Gluing the floor

Some days you make lots of progress, some days not so much. I woke up yesterday and was a bit eager taking the panel out of the bag. Might have gotten a little cold the night before because the panel was still a little green when I took it out. I tried to stand it up but didn't feel comfortable with that. I could have reaffixed the bag and left it under vacuum, But the resin had gone off, just still a little tacky. I decided to just leave it flat on the shop floor. Went out and ran some errands, and cranked both heaters on while I left. I came back and it was warm in the shop and the panel seemed to have hit its cure. 24 hrs on slow, I gotta be patient. The reason I really want the panel out of the way was so I could glue up the bottom panel while i still have a big shop floor, then get it out of the way and store it in the other panel/wood shed while I bring the hull to shape full size. Now that both side panels are done I am anxious to see the boat come to shape full size and to see if I need to make many adjustments to my dimensions from the model which Imagine I will. Ill have nwhat looks like a boat here soon.

Today I worked on gluing the hull panels together. The bottom panels are a bit hammered. some dents along the edge and a couple on the face of the foam. one edge has a huge chunk missing. hopefully its in the cut line, otherwise ill have to learn how to patch core before the boat ever hits the water. The shop floor was tied up yesterday and I forgot to get heavy duty packing tape while I was out. It got late and I quit early. This morning I got the tape and came home and masked the edges of the panels with the packing tape tight to the edge just like before. I gave the end grain of the foam a hit with straight epoxy, then turned the heater on it and let it sit all afternoon and night. Came back late tonight and mixed up a thickened epoxy with cabosil and glass bubbles. Used a roller to make quick work of application. Came thru with the towel to grab excess epoxy off the face of the joint, butt jointed the panels, and taped the halves together first by pushing them together and using tape straps to hold tension, then taping across both joints to hold it together and keep the two pieces level. Flipped the piece over which is easy in one direction when you tape it, and did the back Side. Used my long piece of base board to clamp over the top of the joint using the underlying chip board to squish the joint between. Then I used my old world clamping method again to weight the center of the board. I was careful making my wall this time. I didn't go too tall, and tried to use the heavy bricks so I didn't need as many last time I had a rickety stack that fell over when the place likely got blasted with a wind gust or something. This stack seems solid and I think it will last thru tommorow.

Tommorow ill work on fixing the fishing brace in the old boat. Today I cut a piece of wood that allows me to pull tension at the right angle with clamps, and have managed to clamp the broken horn in place. First ill come thru with heat and get the wood nice and hot. Then ill mix a small batch of straight epoxy and let it soak in for a bit. Ill let it sit thru the day, mask of the wood, then come thru with a full coat of thickened silica glass bubbles and clamp the piece in place, probably cleaning the squeezeout as i go. ill use one long deck screw to hold the thing together and leave it clamped for a day or so. Ill probably reinforce under the horns with some smaller horns made of plywood. Should last til the next person sits or falls on it. This current boat is going to have nrs style aluminum bars with a foam core/glass pedestal top. Ill try to make it strong, removable, and adjustable. Nothing that anyone can break easily. Spend too much time last year fixing broken wood.