Commander #65 "Lucky Dawg"

[Lucky Dawg]

A bit of progress. Removed old varnish with heat gun and followed up to remove any residue with Jabsco stripper. Bleached with oxylic acid from Ace Hdwr. Sanded with 40/60/80. Last pic is Interlux InterStain - brown mahogany. Will follow that in a couple days with Interlux InterPrime Clear Sealer and then Epifanes Clear gloss varnish. Tedious work, but looking forward to outcome.

Bleached. Left is sanded to 80. 40 grit to get some of the black streaks out.



Cool pic! In the bottom right corner, you can see the diagonal seam repair I made 10 years ago with epoxy thickened with mahagany sanding dust. Still holding up and still dark brown - didn't know if it would bleach out somehow.



All bleached and sanded



InterStain. 80grit recommended final pass so that the product has adequate tooth to hold on to. "Thick housepaint" consistency that is rubbed across the grain and as much rubbed off in that way as will lift for final appearance. Process of rubbing/removal is pretty quickly underway after application. If you let it flash/dry, it is really difficult to rub down adequately. I used the same process/staining on my companionway brightwork a couple years ago and it looks great.

[Lucky Dawg]

I needed to bow the 3/8" mahogany plank that goes beneath my traveler. The bow above the lazarette bulkhead is pretty minimal, but I didn't successfully bow it when I created it and the athwartship ends of the piece lifted up a bit off the deck.

So, I successfully used this method - https://youtu.be/--iPQIwSEJM*- making a steam bag out of tarp material and duct tape coupled to a home/laundry steamer.

Because of COVID, the storage shed at my boat yard is closed, so I couldn't get the exact radius off of the top of the bulkhead. By my guess-timation, the radius on the trim piece above our fireplace seemed about right.



Made a box out of 3/8" plywood and 2x4 scrap to match that radius.



Steamed it for about an hour clamped to my form. Let it cool in place. It got plenty hot with the laundry steamer.



Finished product!



This is a good video on building an actual steam box https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMvc2tuVGcQ* Just didn't seem worth the trouble for potentially the only time I will find myself steam-bending wood.

[Lucky Dawg]

Splashed a couple weeks ago. A couple pix of rehabbed brightwork, etc. New sail and tiller covers