catsittingstill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catsittingstill) wrote2011-05-26 11:18 am
catsittingstill) wrote2011-05-26 11:18 am
Boat! And Music!
Boat--the interior fiberglass consists of
1) one big piece of fiberglass that covers the interior from gunwale to gunwale (or where they will be--they're not installed yet) and from about fourteen inches back from the bow to about forteen inches forward of the stern. (The bow and stern are very complicated shapes that require careful trimming and I just find it easier to do them separately. The final fiberglass overlaps are not particularly noticeable and it reduces the panic factor a lot.)
2) one long strip of fiberglass along the keel line to reinforce it against the stresses of weight bearing and the occasional rock. In a round bottomed boat I wouldn't bother with this, but the Binturong design has a shallow vee bottom much like that of the Wee Lassie II I built last year.
3) bias cut strips of fiberglass in the stems (places where the sides meet in the bow and stern). These run from where the gunwales will be all the way down to overlap the keel strip by about an inch.
4) pieces cut to match the right and left sides of the bow and the right and left sides of the stern. They cover all the remaining uncovered hull and overlap the stem strips and the big piece of fiberglass by about an inch. I taped waxed paper (which I happened to have lying around to put over my workbench to protect it from epoxy) to the outside of the canoe and drew a rough pattern on it, then cut out the pattern and laid it inside the canoe to see if it was right. Then I used the pattern as a guide to cut the fiberglass to the right shape. Fiberglass frays like made, and when you have to cut small pieces away (to adjust a piece whose curve you didn't get quite right, for example) it makes fiberglass fluff which, combined with epoxy, is inconvenient and gets all over. So the pattern helps me get it right the first time.
2 and 3 were installed at the same time, so this was three separate days of layup. I could theoretically have condensed two steps into a day--at these temps (about 75 degrees in the boatshop right now.) the epoxy will cure to tack free in about six to eight hours. But I don't feel like I'm at my best late at night and this is a pretty important step.
Today I smeared a second layer of epoxy over the whole thing to partially fill the weave of the fiberglass, which helps protect it. I won't go for a third coat because I like a little internal roughness--if it is too smooth it gets slippery and a slippery canoe can be inconvenient.
I have planed all the gunwale pieces but still need to cut out the bad parts and scarf the good bits together. This will almost certainly not happen until after MarCon because I have so much else to do today.
Music
I ended up with sets totaling two hours and fifteen minutes for Marcon (2 hall concerts and a main concert.) So, to preserve my voice, I'm going to do some mandolin instrumentals. I also dragged some old songs out--I have a lot of new material, but not 2 hrs 15 min worth. This has meant quite a bit more practicing than usual, since just running through everything once... yeah. And some of the stuff needs more practice than one run-through. Plus, it is frustrating me, because even with all this practice, and even with steady daily practice since February, I still feel like I can't get through anything without making at least one mistake. I swear I was playing better three weeks ago than I am now.
However I am really looking forward to Marcon. My schedule is:
Saturday Noon Hall Concert (30 Minutes)
Saturday 1:00 PM Hall Concert (30 Minutes)
Saturday 5:30 PM Stealing from the Best
Saturday 7:00 PM Concert (75 Minutes)
This is my first concert in a long time, so I'm hoping that people will enjoy it. I have *lots* of material that you may not have heard yet--or at least not heard live, though the Alice Day songs will be making an appearance.
I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody too. But I think I'm going to miss the Wild Mercy concert because my Hall Concert is scheduled opposite it. (sniffle) If I can find someone to take my mp3 recorder, though, I can save it for later (rubs hands gleefully). Anybody going to the Wild Mercy Concert?
1) one big piece of fiberglass that covers the interior from gunwale to gunwale (or where they will be--they're not installed yet) and from about fourteen inches back from the bow to about forteen inches forward of the stern. (The bow and stern are very complicated shapes that require careful trimming and I just find it easier to do them separately. The final fiberglass overlaps are not particularly noticeable and it reduces the panic factor a lot.)
2) one long strip of fiberglass along the keel line to reinforce it against the stresses of weight bearing and the occasional rock. In a round bottomed boat I wouldn't bother with this, but the Binturong design has a shallow vee bottom much like that of the Wee Lassie II I built last year.
3) bias cut strips of fiberglass in the stems (places where the sides meet in the bow and stern). These run from where the gunwales will be all the way down to overlap the keel strip by about an inch.
4) pieces cut to match the right and left sides of the bow and the right and left sides of the stern. They cover all the remaining uncovered hull and overlap the stem strips and the big piece of fiberglass by about an inch. I taped waxed paper (which I happened to have lying around to put over my workbench to protect it from epoxy) to the outside of the canoe and drew a rough pattern on it, then cut out the pattern and laid it inside the canoe to see if it was right. Then I used the pattern as a guide to cut the fiberglass to the right shape. Fiberglass frays like made, and when you have to cut small pieces away (to adjust a piece whose curve you didn't get quite right, for example) it makes fiberglass fluff which, combined with epoxy, is inconvenient and gets all over. So the pattern helps me get it right the first time.
2 and 3 were installed at the same time, so this was three separate days of layup. I could theoretically have condensed two steps into a day--at these temps (about 75 degrees in the boatshop right now.) the epoxy will cure to tack free in about six to eight hours. But I don't feel like I'm at my best late at night and this is a pretty important step.
Today I smeared a second layer of epoxy over the whole thing to partially fill the weave of the fiberglass, which helps protect it. I won't go for a third coat because I like a little internal roughness--if it is too smooth it gets slippery and a slippery canoe can be inconvenient.
I have planed all the gunwale pieces but still need to cut out the bad parts and scarf the good bits together. This will almost certainly not happen until after MarCon because I have so much else to do today.
Music
I ended up with sets totaling two hours and fifteen minutes for Marcon (2 hall concerts and a main concert.) So, to preserve my voice, I'm going to do some mandolin instrumentals. I also dragged some old songs out--I have a lot of new material, but not 2 hrs 15 min worth. This has meant quite a bit more practicing than usual, since just running through everything once... yeah. And some of the stuff needs more practice than one run-through. Plus, it is frustrating me, because even with all this practice, and even with steady daily practice since February, I still feel like I can't get through anything without making at least one mistake. I swear I was playing better three weeks ago than I am now.
However I am really looking forward to Marcon. My schedule is:
Saturday Noon Hall Concert (30 Minutes)
Saturday 1:00 PM Hall Concert (30 Minutes)
Saturday 5:30 PM Stealing from the Best
Saturday 7:00 PM Concert (75 Minutes)
This is my first concert in a long time, so I'm hoping that people will enjoy it. I have *lots* of material that you may not have heard yet--or at least not heard live, though the Alice Day songs will be making an appearance.
I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody too. But I think I'm going to miss the Wild Mercy concert because my Hall Concert is scheduled opposite it. (sniffle) If I can find someone to take my mp3 recorder, though, I can save it for later (rubs hands gleefully). Anybody going to the Wild Mercy Concert?