The Tedious Tale of Zip Frame #2 — part seven

Finally. 

Structurally speaking, at least, Frame #2 is now complete.

All that remained to be done was to glue and screw the remaining pieces together, add bungs to the 2 countersunk holes, and grind off the tip of the screw that protrudes all the way through the starboard side.

Bung, cut and sanded on the port side.

The tip of the protruding screw on the starboard side sanded away easily.

I also filled in a couple of remaining gaps between the floor member and one of the lower shims I installed a while back.

I also wanted to encapsulate the aft surface of the deck beam, to get an idea for how the mahogany would look when finished. For this reason, I split my mixture of epoxy into two separate cups... one to thicken with wood dust, and the other "clean" for the encapsulating coat.

Once I had it all put together, I found I had way too much thickened epoxy left over, and nowhere near enough clean epoxy to finish the job. Most of the clean epoxy was immediately absorbed by the foam roller I was using.

Yet, I had already started, and I couldn't stand the idea of leaving it partially undone. So, not to waste the remaining thickened epoxy... I used it to encapsulate. Naturally, that created quite a mess. The mahogany wood dust had also colored the epoxy, making it double as a sort of stain. Still, I smeared it on, and meticulously scraped away the thickened mess with a putty knife. All things considered, I think the result looks pretty good. The mahogany wood dust gives the epoxy a deep, "smoky," appearance.

The epoxy "stained" and encapsulated aft surface of the deck beam.

Contrast between the deck beam and the meranti plywood gusset.

The epoxy "stained" and encapsulated aft surface of the deck beam.

So, from the time I started on this frame back in December, it has indeed been a "Tedious Tale." I'm happy to be done with this part, and ready to move on to the next.