we did. In order to compensate for the lack of glue, we are going to reinforce the rear transom with several bronze screws. Were going to use bronze screws because they wont corrode over time.

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death and taxes a sure thing

Well - progress slowed to a crawl when both my inlaws died 17 days apart this spring.  We are just now getting back to a normal routine around here.  The boat had to be moved from the garage to an outside location to make room for all the stuff from my inlaws apartment. 

Last week, I went had the Massachusetts Enviromental Police come and inspect the boat to ensure that it was indeed a boat, and that it was mine.  He assigned it a serial number that will eventually be part of a builders plate riveted to the hull.  The next step is to take that document with the serial number on it to the division of taxation along with all of my receipts from the build.  Interestingly enough, I had to still pay tax on the materials I purchased online out of state.  A whopping bill of $13.42.  Then, you walk across the hallway to the Division of Recreational vehicles to get your registration number (this is different from the serial number) that allows other people to see what state you are from and identify you from a distance.  The nice woman at the DRV selected MS 2009 DJ as my number.  I ask you, "How cool is that?" 

vanity hull numbers?

Paint is next.

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Crazy from the Heat

Shaved Hull
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Like I said in my last entry, this heats a killer. We started at around 7:30 and put in about 2 and a half hours. What did we accomplish? Unfortunately not too much.

When we did our test fit last weekend, we saw that the bottom panels were about two inches too wide. So this week we (actually it was just Greg) built a jig so we could draw a line along the hull without removing the sides that wed strapped on, and then we ran a circular saw along the length of the bottom panels and shaved off the extra. In short, we finished about 1/2 hour worth of work in about 2 and a half hours.

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