Friday, February 25, 2011

I've been busy

The beginning, the sides cut out and clamped and glued together.


The hull together, glued and ready for Epoxy coating.


Looks nice in this one does it not? Three coats of Epoxy coating to waterproof the wood forever. (so the story goes)


Two more coats of Marine grade two pac primer.


..and here we are now. Ive had second thoughts about painting it Stark White though.. Even on this cloudy day it's still too bright to even look at...and this is only the dull primer. Im not bad at spray painting so it has quite a bit of gloss off the gun but nothing compared to the gloss it will have in two pac hi-gloss.


I’ve been building a boat…more about that later. (slight overstatement…it’s a canoe)
I started at Christmas time and fully expected to have it in the water by now, but living in the middle of nowhere has slowed me down somewhat, it takes two weeks to get anything I order. Run out of stainless screws…two weeks, need a bit more Epoxy…two more weeks..
During the process I’ve learned many new terms…tradie things like Bow, Stern, Thingamajig and Whosiwhatsit (official nautical terms)
I learned the finishing steps, the hole filling, sanding and finishing is called ‘Fairing’ or ‘Making Fair’. (not that I’m quite there yet)
I had some major work done on my house a couple of years ago and I learned many things...like ‘complete price’ does not mean it’s actually the complete and full price of the job and the process of hole filling, straightening things which should have been straight in the first place and finishing and sanding is called ‘Making Good’.
I’ve had some experience in the steel industry and the bringing together and joining of two parts of steel is called ‘marrying’, you bring in one part and marry it to another permanently by welding.
I’m thinking in this day where marriage is anything but permanent this misnamed procedure needs to have it’s name changed…I’m thinking it should be called ‘Partnering’. The bringing together and welding…for a while.

Just a thought!


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9 comments:

mapstew said...

Nice work! When's launch day? Will there be Champers? :¬)

Pearl said...

Holy crap, Tempo! Who knew you were so talented, huh?!

:-)

I think it's lovely, although you're probably right about the stark-white thing.

Impressive, my friend...

Pearl

Symdaddy said...

Good job!

Now hang it on thread from your bedroom ceiling!

Anonymous said...

Hi,
What a great job, it looks fantastic, I also think you should maybe rethink the white, but it will be good to see it in the water after all that work, and I agree when you have to order things it takes forever, and that also applies if you live in the city, especially if you want a thingamajig. :)

Kal said...

That is so cool. I wish I was around when you launch it. Sailing the mighty sees in search of treasure. ARGHHHHH...sorry, got carried away there. Spear a few of those freakin' sea creatures for me, will ya?

Windsmoke. said...

Fantastic job you're right about the stark-white a bit blinding, happy christening :-).

Tempo said...

Map, Im thinking another month... still a lot to do. I have a bottle of wine chilled and ready to be poured over it..and me.

Pearl, not so talented, the paint covers the multitude of mistakes filled with Epoxy and sanded smooth.. but I'm learning.

Symdaddy, Oh this thing is going to be thashed. Apart from me there's my three daughters, three sons in law and (count em) 11 grandchildren. (and you all thought there was nothing else I was good at)

Magsx2, It's looking good but there's lots left to do, Ive got a bit carried away with the finish on the outside but I'll force myself to leave the inside plain...or that's the plan.

Come on now Kal, the boat is most definitely to keep the damn sea creatures OUT mate.. can you see me drifting along, looking over the side going 'Ooo, yuk!'

Hi Windsmoke, Thanks for the positive comments and I promise to spill nearly as much wine on the boat as into my mouth.

Olga said...

Wow! I don't know any sailing terms in English - especially the ones having to do with good luck for sailors - but, if I did, I would be typing them right now.

Tempo said...

Hi Olga and thanks, but if you know any terms for keeping sharks at bay they might be more useful around here. In previous kayaks I've twice seen sharks as big as the boat come up to see what I was...and that was just the ones I actually saw..