Week 42

Tags

deck, epoxi, plywood, stain, testing, varnish

Week 42 is going to its end and it’s been a rough week where almost all energy with the back has been put on work so the boat stood still for most part.

However, yesterday I got around to fill the three last groves with the black caulk and today I did a quick jobb of laying on a layer of epoxi, the second layer total now and I’m waiting with interest on to see how it will turn out. 

I’m really hoping it covers all the caulking lines this time (had a few spots last time it didn’t cover after drying), at least on the first three lines but hopefully on the three I did yesterday to. I did use a bite more epoxi this time and I hope that will do the trick, at the same time I’m a bit more worried I may have more air bubbles with the thicker layer but will have to wait and see. 

Not to much to take pictures of this time so instead I’ll post something during the week with the result and hopefully it looks good and I just have to decide if it’s time for varnish or another layer of epoxi. 

With the back not making so fast progress and doing work at my max level right now this testing has really taken much longer time then I was hoping on and I don’t know if I will be able to start making the real deck before spring because of the cold in the garage now when we are going towards winter, but maybe I’ll get some more energy with the back soon and can solve the heat issue and get some bits going before spring, I do hope so, so when the weather turns for the warmer season again we can get the boat out in the water and tested for real:)

Think it’s time to which everyone a good upcoming week now!

All for now, Over & Out

Small progress

Tags

deck, epoxy, plywood

Hi, 

Another week has past and the days are getting shorter and colder over here. 

This weekend I didn’t do much with the boat, really needed the rest after a long work week but did sand the first layer of epoxy on the test deck so it’s now ready for the black caulk before the next round with epoxy. 

I’ll do that during this week and hopefully make the next layer of epoxy at this weekend. 

I also installed a mother lamp in the garage, it was well needed since I only had one in the deeper end of the garage (the other one I had to take away when installing a electrical door opener) and I never got around to install a new lamp. But now I have light to work in during the darker months to, only thing stoping me is I don’t have any heat in the garage. 

No pictures today, but stay tuned for the next one
All for now, Over & Out

After the epoxy

Tags

Boat, deck, epoxy, plywood, test

So had a look yesterday on how it turned out with the first layer of epoxy. The colour seemed to stay as I wanted it:) 

I think I used a bit to little epoxy on some areas, and some of the black caulk didn’t get covered totally. Next step will be to sand it with a fine sandpaper, clean it off and put on a nother layer. I think I’ll do the other theee caulk lines after that and 1-2 more epoxy coatings befor the varnish test on top of it all. To early to say how it will turn out but the hope is still there after this first test. 

All for now, Over & Out

Deck testing part 3

Tags

Boat, deck, epoxy, plywood, test

Sunday and took the opportunity to try out some more testing for the deck. 

Today was time to test the epoxy on the plywood I had stained before and routed out 6 groves (3 of them filled with the black stuff). 

I read on the label the temperature should be 18 degrees or above, in down to 14-15 today but I’m hoping it won’t be a problem, it had a hardening time of 24h but I will leave it to rest for a few days before having a look and deciding if I need a bother coat before I will the remaining 3 groves with the black mass or if I can go in that straight away and then maybe 2 more epoxy levels before going on to fernish. 

I’m also hoping on that the board won’t get to much dust on now when drying, I won’t be doing anything else in the garage for now but the garage is not dust free. Just wait in see I guess. 

Here is a picture after I just coated it with the epoxy, I didn’t bother to coat the first grove where the black mass was so messy (sanding it down only took the stain away to)   


I’m not sure if the colour will change when it has dryer out but I like this colour more then how it was before the epoxy, feels a bit richer so hoping on the colour will stay this way. 
Just a few last words about the process:

I used a painting brush, I heard you can use a roller to but seen people with good results by using brush and since it was so small area I thought it would be easier. 

I mixed the epoxy by measuring up in a medicine measurement bowl and I used a new plastic beer mug to mix it together in. Easy to use and easy to dispose when done with the epoxy. 

Don’t forget to wear protection while working with epoxy. I used a overall to protect my clothes, glasses, plastic gloves and a breath masks. 

So now it’s just to wait and see if this was any kind of success or if it’s back to the internet to read up more on “how to”

All for now, Over & Out

The deck part 5

Tags

Boat, deck, selco, stringers

Haven’t been able to do anything on the boat during this week, need to potion out the energy I have with the back do be able to do my work so the boat has stood still but today I have had a day of and took the opportunity to get a little bit done on the deck stringers. 

There all completed now and attached together. I have chosen to make them in two sections and will connect them in the middle under the front seat. That makes it easier to do the deck on top of the stringers. 

Here is a progress picture of it, all done except the connection in the middle. 

All for now, Over & Out

Weekend around the corner!

Tags

Boat, garage, overall, project

Can’t complain about the week going slow but feels good to have Friday tomorrow and have 2 days off this weekend. The last week I haven’t had time or energy to put on the boat broke the but hoping on having some time for it this weekend. The deck test board is ready to get some epoxy so that will be the goal for this weekend I think!

The weather has taken its turn to the colder now and I want to get the epoxy tested before we get to cold weather. 

Will also be a good opportunity to test out my new garage work overall  I got just yesterday, a easy way to keep dirty garage work away from ruining to many clothes:)


All for now, Over & Out

Weekend Computer Project

Tags

MacBook, Ram, SSD, Upgrade

We are in to the last day of this week and I woke up this morning at got stunned over how good my computer is working now!

