Friday, January 24, 2014

Sometimes it's the obvious things

I reserve the right to change my mind.

Yesterday, I'd decided to just leave the globs of cured epoxy sandwiched between the chines and stem as-is. They were hard to reach, and it seemed like it was going to take me forever to make any real progress on them. So, I thought I'd just write them off as large, malformed, out-of-control fillets.  

That was before I discovered the obvious: 

A chisel is very effective at removing cured bits of epoxy.

Certainly it will do it faster than sandpaper or files, which are of course still needed to smooth the surface. For what it's worth, I noticed that the epoxy I'd thickened with #2 silica is more brittle and breaks away easier than the epoxy I'd thickened with mahogany sawdust.

So, with chisel in hand, I once again attacked the biggest glob of epoxy, which is behind the starboard chine. After making a bit of progress with the chisel, I filed away aggressively with a coarse round file. A little more work, and I'll have it reduced to something more acceptable.

Sure, it will still be a large fillet. But it won't be so malformed and out-of-control.

So with that, I've made a blog post each day this week. I suppose it's a fairly representative week in the slow-but-steady progress I'm making on the Utility. God willing, I'll be able to put the little boat in the water this year.

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