Bonding stage begins

    01 April 04: The hull is done except for the skeg, so it's bonding time. That's how I see the hands-on work, which will take at least half of the total time, to shape and sand the boat into its final form, with the hands-on work of epoxying and painting thrown in.

    It took three hours to trim the bottom flush with the chines. I could have done it in a flash with the belt sander, but I wanted to become more acquainted with the wood, and I wanted to avoid the sore throat that comes from making a lot of wood dust in the basement. The bc pine has a hard/soft grain like fir, so the hand work, done with block plane, large file, and large rasp, is still uneven and will need to be finished with the random-orbit sander.

    I went to ClarkCraft to get a gallon of epoxy, which will be more than enough to finish this project, and the next, too, I hope. I also picked up a quart of boiled linseed oil and a quart of turpentine. Plus more of the Elmer's exterior glue, and a bunch of throw-away paint brushes (which I actually try to reuse by cleaning them with acetone).

    Time spend so far: Add three hours for the trimming of the bottom piece, for a total so far of 22 hours.

    Cost so far: Going into today the coast was $131.12. Add $12 for the linseed oil, turpentine, and some of the brushes. for a total now of $143.12. I''ll add an amount for epoxy when I see what I end up using.