Beating the cold

I had to find a way to keep up progress even thought the weather is getting cold. It's still nice during the day, but the nights are cold. I have to put the epoxy in the sun to warm it up so it mixes well. The wood pieces can be harder to get up to temperature. I got some tarps and a space heater to build a heated area for the parts I am working on. I have a digital thermometer to keep an eye on temperature.

As long as it stays above 70F I think the epoxy will dry just fine. I finished the scarf joints on my redo with this method. On my new scarf joints I also used some finish nails to hold the joints together. I shot the brads through some thin pieces of plywood. The plywood spreads the pressure to keep the whole joint smashed evenly. It also makes the brads much easier to remove. So all of my scarfs are done now. Since I broke one of my sheers I decided to take some pro builder advice. I band sawed my sheers into thinner strips so they will bend easier. Then after I sawed them in half I realized that they might break just as easy now that they are thin. While I was pondering my next move I decided that maybe it was time to try some of the bending methods suggested by other boat builders. Since I still had not fastened the front end of the chines to the stem, I figured they would work as test pieces. I wrapped the chines in a beach towel and doused them with boiling water. I pulled the straps tight to bring the ends together at the stem. No problem at all!

I wish I would have tried out this advice before I broke my sheer! I put bend and twist in the chine in about 45 minutes.

Now I wish I hadn't sliced the sheers. If I build another one I'll know better. The weather was great this weekend so I wish I had more pieces ready to glue. At least I have my tarp/heater method.