Thread: Bolger Bobcat

Originally Posted by Deefa

Note the use of the house bricks for extra clamping power

Yep! Isaac Newton did us all a favour, inventing gravity!

Evenin' All

Quick update on the Bobcat.... been working on the spars and deck panels lately.

Here's a pic of the mast, so far it has been tapered top and bottom and has been planed down to 8 sided. I reckon thats over halfway. Next step is to plane it to 16 sides, then 32 sides and then hopefully fairly round.

Also shaped the deck panels this week, here they are temporarily screwed in place whilst shaping. Hopefully will get the internals coated with resin and painted next week prior to fixing the deck.

Hi all,

Things have been progressing a bit slower on Bobcat... couple of weeks away over Easter and it takes a while to get the momentum back.

Inside has been coated in resin, 2 coats of undercoat and 2 coats of gloss. I'm using Norglass Weather Fast Marine Enamal, mainly because they had the "Port Wine" colour that I will be using on the hull as a standard colour. Inside is "Sandstone".

Bouyancy has been installed in the front compartment and deck fitted and glassed with a coat of straight resin and a second coat of thickened resin. I'll fit the deck coaming before giving the deck the final coat/coats of resin.

Boom and gaff are made and have a few coats of varnish so far. Mast is still waiting to be completed.

Looking good Dave. She'll be a treat when finished. Doncha love spar and mast making ... well, I do ... apart from the sanding of course (all sanding is hell, hence the quality of my finishes ).

Richard

Evening All,
Yes Daddles I quite enjoyed making the spars but I've really got to do something about dust extraction. Speaking of sanding there's still a lot of that to do.
Here's a coupla pics showing progress to date. Had to put all the bits together to make sure they fit prior to final gluing and then painting. I'm pretty happy with the the way she looks but have a lot of filling (pin-holes in the resin) and sanding to do before the painting can commence.
As well as that we will be away until the middle of July so not a lot will happen till then.

Next pics should show her true colours.

I can almost smell the sailing pics Dave!

So you'll be sailing for Christmas then?

P

Hopefully by the end of Sept Midge.
Just sent you a PM

Originally Posted by Deefa

Next step is to plane it to 16 sides, then 32 sides and then hopefully fairly round.

Never tried this, but I know someone who fixed a trailer roller in an electric drill , then turned a sanding belt inside-out, slipped the belt over the spar and the roller, then worked his way along the mast getting to 'fairly round', fairly easily.

Looking good Dave.

Originally Posted by onthebeachalone

Never tried this, but I know someone who fixed a trailer roller in an electric drill , then turned a sanding belt inside-out, slipped the belt over the spar and the roller, then worked his way along the mast getting to 'fairly round', fairly easily.

Looking good Dave.

Yes, but it wasn't a lot better than you can achieve easily by careful use of sharp tools and sanding in the direction of the grain, and he then had to sand off all those cross grain scratches which are not only very deep (necessitating a LOT of sanding in the direction of the grain) but far more unsightly than any imperfections of the rounding process. Sorry, I've heard of that method before, have tried variations of it, and it really is a very silly idea that creates far more work than it saves.

Richard

Originally Posted by Daddles

I've heard of that method before, have tried variations of it, and it really is a very silly idea that creates far more work than it saves.

Well, I'm really glad you mentioned that. I'm getting close to stripping the black paint off the spars of my li'l ole Mirror 10 so I can varnish them ready for sale (need the room, need the money).

Now I know how NOT to do it!

Looking forward to seeing the Bobcat on the water Dave.

Originally Posted by Daddles

Yes, but it wasn't a lot better than you can achieve easily by careful use of sharp tools and sanding in the direction of the grain, and he then had to sand off all those cross grain scratches which are not only very deep (necessitating a LOT of sanding in the direction of the grain) but far more unsightly than any imperfections of the rounding process. Sorry, I've heard of that method before, have tried variations of it, and it really is a very silly idea that creates far more work than it saves.

Richard

ARRRRRRRRRR - ye be talkin' of having a sparmaker's chest full of sparmaker's planes.

Begorrah (clearly an Irish Pirate Now).

Though generally I use a bit off a roll of paper and hold it in my hands so it runs at approximately a 45 degree angle to the axis of the mast.

The sandpaper method is not toooo bad if you swap to a finer grades as you get to the 80% mark. Then finish with the belt method around the 90% and continue longitudinally more or less along the grain.

I would worry about such a fast method as using a machine driven belt in the hands of someone a bit gung-ho.

Agree with you as far as if you take any wrap around belt method till the spar hits its finished dimension - then to get rid of the scratches you do have to go very deep. But if stop at 95% and have already moved to a finer belt - not too bad.

I would define a coarse belt as around 100 grit and a fine one around 220. The coarse one is great for removing the corners but as soon as the corners go and the flats start being touched EVEN SLIGHTLY (and preferably a little before then) swap to the finer to get rid of the last bits of corner then finish with longitudinal sanding.

MIK

G'day All,

Well after 8 weeks away and more weeks of sanding and painting Felix was finally ready to hit the water. Fathers Day probably wasn't the best day to pick but we arrived at the ramp on Bribie Island earlyish (8:30am) and after much double checking of ropes and knots Felix was in the water for the first time.

The breeze was quite reasonable for that early in the day so I was off for a quick sail close to the sandbar so that the bride could take a couple of pics, after which she came aboard and we spent the next hour or so tacking, reaching, running and dodging the fishing boats around Pumistone Passage.

There was no chop with the breeze and tide running in the same direction so it was smooth sailing. The boat was light on the tiller and tacked and jibed easilly. I was a bit concerned about that long boom but once on the water it wasn't an issue. We had to call it quits early to get back to Brisbane but all up Felix seemed to sail very well and I was quite pleased with the performance.

Next project ???? not sure yet might have some time out to clean up the shed and think about it. A canoe may come in handy though !!!!

She looks great Deefa! Well done.

Yep, she's a beaut!

Great work!

P