Posts Tagged ‘ sanding ’
Today we spent some time as a class doing a few odd jobs. Some sanded. Some cleaned the rubrails. Some wiped the hull with solvent. Most of us worked.
Daniel R. sands
Constanza and Michael do their best to clean the rubrail
Klara solvent washes the hull prior to sanding
Matt and Josh solvent wash the hull too
Kaitlyn and Becky sand the tiller for refinishing
Alex sands trim pieces
Bonnie sands more wood
Port side of rudder blade partially coated with epoxy
I think that title may have been used in Don Casey’s “This Old Boat,” but it’s applicable to the work underway on the Ensign. We’ve been grinding, sanding, and grinding some more in preparation for interior reconstruction, and we’re nearly there.
Tony, Nick, Alex S., Bonnie, and Michael D. continued work Friday afternoon. Bonnie settled in with the RO sander and sanded part of the cockpit and bilge. When she’d had enough of the dust, she turned her attention to cleaning the deck hardware – i.e., winches, cleats, etc – in kerosene.
Tony, Nick and Alex cut out the rear bulkhead at the aft end of the cockpit and began removing some more pour-in foam. With limited access, that job is proving to be tough.
Michael D. sounded the decks and circled areas where the core is likely damaged. The starboard sidedeck from the winch base to the chainplates is soggy. The foredeck triangle from the stem fitting aft about 2-1/2 feet is soggy, and the aft deck is shot. We’ve got a fair amount of core replacement to take care of. Typical deck construction consists of a layer of end-grain balsa sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass: the upper skin, which forms the deck, and the lower skin, which forms the bottom of the deck and the interior of the cabin. Repair requires removing the top skin, scraping out all of the damaged (wet) balsa, cleaning the lower skin, then placing new balsa in a bed of epoxy before finally covering it with new fiberglass. Once that’s done, the surface will need to be faired, primed and painted. We’ll postpone deck work until we have the interior bulkheads reinstalled.
I spent some time sanding the interior of the cabin with the RO sander and 80 grit paper to prepare the surfaces for fiberglassing and, eventually, paint.
We ended the day by setting two of the cockpit floors (grate supports) in thickened epoxy. We’ll get an order in for marine-grade plywood and begin reconstructing the cabin on Friday, if all goes as planned.
I couldn’t be more pleased. The kids have accomplished a significant amount of work in a relatively short time. Nearly all of the woodwork has been cleaned and sanded in preparation for varnish, the interior of the boat is gutted and almost ready for rebuilding, two of the sails have been cleaned, and the shop and boat got a good cleaning this afternoon. Only one week in and things are moving right along.
Fridays are going to be our major work days thanks to noon dismissal. Some of the kids with either a study hall or a home pass during the last period of the day M-TH may opt to stick around and work on the boat, but Fridays from here on out are the only scheduled time to continue the project.
Today only a handful of students showed up, but we were enough to make significant headway.
Michael R., Tony J., and Jared C., faithfully and determinedly, continued sanding and prepping the woodwork. They now have the majority of the sanding done. Perhaps we did things a little backward, but we started sanding the worst of the damaged wood and then tried a chemical treatment, TeKa. We probably would have started with the TeKa if I’d thought to bring it last week when we started the process, but quite honestly I don’t think it would have made much of a difference. The teak was so badly weathered that sanding was inevitable. The guys issued several oohs and ahhs when they saw the treated teak and realized that all their hard work was paying off.
Nick G., Alex S., and I continued the interior demolition. I brought my angle grinder and full-face respirator so we could remove the plywood pieces that were still attached to the hull with fiberglass tabbing – i.e., long, narrow strips of fiberglass. Our goal was to have the interior completely prepped for reconstruction so we could pull the boat outside while it was still on the trailer and give it a good washing to clear away the dust and grime before beginning the rebuilding. Cutting out the old bulkheads took more time than anticipated, however.
Nick works to remove the tabbing
Alex pries out tabbing
Grinding the tabbing with flapper wheel
On the recommendation of another Pearson Ensign owner who is in the middle of a similar restoration, we decided to cut out the old cabin floor while we were in there to expose the supports for the mast step, an aluminum collar that secures the foot (bottom) of the mast. We hadn’t planned on removing the cabin floor, but the potential for water damage beneath it meant that we ought to investigate, especially since we’re already doing so much reconstruction (uh, demolition). The supports were solid but wet, so they will be removed and replaced and the cabin sole (floor) rebuilt.
