Polyester, Woood and Wood Stoves.

 On this page I am  making the pics larger then normal to show detail. I'm not sure if it will make it upload a lot slower and be a pain  for viewers. Please , feedback on this would really be appreciated! Thanks. 


Poly trimming was good practice for using the Dremel I used the EZ lock cutting blade and was very pleasantly surprised how it did and how long it lasted. 




 Resin  I am using for this part of project 

The resin  container says it is water proof. This is their general all purpose house hold use bondo. The little tube is the hardener that came with it. The small bottle is what I bought at Oreillys. The mixing bowl I got from Oreillys. I really like them, They cleanup really well with an acetone soaked rag and if you look a the photo below you can see it has multiple markings for different types of resin. Not bad for less then a buck

It originally has Bondo liquid hardener  written on it but the lettering came off as I used it due to sticky hands from resin.

  Love all the markings. A good all purpose  "disposable" resin bowl.  I did not need the markings using the Bondo but it will sure come in handy when I get to the point of learning how to use 2 part  Epoxy.






 If you remember what I had after the poly cured was a real mess around the edges from having the plastic I used underneath. 

Front

  

Back

               Some close ups of the mess  on V berth tip  board.

 Shots of the trim job in process
  I forgot about taking shots before I started this but you can still get the general idea. I started by just taking it off a little bit at a time with scissors. Probably not a great idea but it got the largest part of it off. .If I had to do it all over again, I  would use the Dremel for this part.

You can see where the resin from both sides overflowed the board.

I now know how to make ice cycles out of resin. 

The back of the first board I did  No plastic under the board..

the resin sealed the edges really well in various places. It seemed a pity to cut it off but it had to happen to fit.

Front

Back

See the void?

Separation of cloth due to plastic moving things around so I could not keep the cloth in place. Next time I think I will use staples to keep cloth in place.

 Time to use the Dremel.

First we take off the biggest part, making sure we leave enough room to not gouge the wood.

                       

                              Close ups of what we have left

 On to the porta pottie board.

Ready for final sanding to pretreat top side.

    Just so  every one  knows I do use safety gear. Glasses and a mask rated for fiberglass.

   
          
           My Blue heeler standing by  to  make sure I get it right. 


  I still have to sand the excess poly off the front as that looks really tacky and has to be done before  I pre treat  for poly on the top sides but one step at a time I'm getting it done.

Looking GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even that first board I did for the  porta pottie looks decent  on the edges now that it is trimmed up.

 I got busy with starting the job of trimming up the wood for the bulkhead between the bow flotation and the new storage space. Am using the wood that was in the middle section. It is a tad to short across the beam but I can use a board stretcher made out of the other piece to fill in  the gaps.  I HATE throwing perfectly good wood away, Once it is in place and fiber glassed,  it will be fine.  For those if you that do not know what a board stretcher is, it is simply adding extra pieces where it is to short.




See the weave
These are close up shots of the first board I polyed. I did not know about pre treating it. You can see the weave of the cloth which as I understand it is a bad thing. Even I can tell  this is not a good thing when compared to the board I pretreated with the diluted poly. This board, if put under water for a sustained period of time, I do not doubt for a minute would have severe delamination and form blisters.  
This is I suspect why so may are down on using poly based resin for boat repair. When it comes to the hull or rudder, there is no way I would use polyester based resin. But  for my purposes of interior it should be fine. Heaven forbid me ever being proven right about this by my boat being underwater! The board I pre treated with the diluted poly s does NOT have this problem.

 V  Berth Storage Bulkhead

                                                                                                 
 I was truly surprised how long that one cutter lasted. I started out with trying to use my sons battery operated circular saw. The blade is getting really dull  and the batteries are needing replaced, so I changed over to the EZ lock on my Dremel.  I finished the  second slant cut with it, did all the trimming on the two v berth pieces and   got one of the hull notches done before I needed to change blades. Not to bad IMHO for one blade. It was burning the wood instead of cutting it by the time I got to the  second        notch.                                                                                                               
 
That's all for now on the boat. 




We finally got the wood stove ready. It was covered up out side but still got rusted. I guess metal absorbs moisture even if it is covered really well. Any way to make along story short we had  a mess. It got rusted and I was NOT going to put it back in the house looking like that. I went out to Ace hardware to get some primer and stove paint. 

