Thread: Another OZ MK2 PDRacer build in Sydney "Wood Duck"

Alex leave the varnish what I mean is slap a final coat on don't worry about the outcome.

Next year if you have a mind you can always give things a light sand and another coat.

Someone wise wrote

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference......or when to stop.

Thanks Mike :). That made me feel a little, well, happier!

Originally Posted by AlexN

Thanks Mike . That made me feel a little, well, happier!

Easy for me to say.

The fact is your audience is waiting expectantly for the splash, this epic story deserves a happy ending.

Happy for me to read . And my humble apologies for dragging you into this sticky mess . It's a pity that I haven't been able to find a stockist of Norglass Marine Varnish within reasonable proximity - who actually stocks it...

I put the third coat on the rudder again last night - I may stop at four or five - with questionable success. While I'd sanded the whole thing and wiped it down, I suspect that I had forgotten a final wipe to remove grease. That and the fact that I'd used a bit of white spirit to thin the varnish (to get better flow ) seem to have resulted in a rather "stringy" finish again, although not nearly as bad as the preceding attempt. There is also a thick layer of DUST on it too, but as all removable parts are getting sanded between coats from now on, I'm not terribly concerned about that. Yet.

So another Le Tonk rule - don't thin it! It's a pity that they were made to monkey with the "Original" formula (so it made it safe to drink, I guess )...

<sigh>

Cheers,
Alex.

Boom sanded for its last(!) coat, yard sanded, and some more taping and sticking (luff patch) done on sail. Not time for more, been an otherwise busy day...

Again, very little done on the boat today - I had a frantic day doing tuckshop duty at my daughter's school, and what with the warm weather and doing it two days running, I got rather wiped out.

The foils and rudder-box, etc., have been unhitched from their clothes-lines, although I tripped at one point and took a lump of glass cloth/resin out of the top of the TE of the centreboard, oops. The wood is intact, however, and I'm just going to varnish over the top of it.

I've sanded the tiller extension and most of the rudder-box, a horrible and thankless task, the latter. The removal of coat # 3 on the rudder resulted in solvent splashes and craters on the near side of the rudder-box, which made the sanding slightly worse.

Have I mentioned how much I've come to dislike sanding?

As I've been toiling away at my Sisyphean task (sanding), it has just occurred to me that I'm varnishing onto a completely sealed and non-absorptive surface, i.e., epoxy.

It may be that if one is varnishing onto wood, the oils in the paint are drawn in a gradient into the timber. With epoxy that wouldn't happen - they would merely sit on the surface.

An experiment seems in order: I will get some scraps of wood and overcoat them, to see when le Tonk starts to split.

The above thought suggests that if this is the case, with epoxy one would need to allow the oils to oxidise and cross-link for a while before the next coat - and it would then,of course, need sanding. It could be that the enforced tinkering formula and therefore with the major unknown in this equation - the "magic sauce", which include resins, apparently - reduces the effectiveness of the resins to help bind and cross-link the oils (tung and linseed). Of course, I may be barking up the wrong tree with all this...

I shall investigate this idea the next time that I get out the brush...

Right. That's the sanding done - for the moment, at any rate. I'll put the next coat on on Monday - that'll give the DUST a chance to settle. The air cleaner is currently running and I'll do some necessary hoovering this evening or tomorrow morning.

I really, really, really hope that that is the last bit of sanding other than the hull - I don't think I could cope with another sustained bout without going totally loopy. Well, loopier than usual...

Some snaps:

1. Chunk of glass/resin taken out of the centreboard TE. Maybe the resin didn't from a decent resin-wood complex with the dense eucalypt timber. I doubt that somehow, though...





2. Packet of scourers: I'm hoping that I can get away with just using these between varnish coats from now on - for however many coats I decide I can get away with ;). This will dependent on whether I can keep the DUST down to a reasonable level (it had built up)...





3. Skyfarer wing - Mr Storer suggested that I put a snap of it here :). This was before the lower wing-sheeting glue joints gave way at the LE (the manufacturer is sending me a replacement bottle as apparently there was a faulty batch)


Follow this link to my Flickr account...


Fingers X-ed. I'm planning to go up to six varnish coats, five if I think I can get away with it. One more coat on the boom and I get to swap it for the mast!

Is that the new wing sail or the hydrofoil?

Heh - it's my new ultra-secret winged keel ;). Totally "class-illegal" :).

Coat # 4 on foils, yard, etc.; coat # 8 on the boom. There are some patches where I'd swear I'd put enough varnish on, but they appear dry: notably, unhappily, on the top surface of the boom, aaargh! Coat # 9 for the boom? Not necessarily: I'll see what it looks like in the morning. The foils also have dry patches: it may be that the lighting isn't good enough...fumbling for the excuses, as you can see.

Despite carefully cleaning the brushes and wiping things down, running the air cleaner and letting the air settle, etc., I still have DUST, too.

It's highly unlikely that I'll do another bright-finished boat - it will be coloured(maybe even house!) paint in any future builds. I've had it up to the back teeth and beyond where clear finishes are concerned.

While there might appear that the silence is ominous, in fact it isn't - I've just been waiting for the varnish to get to a rub-downable state (usually 48 hours at current workshop temps, ca. 15 - 17 *C) using a Scotch-Brite scouring pad. The latter works quite well, and I'm quite pleased with the results on the boom (the gaps were more widespread than I realised, not just on the top face, so yes, it's getting coat # 9) and yard. The foils and rudder-box/tiller are another bucket o' snakes entirely, and I will be dealing with them tomorrow...

So here we all are.... watching paint dry.

Hi Cliff! Fun, isn't it? More fun than you could poke a stick at...