Monday, February 8, 2010

butt panelling hull and side panels

So I chose to add a strip of plywood (12 cm wide) on my hull and side panels butt joins. Looks good and seems stronger. The hull went without any problem, as did the first starboard side panel.
Then came the other panel, the port side....Since I have not enough space on my garage, recently renamed 'atelier', I had to lay the port panels on top of the already butted starboard panel. So far so good. But what I didn't think about (dumb ass !) was that since I was using a strip of plywood I could not butt end both side panels on the same side..... :( Well, as I said I am a first time builder and first time builders do screw up and therefore end up with 2 perfectly identical starboard panels ...!
When it hit me that I had just screwed up big time, the resin was hard as concrete. So I just at there and look at my two identicals starboard panels speechless...Action was needed and I only had two options : get brand new plywood panels and recut everything, or try to fix the problem. I went for the second alternative and used the old hand tools : hammer and chisel. To my own surprise, after about 20 mns of carefull work, most of the plywood joint was gone. (left)
Another 20 minutes of lound sanding with my powerfull Bosch orbital sander and my plywood panels were as smooth as before ! (below)
Just turn the whole thing to its other side, cut new plywoods joints, mixed fresh resin, and had a new corrected larboard panel by the end of the afternoon !
First scary mistake but I am happy the way it came out. Will need really minor faring when time comes to paint the hull.
My advice : think twice before cutting and at least three times before epoxing !

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