Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[Tony G]

First time we ever see a filleting jig?

Au contraire, sir! Stolen from YOU.

EBB's PHOTO GALLERY, post number 170, photo #2. Ha! Or should I say, "Thank you"?

[ebb]

Don't think so, man.
In that pic you see a single piece jig frame laid on top of the up stuff.
Had to reach into the tank and do the filleting upside down - and essentially unseen.

It worked out OK but I didn't end up with the beauteous fillets you have here, post #434.
Had many filmy extensions of epoxy that had to be sanded back to the cove after the jig was removed.
Told self nobody would ever see the sloppy work!

The problem really is how do you get the gel into the corners you want filleted.
My method after epoxy priming and wiping dry the corners was to use the 2" brush
and dab gobs of gel directly into the corners. Precise method! Then use the filleting spatula to smooth in a cove.
Messy.
The trick was to custom each plastic former, cove maker, to the space the cove former had to run in.
I use the pliable green spreaders most suppliers have now. - cut to fit, including 'sharpening' the rounded 'finger' The idea is to scrape clean the sides as you press in a decent cove.

In the pic at post 170, the cove along the hull had a custom spreader of less than a right angle because it had to ride along the hull, which tilts inward.
Mini bulkhead/baffles across the tank used a right angle cove maker.
Custom cove makers that bear on both flats of the corner almost eliminate clean up. Otherwise you probably leave behind a hard ridge of material you didn't pull into the corner.

But making sure you also get a completely filled-in cove is a problem.
This, Tony, you solved with your jig what allows making fillets from the GRAVITY side,
the TOP. In plein sight.
These fillets spanning the top, are put there so that the lid has plenty of surface to be glued to.
In case somebody wants to know. After you butter up the lid and get it in place, it's so easy to reach in the access hole to wipe off the squeeze out with an alcohol damp rag.
Any gallon of liquid will be proud to splash against what you are creating inside your tank. Huzzah!

But then what are you using to seal the tank?

[Tony G]

Well see, Ebb, you're a craftsman. I'm inherently lazy and unfortunately forced to work.

The bilge is a whole other can of worms. Part of me says leave it. But the lazy part of me says there is too much wasted space down there the way I have it set up now. Luckily I have given up on the sealed battry/sealed box idea... I'm embarressed just admitting I was thinking in that direction. We are still tossing around the idea of adding tankage in the bilge and your job is the impetus for the act. But then I think maybe just partitioned storage for heavy dry goods like cans and wine. (And, oh yeah, wine too. Did I forget to mention wine?) Seriously though, there are just too many ideas to implement. So I try to run everything through the mill a couple of times to reduce it down. You know, simplify...KISS. What has worked best for me so far is to lag behind you and some of the other members here and just steal ideas.

I had planned to seal the top of the tank with good old fashoined epoxy. If I really felt the need to I could paint over the seams once the top finally cured. I don't think that will be necessary though. Most of the strength holding the top piece on will actually be on top of the top. Some more of the triangular cleats along with thickened epoxy and fabric willhold things down and contain any stray water from the filling process. Mind you, this is all in theory. Should I even mention that one point in time I actually thought about sealing the top down with silicon. HA!

[Tony G]

But then what are you using to seal the tank?

Oh. Did you mean seal as in put the top on or seal as in coat the epoxy? I bought some of the Epoxy Products tank coating NSFin' what the... paint. Lousy oil lamp.

[ebb]

Some will say that it is not a bad idea to have an actual bilge in the Ariel.

If you have removed and cleaned out the old Pearson paint then you can imco just seal the area with epoxy and come back to it later.
You can put in the sole easy to take off.
So if you have to alter the bilge you won't have to grind on it.

[Tony G]

If you have removed and cleaned out the old Pearson paint then you can imco just seal the area with epoxy and come back to it later.

I don't remember any paint down there... My main pain about the cabin sole is I glued those spiffy timbers I made to the hull with 3M 5200. Then I glued the sole to them with more 5200. I might try the guitar string method to slice the adhesive. I don't really want to buy another toxic product designed to soften the 5200. What would it be called? 6300?

[Tony G]

Well it's getting to be that time of year again. I stole away for a few hours at the shop today and actually did something. We found an electric heater this last weekend on sale for a few peanuts, a couple of furs and a flint so I bit. It's only a 5kW unit so it's not going to beat back the ravages of winter but it will take the edge off once the days start getting a little warmer. Honestly, it's an over glorified hair dryer, but, it's as realistic as one can get for the task. I mean-there is only so much you can do to stave off sub-zero temperatures aside from dumping a grand into a heating system. And that is something I will not do.

So, armed with the new heat, new workshop and four layers of clothing-(R.I.P. nude honky workshop) I set forth to organize this cuby into a workspace. First up is a miter saw station and router table combo. I know a lot of people like to mount their router in a table saw wing but I see a lot of long pieces needing shaping in my future so it seemed to make more sense to drop it into the miter saw bench. I'm striving to keep things simple here but I need everything and a good deal of time and money have to go into outfitting a modest shop. Everything. Tables, ladders, etc., etc.. Even with heat it's still way too cold to glue anything so I can only get so far for now. I'm hoping to get things organized and in working order so I can get a jump on boat work this year. This year's goal is 'hands-on' before mid-April. I promise we'll post some pictures as things come together. The new camera is worth more than I am right now and I don't think I can be responsible for it's safe keeping with all the hub-bub going on at the shop as I'm way out of practice.

Cheers!