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

Originally Posted by b.o.a.t.

Apocryphal perhaps, but your body oils theory reminds me of a story my old
leading hand at Commonwealth Aircraft Corp told me. He did his trade
- electric motor winding - in post-war Germany. Shortly before he emigrated
to Oz, they got in a new bloke who seemed to know his stuff, and do the job
rechtig und in ordnung, but his windings would often fail insulation resistance
testing a couple of days after completion.

After a lot of management gnashing of teeth & watching him like a hawk for the
slightest error on which to sack him, they concluded he wasn't doing anything
wrong. The only thing anyone could think of was skin secretions breaking down
the lacquer insulation.

A pair of thin cotton gloves cured the problem.
cheers
AJ

Hi AJ,

Not nearly apocryphal, I suspect . Very interesting and instructive story . Funny you should mention this - I'd thought about using some of my old, unused photographic cotton gloves, but discounted the idea as my sweaty hands are likely to push the oils through the cloth along with the perspiration. I might try them as an experiment, on something less important(!) one day. Soon.

Cheers,
Alex.

Originally Posted by dkirtley

Having seen a pic of the Dreadful Dog, I was wondering if you noticed the same phenomenon as we have: With all the hair scattered from our dogs, why don't we have one that is bald?

Originally Posted by b.o.a.t.

Funny... my daughter yesterday posed the same question about our cats.
(Our dog is one of those small white non-shedding beasties)
AJ

Hello David and AJ,

He seems to have an inexhaustible supply of the stuff. His apparent main reason for existence is to produce hair - I think he might be closely related to a sheep - and I have been tempted to collect the hair from brushing him (he's a very clean little animal and the hairs are relatively long) and get Mum to knit the stuff into a hat or something. The greatest quantities occur in Spring when he's shedding his nice woolly winter coat - but he loses enough hair all year round for it to be a problem with the varnishing/painting, amongst other things. Fortunately, the Dreadful Dog seems to be of a non-allergen-producing breed. Otherwise I'd have to call him the Horrible Hound, or Frightful Fiend (which I do on occasion anyway ;).

I'm having a break from inhaling "white spirit" - which, funnily enough, smells exactly like "mineral turps". The varnishing will take place this arvo.

Actually, for some reason that reminds me: the "ceiling" of the workshop is actually the floor of the living room and kitchen, and also the main passageway in and out of the front door. There is quite a lot of flex in the (wooden) floor as it is supported on wooden joists over steel I-beams. It is possible - probably even probable - that large amounts of traffic are responsible for showers of dust in the workshop - especially when galumphing in with bags of shopping.

Hmm...

Time to inhale more hydrocarbon solvent.

Cheers,
Alex.

OK...I've just identified a major source - reservoir, even - of dust. Three in fact: the buoyancy tanks. Being the lazy little cus that I am, I had left the tanks to the very end when I could hose them out when cleaning off the sugar used to produce the non-slip on the cockpit floor.

It is highly probable that each time I've moved the boat from on her side to flat to do the decks, that great clouds of resin-, glue- and varnish-sanding dust have become airborne and shot out of the tanks, to drift - or plummet - happily down onto the newly varnished surfaces, there to stick fast and sending me clawing up the wattle.

Well, I've hopefully put paid to that to at least some extent, i.e., as far as my arm can reach ;). I've spent the last session mopping out the dust with white spirit-soaked paper towels followed with dry-mopping and a final going over with a very slightly damp microfibre cloth. The forward tank was the only one to get the microfibre cloth treatment so far, as I dropped it in the tank right at the end: it will have to stay there until I turn the boat over to get the rest of the dust on the other side of the tank (the inspection port is currently on the "high" side of the cockpit bulkhead since the boat is resting on her port side). It would also be expedient while I'm in this phase to take the time and turn the boat over to get the dust on the other side of the forward tank - or at least as much as I can reach with paper towel on the end of a long stick. The same goes for the aft tanks.

I am crossing my fingers that any remaining out-of-reach muck will do just that: remain in the tanks. Probably not, but at least the dust quota will have been reduced by a reasonable extent, and certainly within close proximity to the inspection ports. If I'm more careful (less hasty) in lowering the boat back down and repositioning her, I should have managed to cut the dusty aerosol down by a useful fraction of what has likely to have been the case previously.

I also taped three of the sides of the tent closed (more or less), too. The fourth needs to be left open for access, of course, and won't be taped shut until the coat has been applied.

This all leaves the boom exposed to whatever is floating about in the workshop proper/raining down from the ceiling, etc. I shall put some though into how I might form a plastic cover to put over said object, but the act of placing it may produce more airborne dust than not doing anything at all (other than clearing out and shutting the door).