While I was there John  ( manager) reminded me about rust converters. He showed me a product but I did not like the idea of it turning a gray or white color.  I noticed a little bottle of Rustoleum Rust reformer sitting up stop shelf so even at 8 dollars plus  for a 8 oz bottle  I bought it since it turned the rust black, which was more in line with what I had seen on you tube videos about another product. Plus I figured if it went well I would not have to repaint. I was not looking forward to  having to have the guys brush all that rust off, sand it level  and then prime and repaint that stove. Long story short, it took a couple of coats to do it.  On some really bad spots we used three and four coats but it looks pretty good, even if I do say so myself.  It is a more rustic look then if we had sanded it and painted it but that is OK.  I don't think any one but me is going to care about that. I do want to put a light coat  of paint over it later so it matches the stove pipe better . We sprayed the chrome pipe so it matches . One thing I do need to mention if you use the rust converter  or paint on a stove MAKE REAL SURE YOU BURN IT WITH A REALLY GOOD SOLID STRONG HOT FIRE BEFORE YOU PUT IT IN HOUSE! That first fire is going to stink so bad it will drive you out of the House! PLEASE TRUST ME ON THIS! WE PUT A PAPER FIRE IN IT THINKING THAT WOULD DO.  I WAS SO WRONG!!!! 
 It ended up taking the best part of 2 bottles but it was worth it in just the work saved of not having to brush, sand, prime and paint the stove.

Shots of in progress stove rust conversion to show the color after rust conversion.

Not to shabby

Looking good and working just fine!!!!!!!!!

 I finally got around to ordering the parts for the Lumina.  100 bucks USD but what are you gonna do?  It has to be done.  We basically are replacing the entire  coolant over flow system. 

I can't believe how much they want for new tires for this van! It is outrageous! 500.00 for tires? I'm having my son go  check out the salvage yards.  Same issue for the boat trailer  and little trailer.
 One thing at a time it will get done. 

 The house is getting really close to  being done. Have a lot of little stuff still to do then we are good to go.




That's all for now. Sail safe but sail


 And never forget to USE DA GREY MATTER

Saw Dust Factory : Rudder page 4 The Fiberglass Jig Continued

Last pic was  one side of the rudder boards being in place in the jig for the first dry fit.   I need to mention that I used two pieces of paper on this to intentionally have a lot of over lap between the jig and the adhesive, as well as over lap on top.  Also note, I put the shiny side up.

  If you are using most types of polyester you HAVE TO BLOCK AIR  OR IT WILL NOT CURE!!!!!       

MAKE  ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU RESEARCH , READ AND UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS WITH ANY PRODUCT YOU PURCHASE  BEFORE YOU START YOUR PROJECT.  Online tutorials, youtube how to videos,  any other how to video I could find online and calling the manufacturer of the product are how I learned what I needed to know.  Look at as many sources as you can find. You will get differing opinions and methods. That is  good thing. It will help you figure out  what will work best for you and what your comfortable with.  What one video don't cover many times is covered in a different one. 

When you can visualize  the steps involved of what your going to do and how you are going to do it, and don't have any worries of doing it the way you have in mind because you have done your  home work,  you are probably ready to make your materials list and start collecting what you need.

 
I have been doing my own honey do's for over 20 years. Even those of us who have experience can make mistakes that, if not corrected in time, can  waste materials.   Now I did not intentionally mess this up,  but its probably a good thing I did. It gives me a real good way to show how incredibly important dry fitting EVERY THING is. 

Ladies, I don't care what it is your working on. If  you are trying to put two or more pieces of ANY THING together permanently whether or not you think you may want the option to reuse those materials for something else later voluntarily DRY FIT IT before you add the adhesive!!!

This applies to any thing from wood, metal,  pipe, stone  etc.  Had I not dry fitted this gig to the rudder, the entire project would have become land fill material.

 I had to put a piece of the freezer paper, shiny side up,  under it to show the gap we had at the first fit.

As you can see, it was a significant gap that had the potential to  throw the alignment of the entire project off .

That one  gap spread several inches down the rudder.

  
Moral of this? NEVER , EVER,  NEGLECT THE DRY FIT STEP OF ANY PROJECT!!!!!!!





Now back to progress.



This is a dry run but the instructions are for what I will do after I apply the  polyester to the boards.  The reason for the paper is so it will NOT stick to the jig.  When I do it for real with the polyester in place I will use some cheap tape to tape the seams close.


 

Put a piece of your per SHINY SIDE DOWN on the area not already covered. Over lap is a GOOD THING!

 

.
Take the  freezer paper or what ever you are using  from under neath and fold it  around the ends and  over  the top side of the boards.  Remember to use something that will NOT stick to the adhesive. Plain old fashioned wax paper is good.   Ladies this is one of those things where skills you know you have come in real handy.  Just do not waste time trying to get it picture perfect. You cannot reasonably expect it to look as nice as a regular box that you wrap. Your paper will have wrinkles from the jig you normally would not have to deal with.  Sloppy is not going to hurt it one bit, as long as you have the air blocked when using polyester. 

Make sure it covers the ends if you have any joints so air does not get in and prevent cure.

Finish it up like a present

I added another layer of paper on top  for extra security.  I don't want the paper under neath to slip.

Add the end piece to the jig and repeat on other end.

All boards ready to be screwed into place to let it cure. Remember if you use Polyester, it  needs to not have air on it to cure properly.