Shops open!

Not much to report as i'm working at the moment but in the last couple of weeks i've managed to get the garage emptied out and re-purposed to a spray shop to commence the 'great finishing'.........sounds a bit Chinese that?

I thoroughly recommend throwing stuff away, very cathartic i find, was a bit disappointed to discover nearly every piece of hardware on a Centaurs deck is worth around £100 in scrap, still all this, and with my contribution to charity of what seemed like a rediculous amount of power tools meant i now had some room to build a spray shop.

The only two things i kept over from the original space was my bench and the beer fridge, two very important, some would say (me included) vital components in any workshop set up. The plan was to get the bench under the window and leave the bulk of the floor area free to set up tresels as required to set components down on to spray.

Also have made and fitted some drying racks as well as fitting two not so big but incredibly powerful fans: one drawing air in through the garage door and one exhausting through what was the back window. 

This to get rid of any fumes that may linger so also found myself spending a fair bit of money on filter media which looks like rockwool in various colours and thicknesses plus pleated card for the overspray to stick to beforehand and treated myself to an air-fed mask too.

The plan in all of this is to finish (in every sense of the word) as i go so as soon as a component is made be it a locker lid or bulkhead it gets lacquered or painted a colour then bonded to the boat as i dont want to go back and risk damaging stuff or getting a bad finish.

Still debating whether to buy a decent gun, got my eye on Devilbiss' FLG5 and their GPi guns as these guns will spray both primer and topcoat, might have to see how the pennies go, Have bought a couple more cheap Sealey ones the same as i used to prime the hull with high-build.

Couldn't help myself as someone on ebay was flogging them for £15 each, i paid £35 for the first one and seeing as i got it working pretty well be it with some thinner in the paint thought it a wise investment. 

Just waiting for the lacquer and paint to show up.....................

I too have suddenly become "un-busy".

*EDIT* Reactive resins has ceased trading.

Got sacked last Monday - in my case it wasn't a producer rather an over officious member of site staff. At least i'm not freezing my arse off in the van although I could've done with the money but still I wont take that shit from anyone least of all some kid barely out of short trousers.

Anyway this has freed up some time in which to get on clearing the garage to make the paintshop plus i wanted to start tidying up the newly appointed bilges before i get the frame down permenantly. I'm not too fussed about them being perfect but want them smoother, to do this i'm using another product from my new best friends at Reactive Resins. 

This stuffs called Easifair S, its a spreadable 2 part filler supplied ready made in two separate tins and again like their excellent resin system ratios 2:1 by weight so not hard to measure and use. Also because of this you get a characteristic sorely lacking with additive based products such as Wests and thats consistency everytime you use it. 

The filler itself is lightweight and wet in appearance, the hardener quite the opposite, almost like dry sponge cake, initally i thought it may have gone off but continued anyway as it all became apparent when mixing the two. You get the perfect fairing filler that doesn't slump but has enough 'give' in it as to be easily spread using a plastic card .

I used this filler as well as the trowelable version last year when fairing a 43 foot Robert Clark sloop and initially dreaded the washing and wiping down given the magnitude of the task until i learnt much like the rest of reactive resins products they're non-blushing.

So unlike Wests its as simple as; apply, let it cure then sand, theres no dicking about with scotchpads and patting down with paper towels. So far i've got the furthest forward compartment done and can report it sands a treat and like their resin is better value than West systems.

Just to reiterate, i'm not getting paid for any of this - i'm just a happy customer of reactive resins, as i've discovered, using their products is a no-brainer so get them & leave the washing and wiping up for when you next do the dishes. 

Cheers

Meanwhile, back in eco town.............

Paid work carries on, bloody freezing it is too at the moment, still - it all pushes the project on a little further so can't whinge although i find myself thinking how did we industrialise the world when watching this total shower balls up the construction of 90 houses in the Oxfordshire countryside, but thats another forum and website.

Still i got as far as cutting and assembling the new v-berth bunk frame before i returned to paid work, did this in Sapele but as with so much timber these days the quality is pretty terrible so will spray white as the scheme forming in my head is White and Oak. 

