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

Thanks for the link and acknowledgement Alex. I realise now I forgot to mention that the mast down haul rigging was shown to me by you. So much stuff was running through my head at the time. It's hard to summarise the event and pay tribute to all those who helped along the way!

As for you skids, would it be possible to suggest you just glue down the rubber without worrying about cleaning up hidden paint?

Hi Theodor,

Thank you for your kind words :). I'm not sure that the double-block system for the downhaul was original - it most likely wasn't, although I can't remember who may have suggested it to me, possibly woodeneye or nickpullen - but it certainly looked familiar ;).

I would have ignored the paint on the "skids", etc., were it not for the fact that the underlying epoxy surface is too lumpy and bumpy for the smooth rubber to get sufficient adhesion without using a silly amount of glue. I left the epoxy like that as I knew it was going to get paint on it if I didn't mask it, and that it would be more efficient to just wait until the end and do both: and save some tape and time, not to mention less of the sanding!

Cheers,
Alex.

Cutting up the insertion-rubber strips didn't take very long:

1. Insertion-rubber strip "shoes". The strips on the "skids" will be cut up into 75 or 100 mm lengths - probably 75 mm (which size makes 16 pads per side with 75 mm gaps, from a 1200 mm strip)





2. Close-up of rubber strip on front "foot". Note the central binding cloth layer in the middle of the strip





3. Close-up of rubber strip on right rear "foot". The powder on the (new) paintwork is where I got to the foot at that spot with cork block and 80-grit sandpaper


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Another task to tick off the slowly-shortening list. Still quite a way to go yet, I'm afraid. Little step by little step...

Another couple of small steps - or series of smaller steps:

1. 36 insertion-rubber pads for the "skids". It should be 38, I missed out one slot on each side





2. Front "foot" sanded clean





3. Rear "feet" sanded clean





4. Skids measured up after sanding and rubber pads in place - temporarily. The end-panel "feet" have been suitably trimmed here, too





5. Tie-down eye-bolts have also been installed





6. Close-up of one of the eye-bolts, starboard side. Measuring marks for the pads can be seen here: 75 mm pads, 75 mm apart


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I'll glue all the bits of rubber on next, using contact cement. After I've cut another couple of pads and trimmed the outer corners on the front pads, that is.

It didn't take very long to glue all the bits of rubber onto the roof:

1. Most of the pads glued down; "feet" "shod" as well. Note that the two missing pads were produced after a quick bit of cutting with the Stanley knife and some scissors





2. Last set of pads to go. Pads and "skid" with glue (contact cement) applied via spatula. All rubber and epoxy surfaces cleaned up with "wax and grease remover" before applying the glue





3. Closer-up view of "skid" and pads, glue applied





4. Lower part finished! The final pads stuck down and wayward glue removed from the rubber with mineral turps: more to avoid sticking the roof onto the boat than anything ;)





5. A quick run over with the vacuum cleaner to remove the last of the sanding dust from the pre-glue clean-up; this is hopefully the last time that this view will be seen by anybody! We can only hope ;)...





6. Roof turned the right way up, finally! It will stay in this orientation until we cart the think outside. Some sanding, priming and painting to go yet, however





7. Aquacote high-build epoxy primer is very tough when set, although a few spots on the ridge cap did get scored with the rough handling that the roof got while the undersurfaces were being sorted out





8. Roof the right way up. Another coat or two of Acquote epoxy primer to take care of the scratches, then some undercoat and paint. This time, I will make absolutely certain that the epoxy primer is mixed in the correct quantities...


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I'll give the roof a skim over with the ROS and a suitable (probably 80-grit) paint disc before continuing: the ridge cap will need to be block-sanded on account of it's narrowness, and the ROS's weight. I still don't dare put a completion date on this thing, though.

More stuff:

1. Rolled coat of Acquacote high-build epoxy primer after 60-grit ROS sand. The flip side of the very few scratches on the surface after a lot of bumping about on the floor was that it was extremely hard to sand - the stuff seems to be harder than steel





2. ROS-sanded with 60-grit paint disc, one coat of Aquacote high-build epoxy primer





3. Second coat of Aquacote: well, it's actually the fourth coat of Aquacote all-up - but the latter two coats are from a recently-purchased 4-litre kit, and the stuff is quite different from the original batch that I used on the 'Duck





4. Second Aquacote coat on the roof. I was careful to make sure that the resin to hardener ratio was 1:1 on these two most recent occasions...


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I used up the excess resin from the second (fourth) coat on the base-board for the mill, since it is going to be subjected to some fairly horrible wet (coolant/cutting fluid) conditions. Aquacote doesn't brush too well with natural bristle brushes, on account of its thick, gooey "high-build" nature, so I ended up rolling then dragging the less-damaged reclaimed-from-the-bin roller of the two used on the roof.

Next up - once the resin has dried out and set, which will take several days at least - will be some ROS-ing of the Aquacoted surface, followed by a coat of PRi-COAT primer, sanding and the final top coat(s) of grey Norglass marine enamel. Then it's out the door!

G'day Alex,

Following your builds is allways fascinating espcially your attention to detail but what is amazing is how you manage to move around what your working on with so little space. You must have cat-like agility . I'd have no chance. It wouldn't take me long to land in or on what I'm working on .

Cheers, Kev.

Hello Kev,

Ah ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha <twitch twitch, froth froth, foam foam>. What you don't see is snaps of me pulling myself out of the wet paintwork/resin as happened, for example, several times the other day when I was working on the roof and the mill base-board at the same time. Some cat-like agility would have come in handy!

