April 12, 2018
Taking advantage of some available time, I committed the hands to a three and half-hour ride on the sett of the Paris-Roubaix - thank you RO sander. Sanding is always a contemplative exercise; not exactly a Zen-like experience, but mindful and cathartic nevertheless.
Since the white Dhow's hull is sanded and primary areas of hull damage filled, I am trying to catch the blue Dhow up in the project. The blue Dhow has a tenacious paint application, and the 40-grit pads are earning their keep. I was contemplating breaking out the Porter Cable 7335 (6" pad), but I'm making do...albeit slower than I'd like.
I managed to complete the port side of the blue Dhow today...
...and stretched the work back to the transom...
...and onto the starboard hull. In a previous session, I ground out and removed the issues areas - as can be seen below at the corner where the topsides, bottom and transom meet, as well as at the sheer line. In the evening tomorrow, I should have the blue Dhow fully sanded and ready for fiberglass patching and fill work. The goal for the weekend is to have both Dhows' hulls sanded, filled and faired. I will make final passes with 120-grit pads to remove most of the remaining imperfections in the hulls, and after the major fairing work is complete. The two to three coats of Interlux Primekote will serve to further fill the swirl marks made by the more coarse grit paper.
With the hull work drawn to a close for the day, I turned my attention to the white oak stock that I had recently purchased. I made a contact a few days earlier that would ultimately provide me with such a blessing. These ~12' 4/4 white oak boards were going to prove to be a challenge to joint, plane, and then rip to the 1/2" dimension that I needed for the inboard and outboard rails - or gunwales.
Meet John Comee of The South Quarter Build Co - a Jacksonville, FL based fully licensed custom home builder, historic home renovator, and fine furniture design and build company. I had intended to take John's offer to joint a couple edges of each board and then retreat back to the humble home shop and finish milling the stock with the 13" planer and then ripping the unruly boards on the table saw. Alas, things snowballed a bit, and in short order John's skill at reading grain, cupping, and wane had us running the stock through the jointer, planer and ultimately ripping the boards to dimension.
Sometimes you just need to step up the game a bit, take things beyond the home-based shop...and The South Quarter Build Co's impressive shop facilities, under the adroit capabilities of John Comee turned a weekend afternoon into a half-hour shop walkabout. Thanks John!
I transported the newly milled white oak rail material to the house, where it was quickly inspected by Bonnie von Bonster...
With Bonnie satisfied, I moved the material back into the shop. Once the hulls have been filled and faired (essentially prepped for primer), I'll flip them and begin to fabricate a template and form to steam bend the rails onto. Looking good for a June completion date.
Total Time Today: 4 hrs
No comments:
Post a Comment