Picture of inside with the new RAM (green black white thing over the black battery) and the new SSD in the bottom left corner of the picture.

It started yesterday when I finally decided to change the Ram memory and the HDD to a SDD on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro. The computer itself is in good taken care of condition but the last year I have been noticing it geting a bit slower and the last months it has been so bad that I started thinking of maybe It`s time to bite the apple so to speak and buy a new one but then I started reading a bit about upgrading the memory and the ram and decided it was worth a try since I could do this for about £100 instead of a new computer for £1100.

So yesterday, companied by my mother we drove in to town and bought a 240gb SSD and two 4gb Ram memory cards. Had a rest with the back the next few hours and then started to open the unibody of the Mac. The process of changing the Ram and the HDD to a SDD was easy and quick work, took me about 15 min and I used some googled up websites to guide me in the process.

Before hand I hade saved all the important stuff on the computer (I decided to not make a copy of the old HDD into the new SSD because I wanted to start over fresh) and having the integration with iCloud made things a lot easier to, all my files and pictures are already in iCloud.

Then came the part that took time, starting up the computer again I needed to install the OS X and this was OS X Lion on my computer. So left the computer to be during this process and when it was done, logged in with my Apple account and in to App Store and downloaded the latest OS X Sierra (this also took some time). Before going to bed it was installed and I went in to App Store again to start download my programs again, numbers, pages, etc.

This morning it was time to test te computer and it didn’t take more then a few seconds to realize I should have done this upgrade a year ago. The computer is now faster then it has ever been, I can’t believe hos quick it opens up all different programs and stuff now.

As a comparison, opening pages took med easy 1 min before having the icon bouncing on the dock for atlas 30 sec before another 30 for the program to start to be able to use it. Now it opens in 2-3 seconds and ready to use, unbelievable differens!

So its safe to say I’m very happy this Sunday morning! And working on the computer will be a lot more fun again, hopefully I can get out at least a mother year from this computer now before thinking about a new laptop.

 

All for now, Over & Out

Paint the inside?

Tags

Boat, paint, plans, thoughts

Hi, even though I the blog has come out with a few new articles I haven’t been doing anything on the boat since the weekend. I use time schedule to post my posts a bit more even instead of getting all posted in bunches. 

This week I’ve been away on a back check and all my energie has gone to manage my work but I’m hoping on getting some more done with the boat soon. I have some done that I haven’t been posting yet so will keep a few more posts coming even if I won’t get time and energy fore the boat the nearest days. 

Autumn is coming fast now and it’s been a bit rainy so I haven’t had a good opportunity to go and buy a plywood sheet for the deck without risking it getting wet on the way home. Also I’m still in the progress of the deck testing so there is really no big hurry for the plywood. 

What I do feel a bit hurry about is that I would like to test the boat in the water before it gets to cold, but at the moment I’m not sure if I will get that opportunity before its to late this year, I’ll just have to wait an see. 

One thing I’ve been thinking about is if I should do a little effort when it comes to the inside walls of the boat. First I didn’t have anything planed for that the first year but I’m starting to feel that it would make a big difference to the appearance of the boat (at least for the ones in it) if I gave it some new paint inside before next summer. If the deck turns out something like I’m hoping it will make a big difference if the sides get some new colour to. I’ve been looking on the Internet and I think I can come away with spending about £35 for this plus the time doing it so it’s not to expensive and it would maybe be a good learning before going on to repaint the whole boat after next summer if we get that far with our boat interest in the family. 

Not sure if I will go with the off white or plain white, having in mind that the deck will probably be a bit mahogany coloured I think some sort of white will look good. I’m also thinking that this will be easiest to do before getting the deck in place, but maybe I dry fit the deck if it will allow me to get in the water once this year, and then take the deck off and give the inside a layer of paint before putting the deck back on. 

I have also been thinking about using the two front seats for next summer, but I’m now thinking about maybe building a new front sofa during the Spring since I probably will have the time for that. 

Well that is enough of my thoughts right now, we will just have to wait and see how it all plans out, won’t we?

All for now, Over & Out

The deck part 4

Tags

Boat, deck, renovation, stringers

Things have been moving along with the stringers, made the last ones now and next step will be to connect them with each other, think I will do it with a plank running between them like the one I have here in the picture at the bow end. Then the plywood on top of these will prevent them from getting out of place and I will attach the second stringer from the bow with a similar fashion as the old deck was attached. Think I will use the old peace in the bow for now, plug the old screw holes and attach it with some silicone glue kind of stuff. 

Here’s the progress so far(all stringers are not in correct place in the picture)

All for now, Over & Out

Deck testing part 2

Tags

caulk, deck, plywood, stain

Done some progress in testing the deck, had the black caulk put into three groves, 2 with tape on the sides and one without.  

Let it dry for a day and a half and then started to sand of, began with the one I have done without tape. Didn’t take long to see that sanding the extra off also took of the stain so new plan now, won’t sand on the other two lines, instead start to put on epoxy and build up a smooth surface, hoping on two layers will be enough for that and then go on with the caulk on top off the epoxy on the other three groves before more epoxy and then varnish.

 

To be continued…

All for now, Over & Out