The Slow Saga of Zip Frame #4 — part two

Happy Thanksgiving!

With the basic sanding done, and the keel notch widened, I next laid the floor beam on top of my full-size construction drawing in order to check the shape.

Floor beam on the construction drawing.

The good news is, that one side of the floor beam was a darn-near perfect match with the drawing from the plans. Unfortunately, however, the other side was not. It had been over-cut, and as a result was not wide (or tall) enough in the outer section of the curve.

Here you can see the gap between the actual floor beam, and the line where it should be.

So, I decided to remedy the situation by laminating on a thin strip of wood. Fortunately, I had a scrap piece of mahogany that was almost exactly the same width as the floor beam. I used my little Rockwell BladeRunner to cut a couple of strips approximately 3/16" thick.

Cutting a couple of thin strips of mahogany.

I clamped the strips into place to see how they fit. It was a relief to see that this was going to be an apparently easy thing to do.

Test-fitting the strips.

So, this morning, I removed the clamps and prepped my work area with a sheet of waxed paper.

I gathered all the items I'd need: Scale, mixing cup, scraper, chip brush, mixing stick, rag, epoxy, and of course... my bag of mahogany wood dust.

The rest was easy and straightforward. I mixed a small batch of epoxy & thickened it with wood dust. I brushed it onto both mating surfaces, clamped it all down, and scraped away as much squeeze-out as I could. In a few more hours, it should be nice and solid.

A little epoxy, and a lot of clamps. Now, just to wait for the epoxy to cure.

Thanks for reading... and good luck with Black Friday tomorrow.

"in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."     

— Thessalonians 5:18