Top Planks Glued On

4/6

{{ Skatellites, Greetings from Skamania}}

Ah, the journey is one step closer to being at an end! The board reallylooks like a surfboard now!

So far this weekend I sanded the bead and cove strips flat using a chisel, a disc sander attachment on my drill with coarse sandpaper and then used the orbital sander to flatten out any peaks and valleys. This part was pretty straight forward and time consuming. three hours.

The next step was tto put support blocks for the fin, the leashplug, and the bleeder valve. I should note that having a good idea of where they will go from the beginning will save you a lot of time chiseling out the marine adhesive along the frame. With making the blocks, cleaning, and gluing them in, it took two hours.

I then had to cut the boards' outline on the top planks. Basically, I just layed it on top, centered it and traced where I thought the cut should be between the cove n bead rails and the planks. then I cut the bastard on a table saw with a plywood blade. Let's just say that this is not the way to do it! It is incredibly difficult with just one person. But, I have the world's crappiest jigsaw and didn't want to risk splitting any more wood. The plywood blade on the table saw was very smooth and cut like a hot knife in butter. A little too good actually! Lets just say that I cut off too much in some spots, but luckily I was able to fit the top on for gluing just right. cutting the outline took two hours.

4/7

{{ Tom Petty, Full Moon Fever & Deadicated}}

Chiseled and sanded blocks with orbital sander to remove peaks and valleys. 0.5 hour

Lots of dust and debris accumulated over the while and I had to remove it all. Picking the board up, I noticed that it was extremely light in weight! YES!!!! I used canned air to blow out dust, but a good bit remained. No biggie, unless it clogs vents. Along the flattened cove and bead rail tops I used about 6 oz of Titebond III and squeegeend it and for the frame I used 3M Marine adhesive 5200, the 7 day drying time stuff. I meant to use the Fast cure, but opened the wrong tube and as it is 20 bucks a tube, I didn't want it going to waste. Caulked it on all the frame members and put the planks on top and in place. Some moving around occured and next time I think I want to put a line of caulk down the center line of the top planks too, just for the extra. I used the thin strapping in most of the X members and some thicker in others. This process used all of my clamps plus 6 more spring clamps that I bought today. It went exceptionally well.

I did notice that my light duty clamps are totally maxed out, even the good ones I got. There was also slight movement in the center 3 X members ( I could press down on them very slightly) So I piled about 100 pounds of oak 4x4's and tool boxes along the center keel line to help press it down as the flexible strapping mostly puts the pressure on the rails in the widest areas. Don't know if it will help. The 5200 could have dripped off the keel by then. We'll see. No worries, with glass and resin on it, it will surely stiffen up. I may inject glue in beforehand if it is a problem.

{{Infrared Roses}}

Gluing took about 2 hours

cleanup took an hour

I used 20 oz. Titebond so far

two caluk toobs of 5200

this weekend I put about 10 to 11 hours into the project.

Tomorrow I will make some padded surfbard racks that clamp on to the saw horses so I can work on the board on it's side, etc. the Use of the Rocker table is most likely at its end once I undo the clamps next week. I got heat on the board, but I don't want to touch anything for at least 3 days or more to let that 5200 dry completely.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Peace be with you brothers and sisters.