Back to it after I've let the dust settle again ;).

Given the very large amount of dust still in the forward tank - I just turned the boat over onto her starboard side and checked the slightly damp MFC (microfibre cloth) that I removed thereafter - I am going to defer further varnish coats until I've got the lot. Or as much as I possibly can without being too silly about it <snigger>.

This will most likely mean deferring the next varnish coat until tomorrow arvo - so I might take the opportunity and use the vacuum cleaner to assist in cleaning up the tanks.

That's the buoyancy tanks cleaned of their dust - and me ending up feeling rather ill. I omitted to wear the Heavy Duty Snout Protector (partly because I can't locate it) and am paying the price. There's probably still a bit of dust left in the "larger" side of the forward tank (the inspection port is offset to starboard in my boat), but as I can't see it, I'll pretend that it isn't there. Or I will until I've recovered sufficiently to look for the HDSP. I'm hoping that in any case there won't be much dust left to cause a problem.

I'll mop the floor of the tent with a damp sponge-mop this evening to get any residual muck that's scuttling about.

Still feeling too squiffy this evening to do anything more on the painting environment, so I didn't. I found the HDSP lurking in full view gnashing its teeth at me, however, so I retrieved it and washed the dust off its various washable parts, under the hot tap. I'll be better prepared if I decide to finish off the other side of the forward tank. Experience tells me that I should; laziness and impatience urge me to skip it. Experience really ought to win out. We'll see on the morrow.

Despite the stupidity in partially poisoning myself this arvo, I am relieved to have those tanks done. They had been niggling away quietly at the back of my mind for some time now, and now I know why!

I've just applied coat no. 5 to the boom and coat no. 7 to the hull. Theoretically, that means only one more coat on the hull. Not sure about that, since I'm still losing the battle to control dust. Part of the problem is wearing clothes - fluff rains down out of them at the slightest excuse. Tyvek(suits are not an option for me, as they become reservoirs of perspiration, which eventually pours out of the suit onto the painted surface (I have direct experience of this and do not wish to repeat it!).

And I don't have any lint-free shirts at the moment - or not ones that I would wear while varnishing.

The workshop has been locked up until the morning - all lights and fans off - and I'll find out whether the dust is less than last time. Fingers crossed.

The deck isn't as lumpy as the previous coat, but it is still quite prickly: so I haven't beaten the dust problem yet, despite all the attempts to do so.

I've found a polyester shirt that should be less likely to shed, lurking at the back of the cupboard, so that will get hauled out for the next coat. I'm also going to give the ceiling above the boom a good rattling with the "feather" duster, too (it's actually made from some synthetic polymer, not feathers ;). a bit before painting, to dislodge and otherwise discourage the dust-chucking spiders.

I had a nice day out at a "Boatfest" at Lake Macquarie on Saturday, per kind courtesy of woodeneye and boatmik. Most of my time was spent gazing longingly at Bruce's lovely Goat "Hakuna Matata" and wishing that I'd started on the Goat instead of the 'Duck (or whatever name one is supposed to call it these days - it looks like an (immersed) "army duck", a.k.a. DUKW, so I'll continue to stick with the name that I habitually use). Threatened rain and wind didn't eventuate, so the sail was hoisted, and made her look even nicer. Particularly as the sail was made by Storm Bay Sails in Tassie (I think I've probably mentioned them before).

Also of interest were a number of wooden motor boats, and the nice boat trailer which Bruce carts his Goat about on. I've got my eye on this particular type for obvious reasons.

I'll put up some photos of the latest varnishing attempts when I've sorted out some halfway-decent ones. And maybe some of my "Classic Boatfest" snaps, too (the same caveat applies).

Here's some snaps of the results of the latest varnishing:

1. Boom: 5th coat le Tonk, photo no. 1. Excellent coverage by the varnish spoilt slightly by falling dust (see later)





2. Boom: 5th coat le Tonk, photo no. 2. A bit further along the boom...





3. Boom: 5th coat le Tonk, photo no. 3. The other end of the boom





4. Hull: le Tonk coat no. 7 photo no. 1. Flashless photo of decks showing good coverage by le Tonk: pity about that dust'n'fluff :(





5. Hull: le Tonk coat no. 7 photo no. 2. Overview of the hull. Note that the highlights are diffused to some extent by the plastic film of the tent roof





6. Hull: le Tonk coat no. 7 photo no. 3. The starboard aft air-tank side has finally recovered from earlier varnishing problems...





