Sunday, October 11, 2015

Engine foundations in

I swear those boat repair/restoration specialists make it look A LOT easier! After a whole bunch of sanding and cutting - and head scratching - I got the two engine foundation blanks shaped and ready to epoxy in place.

I started the day by cutting the 12"x48" laminated plywood for the engine foundations in half, thinking that I'd get a blank out of each 12"x24" piece. After making all of the necessary cut marks, I trimmed the piece to size and realized that the geometry was such that I could actually get two foundations out of one 12"x24" section. I was a little disappointed that I'd cut up more of my marine ply than necessary, but at the same time I was reassured to know that I had enough to make a second set if I managed to make a serious mistake with the first go.

With my first blank cut to the approximate size, I trimmed and sanded as necessary to get the piece to fit  well with the contours of the hull. Once the port foundation was fitting nicely, I repeated the procedure on the starboard side. Both foundations trimmed, I coated the exposed edges of the plywood with neat epoxy before setting the foundations in a bed of thickened epoxy.

I left the foundations to cure overnight. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a few layers of fiberglass on them. 

The cross braces atop the engine foundations provided a guide and secure mounting location during epoxying.


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