22. Lots happening.

This has been a couple of very busy weeks. We are about to undergo a new bathroom at home so I have tried to spend a lot of time at the studio.

The important news is that the engine arrives within two weeks. I have built a rig where we can set it up with its drive train and fully test it before it goes into the boat.  As previously mentioned it is a 4.3 litre Mercruiser V6 totally rebuilt. I have to find some periferals like the bell housing, starter motor and an oil cooler etc, but it will enable me to work out the angle that the motor sits at to get the needed clearance through the hull. Thank you Greg for the advise!

I have now finished the second coat of ply and now need to finish the third layer on the bottom, but I have had the sapele machined to 6mm and I just need to angle the edges so that I can fix it in place without visible fastenings. IE. The first strip of sapele will be attached to the side chine. I can do this with the brad gun as it will be fibreglassed and painted. The next piece will be tucked under the first which will hold the ‘top’ edge in place. I can then put in a temporary screw to hold the ‘bottom’ edge in place while the epoxy goes off. It may well end up being a ‘one strip a day’ effort but the end result will be really clean. Have a look at the pictures for the sapele joining.

Some of my time has been taken building a coffee table for my niece for her new flat in London. I am quite pleased with it and is was great to actually finish a small project.

I have been having fun bending some of the ply in my steamer, cannot remember if I have put this in an earlier post but if so here it is again, a long section of underground soil pipe, a wallpaper stripper ‘modified’ and a bit of gaffer tape. Works brilliantly!

Lastly, I veneered the Zebrano that I brought back from NZ. I now have four strips that are 5mm thick and once cut to the appropriate width should be about 100mm wide and 2 metres long. Beautiful. I am hoping to use this as the dash board.

Finally, the joy of Festool. I bought a RO125mm sander and have used it continuously, so much so that it started to vibrate a lot and I was begining to think I had dropped it!  So I sent it back to Festool who said that it was fine and maybe I was not using it properly!! So, on Tuesday they are sending the local rep out to the studio to solve the problem   …   how’s about that for service. Maybe they have cottoned on that I am quite a good customer. I now have 3 sanders, jig saw, rail saw, domino machine and a belt sander not to forget the vacuum dust extractor.

Enjoy the pictures.