Greetings from Lake Havasu, Arizona

That's the London Bridge pictured on the right. The weather was really nice for a winters day....Sunny and minimal wind, a bit nippy though, had a good time.

Going away for awhile

Going away for the holidays, happy holidays by the way. When I get back I'll see how I feel, but I'm toying with the idea of deleting this blog and getting on with my life in other ways.

Putting it to the torch

Heated that sucker up, along with WD-40, the theory (my theory) is when it's hot, the metal expands opening up the threads a tiny bit. At this time spray the WD-40 and it will penetrate. Then also when it's hot clamp a wrench on it. In this case, the nuts loosened fairly easily....it could be called a lead pipe cinch.

Time to move on

...to the next thing on the list, which is to free the nuts pictured here, this is the lifting ring assembly. I don't need to free them, the assembly could be re-installed and -no problem-but it's not the cowboy way, nor my way.

Finished the keel!

You've heard of the Coat of many colors? We.., here we have the keel of many layers.all glued and screwed together.

Lay Lady Lay...down upon my big wood keel.

The road to restoration is a many layered road, here's the latest from the keel front.

another day, another layer

Planed down the "plank" to 1/8" so it will bend easier, steam bending this would be idiotic...used Sumo glue on this layer.

Grinding off some pesky old screws

At left is the Dremel tool with a grinding wheel on it. By far this is the attachment that I use almost exclusively when using the D tool. In this case I ground off some screws getting in the way of my keel resto of which an in progress update is pictured. I'm using a lot of the filler in the epoxy mix to make it thick and pasty and find myself mixing in even more filler with each new batch....there's gotta be a limit to how much filler can be absorbed by the epoxy but I haven't reached that limit as far as I know.

a fools progress

added two small hunks-o-wood lathered with epoxy continuing the rebuilding of the keel. The strips of wood pictured are to be cut and laminated into the keel. they are planed down to 3/16" thick so it can bend fairly reasonably.

Let me show you how much I don't know what I'm doing

Using a new product to me, West systems epoxy that Jamestown distributers had a sale on, I decided to do another mini glue lam....haven't thought it out though, and am "shooting from the hip" so to speak...stay tuned for more screw ups!

Back in action

...cleaning out the rotted portion of the bow part of the keel. It definately still has the CPES smell that just about knocks you out and after pouring in about a quart and watching it soak in there doesn't appear to have any benefit. If there is, it's minimal.
..anyway using a Dremel tool and a chisel I reamed that rot out. The Dremel tool works pretty good because it rips through the rot but not the good wood because it's harder.

Now I've got to think!....how will I approach this repair? Fill it with epoxy? do another mini glue lam? Use metal as a reinforcement (rebar if you will)....what?

Busy doing other things, if you're wondering

..mainly legal stuff (I'm not in trouble) but it must be dealt with. The sad part about it is it's taking away valuable boat time.....and also time away from Stanley, he's lucky he's got a good Mom.

Todays' pain in the butt project

I'll let you figger out what I'm doing.

even more rot

Will the rot ever end? Down deep in the bow the keel is rotted, whoever had this boat before me must have tore off some of it before because about half of it is gone. My plan is to use CPES, soak it in, then build it back up using ? and also, I'm wondering if I should perferate the rotted keel so the CPES will have a better chance of penetrating all the pores and wood cell cavities leading to, hopefully a strong keel.

More Rot!

Took off the rubrail making sure to mark it as starboard front so I will know where it goes when it's time to reassemble. Next, probe with an "icepick" to elpkore rotted sections. Next, dig out the rot. Next, take Smiths brand of CLEAR PENETRATING EPOXY SEALANT or "CPES" and brush it on to the affected areas and watch it soak in.

Todays task

Vacuuming out the debris from inside the boat. I find that I can be more focused and methodical if I clean the environment. Even though it's dull and, you know, boring I refrained from popping a beer to make it go better.....but it must be done.

Burning man vehicle

This vehicle, it is a vehicle when put on a Volkswagon frame is a big winner at Burning Man. Each of those horns has a different note and it's programmed to play the song "Tequila."

different views for different strokes

Time to clean up

Since the mini glue lam is finished, now, before continuing on to the next leg of this adventurous journey of boat restoration, it is time to clean up all the scattered tools etc. and also clean up the inside of the bow....Why now?....because the deck is off and there is light to see, and that makes it more pleasurable and, frankly, more fun....and it's all about fun for me, how 'bout you?

New Product!

It's a new way to dust mop! If I had a little hardwood floor rat, I would jump on this like a raven on a roadkill! Unfortunately, My 19 year old son wouldn't fit into this outfit. This is very adaptaple to polishing boat decks as well.

Mission accomplished....

...on the mini-glue lam that replaced the rotted out portion of the boat. I used primarily Gorilla/Sumo glue because of ease of use and little toxicity -if at all. I can see why epoxy resin is used a lot by the boat builders I've run across...it's got a really good grip and it's really hard and stiff and strong, when used on reinforcing joints, you end up with a boat that is minimal on flexing, if, on the other hand, you use something like 3M 5200 (a flexible, yet tenacious caulk), the boat will end up being, very possibly, too flexible.