7. Hull: le Tonk coat no. 7 photo no. 4. Flash used: compare with previous snap





8. Hull: le Tonk coat no. 7 photo no. 5. Close-up of dust on the foredeck; brush-strokes also visible here, suggesting that a few drops of gum turpentine in the varnish pot at this point might have been advantageous





9. Hull: le Tonk coat no. 7 photo no. 6. Close-up of dust on foredeck using flash - it's the little white dots ;)





10. Results of swishing away at the ceiling with the feather duster, part 1: lts of dust. There's more where that came from :(





11. Results of swishing away at the ceiling with the feather duster, part 2. It looks as though it's been snowing...





12. Results of swishing away at the ceiling with the feather duster, part 3. This may be a bit more representative of dust fall-out from the ceiling after various heffalumps have been jumping up and down on the floor above


Follow this link to my Flickr account, where there may be heffalumps...



I've still to clean up after removing some of the dust on the ceiling - and a good going-over of the ceiling itself with the vacuum cleaner itself wouldn't hurt, either.

I'll post some snaps of Saturday's little trip to Lake Macquarie tomorrow.

Here's some selected snaps from the Lake Macquarie boat show taken on Saturday 23 April 2011:

1. Hakuna Matata at the Lake Macquarie Classic Boatfest





2. View of Hakuna Matata from the stern looking forward





3. Really nice sail bag supplied with the Goat's sail. Long enough and wide enough to hold the spars as well :)





4. Hakuna Matata, looking aft from the bow. There was a plywood-canoe-building school going on in the rotunda in the background during the day





5. Another view of the sail bag. Some people appear not to like having their photos taken ;). The tent in the backgorund housed some very neat electric outboard and inboard motors/powertrains//transmissions: the perspex tank on the RHS of the photo contained a live outboard motor (powered by a rechargeable LiPo battery - just like the ones on my current trainer aircraft only much, much bigger ;)





6. Goat cockpit - great work by the builder :). Nice and crisp - like the rest of the boat...





7. Goat mast step





8. Goat cockpit, looking aft. I think that the Goat is my favourite boat :)





9. Hakuna Matata fully rigged, sitting on her trailer. Trailer is fully hot-dip galvanised and available as a kit, Oz-made from an Oz-owned company
...





10. The simple rigging of the Goat's (and 'Duck's) balance lug rig evident here. Note the aluminium spar, with the sail lashed on using replaceable electrical ties. Cord is "Spectra"; not seen here are the nice hi-tech ratchet blocks in the mainsheet set-up (but see photo no. 6 above for one of them - a Harken-brand block, I think)





11. Another view of the rigged lugs'l: nice sail made by Storm Bay Sails in Tasmania. Note the telltales on this and the following snap





12. Another nice view of the rigged Goat. The Varnished hoop pine mast looked much nicer and much less bland than I would have expected from the untreated planks in my wood store


Follow this link to my Flickr account to see my own online "boat show" starring one or two boats (and some planes)...



I spent a bit of the afternoon hoovering the workswamp ceiling. There is a fearful amount of dust up there, and not just on the upper surfaces of beams and girders, either. What a mess. The more I look the more I find... Plugging up some of the ventilation holes near the boom and boat before the next coat will be a good idea too. I'll start sanding the deck and boom lightly this evening - just enough to knock the dust off.

I'm merely putting up the following photo because I like it .

Another view of the hoop-pine box-mast on Hakuna Matata. Note the telltale and the reef points


It's on my Flickr account of course



More vacuuming of the ceiling done - per Martien's suggestion I may also tack up some temporary plastic sheeting directly over the boom, if I can find a piece of plastic of the right size. That' sit for today, unless I suddenly get keen and start sanding, otherwise that will be something to look forward to for tomorrow...

Alex, I can't help wondering if you're sanding and varnishing right now, or watching a wedding...

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Alex, I can't help wondering if you're sanding and varnishing right now, or watching a wedding...

It would have to be varnishing... I hate sanding.

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Alex, I can't help wondering if you're sanding and varnishing right now, or watching a wedding...

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

It would have to be varnishing... I hate sanding.

Hi Michael and Cliff,

Right now I'm tapping away at the keyboard ;). The other members of the family are glued to the wedding... I watched the main part. All over bar the shouting now ;). Of which there was quite a lot, although mostly drowned out by a cacophony of Westminster Abbey bells.

As to the boat, I'm still sanding - or avoiding - it :(. I've been playing about with various different sanding tools in an attempt to give the concave decks a decent sand. So far I've tried hand-sanding, the cork block, the curved back of a rubber sanding block, and some sanding sponges. The rubber block has been the best so far, but the sandpaper clogs up pretty quickly even though the surface of the previous coat is fairly hard. I can tell when I;'m getting through the dust when the paper stops making rattling and rustling noises. Since this is either the last or the second-last coat, I want to get the finish as smooth as I can at this point. As they say - you sand down to a finish, not build up to one.

Cheers,
Alex.