Wet mast supports that will be replaced
After grinding much of the tabbing with an abrasive flapper wheel, we’d had all the dust we could handle for the day and decided to clean up the boat and shop. We moved the boat outside and Nick G. and Alex S. gave her a good cleaning with a power washer (many thanks to Nick’s aunt, Tina, for letting us borrow it!). Satisfying is hardly the word to describe the feeling of watching all the gunk and grime being blasted off of the hull and deck. At times, the sunlight reflecting off of the hull was too bright to look at without squinting. Imagine how she’ll look when she’s freshly painted and polished!
Nick and Alex power washing the hull and deck
Years of grime
Interior nearly gutted
Genoa washed and drying
Mainsail cleaned and drying
Thus ends week one.
At the students’ behest (honestly, it doesn’t take much arm twisting) we spent a class period in the shop and managed to make significant progress. I’d done my best to line up some projects and materials to maximize our time, and I was eager to capitalize on their enthusiasm.
Kaitlyn and Klara went right to work on cleaning the spars with 3M’s restorer compound and wax, while Simone and Becky sanded the cockpit seats. Michael R., Jared C., Tony, and Michael H. sanded the cockpit slats, which we’d disassembled yesterday evening, and the cockpit coaming. A few of them have a study hall following our time together, so they stayed on to continue working and managed to get the wood completely sanded.
Simone and Becky sand the cockpit benches
Tony and Michael sand the cockpit coaming
Michael D. and Joey did their best to remove the remaining forward attachment for the rub rail and loosened the stem fitting before making a supply run. I drilled out a rusted fastener to complete the rub rail removal, and pulled the last bolt to free the stem fitting. Both the rub rail and stem fitting need attention. The forward hole on the stem fitting is cracked, and the rub rail could use a good cleaning. Both should be repairable. I tried cleaning a small portion of the rub rail to see what it would look like, and I’m satisfied that it will clean up just fine.
Bonnie and Alex G. filled a tub in another room and began cleaning the mainsail. It is in fair condition, but has a few stains from rodents (not to mention a smell) that we’d like to get rid of – or at least improve. The sail should be serviceable.
Matt and Matt got some kerosene and began cleaning up our bucket-o-parts: winches, cleats, chainplates, and other hardware.
Constanza and Josh did their best to dig the pour-in expanding foam out of a small cutout in the lazarette. I don’t think they made much progress thanks to the small opening. It appears it’s going to be necessary to open that hole up if we’re going to get the foam out. And the foam must be removed if it’s as bad as what we found in the cabin.
Constanza and Josh work to remove foam from the lazarette
Nick, Alex and I worked on demoing the cabin. Armed with a Sawzall, we cut away the v-berth to expose the foam, which had collected so much water that it spurted out of the cuts and flooded the sole. Every piece of plywood and every section of foam was saturated. We carved out shoebox-sized chunks of foam, each one weighing a couple of pounds. The task was made more enjoyable by the discovery of colonies of black ants that had been happily munching on the rotten wood until we disturbed their tranquility. Little by little we hacked away at the water-soaked foam, stopping periodically to shovel it out of the way.
Nick begins cutting out the starboard berth
After we’d cleared the cabin, we cut through the forward bulkhead. Again, water poured from the cut. I had estimated earlier that the forepeak and v-berth probably held close to 200lbs of water. I’m pretty certain of that now. We hauled several loads of foam to the dumpster, each weighing 40lbs or so.
Nasty foam - and ants
Yours truly cutting out the forward bulkhead
We found a shovel to be most effective, if not a bit unwieldy, at carving out chunks of foam as we excavated the forepeak. The Sawzall was useful at times, but the shovel enabled us to pry large chunks free fairly easily. Nick and I worked until 5:30 before calling it a day.
Foam, fo-fo-fo-foam
Forepeak cleared (mostly)
Even my son got in on the action
Things are moving right along.
Project Ensign 