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

Food: Homemade yogurt from powder milk Part 2

Checked on the yogurt at about 12: 30 PM.. Poured it out into a bowl and its kind of thin.  That of course cooled it off, so I had to heat a bit of it up and pour it back in and stirred it up to mix. Checked the temp. Everything is back on track.

It  taste like yogurt and would be fine. I just want it a bit thicker. Right now its about the same consistency as canned tomato soup after you add water only with thicker chunks. Speaking of temperature control When I was mixing it all together it seemed like a lot of bother to do the add some hot then add some cold water to get it the right temperature so I just heated the water up to the 110- 120 degree range and poured it in. Once it got just short of being at  the point of not adding more I checked the temp. It was a bit hot so I added a bit of cool water until it was right, then added the yogurt. 

Food: Homemade yogurt from powder milk

Off and  I keep having this recognition that trying some of the things I see that make living on board easier is a definite thing I want to get so done before I'm on board.  So far I have  powdered eggs  and made dried powdered fruit. The dehydrator is going with me! Sooner or later I am going to HAVE to pull into marina and I may as well use that time to hit the frozen section and throw some fruit, eggs etc  in the dryer.  This week  I added another "done" to my to do list in this area. Saw a recipe on boat galley a while back about making yogurt in a thermos from powder milk. Decided to try it. As things go the local walmart actually started carrying the brand mentioned on boat galley so I decided to try a small can.  Had to make some adjustments since my thermos hold a little over 4 cups but will see what happens to it.

I think I messed it up right off since I over filled the thermos and large chunks of the yogurt  fell out as I poured some of the mixture out. I put in a couple more of spoons of yogurt  and shook  it up really well, so we will see what  happens.  Capped the thermos about 3: 30 AM  so it should be ready to test by morning. The dogs LOVED the extra mixture so at least it did not go to waste. Plan on making a quart of this new powder milk up for drinking. Maybe since it is whole milk  it won't taste as bad as the low fat stuff does.

As things go the local store has actually started carrying REAL yogurt that does not have any thing but cultured milk in it made by Dannon. What a nice surprise. I about flipped when I saw that.  I tried Carol's idea of putting some dried fruit that I had ground to a powder and put some agave sweetener in it. Not bad, Its different then the regular store bought stuff but that is OK. I have to figure out how to get a regular supply of calcium on board. All those years of the doctors saying avoid dairy and all it was was commerce cows milk  and commercial cow cheese, I really have a problem with. Is it any wonder I don't like doctors?
Speaking of the alleged "medical profession", where there are no doctors. IS FREE in PDF form if any one is interested. Thanks Andrew! The whole series is available.

Have been trying different NOT artificial sweeteners,. A while back I bought a book on how the RIGHT kind of sugars, mostly found in food we used to eat every day as a general part of  the not so modern American diet,  have a positive effect on your health. noticed when I use  xylitol instead of the standard commercial store bought stuff I don't crave coco-cola as much. Got some agave this week. Its actually pretty good. We all tried just a bit and we all like it.  It taste GREAT mixed with real yogurt with dried berries and hot or iced tea.


House is very close to being ready. Got son's bedroom painted as well as a LOT of his bath room finished as far as texturing and the first coat of paint done. The boards for trim are supposed to be delivered tomorrow after noon.  This weekend is about trim board being cut, sanded stained and poly'ed. Hopefully we get most of it done .

Monday they have a big whoopdedoo in a neighboring town so the guys  are wanting to go see the fire works.  Planning on taking the makings for a picnic. Mainly that is survival. The concessions make a killing at these events and I'm not planning on breaking the bank just to eat pre cooked food. If my home made yogurt turns out OK I might just put the fixings in a thermos and take it with me for a snack.

Got a BUNCH Of the stuff that was on the porch put in the trash! Thought about having a yard sale. Decided my priorities are GET RID OF IT more them fool with having a sale. The good news is posting a curb alert on craigslist go rid of a LOT really fast. As I get stuff sorted and put out I'm posting the curb alert and what is left when I'm ready to go can hit the good will.

Carols site Boat galley has a thing where you can pull pages off in PDF format. That makes it nice.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking to get the rudder assembled sometime this week.

Almost forgot we finally found out what the real problem with the car is. Turns out the  prom chip is messing up. It finally showed up when my son read the codes this last time, It's funny that it never showed up before, . Finally found one a lot cheaper the what the dealer quoted ( 100.00 plus tax) so that is on its way. It will be SOO NICE to be able to stop worrying about  the darned car. One down one to go.

Van lights are still giving us fits. Tried an experiment and it is improved but still the four ways and turn signals don't work. The good news is we THINK we have isolated the second part of  the problem.   It looks like we have a short in the front  head light assembly.  This is fixable..  Who knows maybe we will actually get to take the boat out to the lake this next  month.

Well that's about it for now. I'll let you know how the yogurt comes out.
Smooth seas and fair winds.
Sail safe.