Lack of space is one of the most distressing things about this current project, apart from the fact that I resent every moment spent on it: it is holding back a number of way-beyond-urgent things that I can't do until the Accursèd Thing is out of the way, the very first of which is finishing off the boat repairs (varnishing, aargh!) and getting the boat out the door too!

Thank you for your support and kind words :).

Cheers,
Alex.

I thoroughly dislike using random orbital sanders for extended periods of time - especially on stuff like Aquacote, which is hard as nails even after only a few days at less than 20 deg C (in the workswamp - outside is another bucket o' snakes entirely).

Anyway:

1. Aquacote epoxy layer(s) flattened - eventually - with a ROS and 60-grit disc





2. Last view of the epoxy-undercoated roof. Hooray!





3. Norglass PRi-COAT undercoat applied using a 230 mm foam roller. Nice and quick :)





4. Undercoated roof from the other side


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I may have to sand the undercoat (with the ROS/80- or 120-grit) - in fact, I probably will have to - but I will only apply the one ("high-build") undercoat coat even if I do sand it, given the pile of surface coatings already on this thing. If I can get away with a single top coat, I will! I'm hoping to get this thing finished by the weekend. Oonce the roof is outside, I will have to temporarily fill up the workswamp again - this time with boat, which needs finishing off. Then I might even go sailing <gasp>.

Note: a quick check a couple of hours later showed that the paint has flattened out very nicely indeed - and at this point am more hopeful of being able to put the topcoat on without sanding :). Fingers crossed.

I should have know better than to be optimistic about progress on this Accursed Thing. By the look of it I didn't get the roof as clean of sanding dust as I should have, and the nett result is that the undercoat surface, while it flattened out well, dimpled here and there along the way. This has meant sanding it, and as it is too thin a coat to take it without leaving holes, another coat of undercoat is required, and I have just put that on, grumbling to myself the while.

The foam roller that I used on this occasion is one of the "Uni-Pro" made-in-China-brand rollers that the Rabbit warren, Boat-Craft and most other hardware outlets in this country (except Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Sth Oz) flog. I originally thought that it was just epoxy resins that were hard on the Uni-Pro rollers - but the 230 mm roller that I was using managed to get delaminated by the PRi-COAT about halfway through. The Rokset blue foam roller that I used yesterday didn't eliminate; on the other hand, however, it seemed to lose small divots of itself during the process (as I found out when cleaning it). I put that down to the rather savage "teeth" on the plastic paint tray. I'm not even going to bother cleaning the Uni-Pri roller: it's going straight in the bin. I will make a trip to the local paint shop tomorrow and see what they've got in the way of a good quality 230 mm roller for applying gloss enamel with. Maybe a short-nap fibre roller again this time.

So I've been put back at least a day, probably two given that I'm going to have to sand the thing. I've made a neon-coloured mental note to be more thorough with removing the sanding dust next time - which I normally am: I was in too much of an indecent hurry to get this millstone finished. Make haste slowly, etc., etc., grumble grumble.

Grumbling aside, putting a second undercoat coat on was probably a good thing to do. Inspecting the surface this morning after a night's drying, the whole thing is looking much, much better, and will result in a better surface for the topcoat. I'll leave it for a while to harden right up before skimming over the top with the ROS and a relatively fine disc, circa 120 to 240 grit (paint). This will probably be around week (at least), sadly, but I will just have to be patient: not easy for me this far from the end!

This will give me some time to work on the mill's base-block, which has been neglected over the last little bit and has the same urgency as the finishing of the roof. Since there won't be any oil involved there won't be too many side effects on the roof other than dust fallout - and me bumping into the roof continually. At least the paint is touch-dry.

At last! I've got the first of the two top-coats on :). I would have liked to have avoided a second coat but I think that a second one will give better resilience. The sanded undercoat was vacuumed then wipe over twice with warm water and a microfibre cloth to get rid of the dust.

1. Second coat of undercoat sanded flat. Well, mostly: there were a few dimples but I decided to leave them





2. Another view of the sanded PRi-COAT





3. Quick snap of the first coat of top coat while painting. Almost 3/4 done...





4. First coat of top-coat finished. I ran around the edges with a soft artist's paint brush to fill in what I couldn't do with the roller. 6 mm synthetic short-nap mohair roller used; it all looks nice and neat - until you get too close, of course ;)





5. Top-coat from the other side. Roller texture quite visible here





6. Top-coat from the other end. Shiny :)





7. Close up of top-coat. If you look carefully at the image here you can see a hair that fell onto the surface - I should have worn a hair-net or similar. This should disappear after a light 240-grit sand


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The second coat will go on after a light whizz over with the ROS/240-grit (there's quite a lot of hairs/roller fluff despite attempts to reduce the latter, at least). Then the Accursed Roof will be finished :))))). I won't start cheering yet, as the sanding/painting will be a few days away given the default workswamp conditions. In fact, I won't start cheering until both the roof and the boat are outside.

I think I'm far enough away to risk a celebratory glass of shiraz on your behalf Alex.

Hi AJ,

Thank you for your good wishes. Ah, shiraz, my favourite. Well, it would be if I could still drink the stuff, especially Rockford's Basket Press Shiraz. I trust that you enjoyed yours :).

After 24 hours or so, the paint has hardened up much more quickly than I was expecting, although I'll still leave it to harden still further. I tossed up with leaving it at a single coat, but the surface isn't good enough to leave as it is, so one more - and final - coat will go on as soon as I can do so.

Cheers,
Alex.