I found myself having yet another moment of inspiration like the epiphany i had over Christmas which is to convert my garaage to a spray shop. The main reason being theres shed loads to paint and the garage is a much smaller space to heat for the paint to dry plus theres little in there of any use apart from the airline and my bench.

So the next job when finished up at Bicester will be to empty out this space and re-purpose it for the job at hand.

Cheers

Thats better.

Looking a bit more ship-shape up front:

Spent today tabbing the bulkheads to stringers doing the final run around both cutting and overlapping cloth so now all tied together and currently post curing with an infra red heater, all nice and strong. 

Tomorrow I'm gonna repair a couple of parts of the deck i damaged getting all the old guts out and whack abit of fairing compound around what i did today.

cheers

Just checked

As I had forgotten to earlier in the day and i can safely say the samples of Wests additives made with Syntac epoxy have all cured.............all are completely blush free & sand very well too - no clogging whatsoever.

Found my Brand - Reactive resins for the win!

*EDIT* Reactive resins have since ceased trading, a real shame if you ask me.

Right, before i go any further i'll say this i am nothing to do with reactive resins.com, i'm not affliated in any way, on the payroll, an ambassador / rep for them - nothing. Nada.

Okay.........ready.............here we go....................THIS STUFF FUCKING ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Gees,.............. if only i found this epoxy, oh i dunno, say 8 years ago - perhaps the project would've gone alot smoother. All i can say is its the absolute conkers. I spent today playing with it in small batches getting a feel for it.

This Syntac epoxy resin is genius, not just because it doesn't blush and is better value than Wests, but because it comes in three different viscosities. I'm using EPAFD the lowest viscosity resin that ratios  2:1 (by weight) with the hardener; the one i'm using is Synamin 220, again one of three available which is their fast hardener but in these conditions you'll have plenty of time. 

I'll be honest i was a little hesistant in changing epoxy supplier seeing as i have loads of West Systems additives still left in the cupboard not to mention a third of a c pack but a combination of anger and frustration with the amount of work that wests requires eventually forced my hand. So top of the agenda was mixing up the Syntac resin and adding it to my array of go-to fillers.

First up was my everyday workhorse - Cabosil - God only knows where i'd be without this stuff, what always puzzled me though with both Cabosil & Wests own Silica was i'd always end up mashing the crystalline rocks that hadn't mixed in properly with the laminating roller no matter how much i stirred the pot.

Not a problem with the new resin - by the seventh or eighth stir of the pot I got a beautifully silky paste all even and mixed, this would be the first of many revalations. 

Next up: 410 Microlight which is Wests fairing additive, again mixed up to the consistency i use I planted it on a board along with 404 Low Density filler and 407 High Density filler all of which by this evening were dry and not atall sticky or waxy. I'll double check that in the morning and report back - initial reports are good.

Which brings me to the work at hand - namely tabbing the ply bulkhead, for this i went three layers of 600g bi-ax cloth on a cabosil-thickened epoxy, i should say firstly i filleted the joint properly with a dense cabosil mix. Oh yeah before i forget - piping bags - another epiphany - god they cut the mess to zero, just started using disposable ones - I almost look professional now when i work. 

Anyway I started laying down the cloth - slight fuck up as i laid the hull side down first and then unfolded the bulkhead side only to find it was overlapping the tape i had applied to the edge of the rebate - this to cut down mess - so that had to come off making the left side a bit amateur-looking but no worries all went fine. I think i worked quicker too as the epoxy is so easy to work being thinner than Wests.

Another observation was how much heat you can put through this Syntac epoxy - with Wests if you held the gun on it point blank you'd fry the saturated cloth solid almost immediately, not so with the new kid - it stayed wet. Because of the temperatures i'm post-curing with a couple of heaters and a quick touch of the cloth earlier this evening reveals a much smoother finish to the cloth too than Wests without peelply and the thought of not having to wash or sand this tomorrow makes me grin ear to ear.

Seriously if you have a job that requires epoxy, forget West Systems - meet your new epoxy system from reactiveresins.com:

Cheers RR fanboy.

Bulkheads a go go!

How about a foam composite Centaur:

Would like to do the rest of the boat in foam but the cost is staggering so will end up using ply for the rest of the structure, looks pretty cool and not a trace of softwood or hardboard anywhere.