Thursday was my birthday and Jo bought me a Dewalt impact driver, 2 batteries and charger and a set of driver heads. Dewalt are probably the best (and most expensive!) battery tools there are. James (the professional boat builder) uses them and Jo must have seen me coveting them! His is 9 years old. I have burnt through 3 cheapo drills in 18 months! I told Jo that this driver will probably go around the world with us. There is definitely a place in your tool chest for both high end quality products and cheap throw aways. For example, I often use the driver whilst taping, but the problem with this is you get resin all over your tools unless you constantly remove and replace gloves which is a pain. This is where the cheap tools come in. You wont care about getting resin on a $20 drill that will only last a few months but you can bet I wont want to get resin anywhere near my new $400 machine.
With the last of the bulkheads glued in on Friday, I set about gluing the already large bridgedeck panels into one huge panel. The panels are so big I needed help to move them into position. They or it is now in roughly the position it will glue up into the bulkheads except that it is currently upside down.
I have glued and taped each of the panels together to form the full bridgedeck but before I can turn it over I also need to glue in and tape the bulkhead support strengthening beams. These are usually 50mm pvc pipes glued and coved in place and then taped using uni along the length then a biax over the top. I am considering using either a wider diameter pipe cut in half or a different shape. I have found that pvc rectangle down pipe will also cut in half nicely (more easily than round pipe). The reason for the cut in half is to save on coving. The full radius of full pipe requires a lot of coving to fill it compared to a semi circle or rectangle.
Once I have decided on the shape of the bridgedeck stiffeners (and how many) I will glue and tape them in and then fair and paint the panel before turning it over ready to glue up into place. I cant wait to get it up so I can get a much better idea of just where everything will be.
Nine Lives is progressing well. I will soon start a new page for the pictures. Here is what it looks like so far.
With any luck I may have the bridgedeck up in the next week or 2. The Sanctuary Cove boat show is coming up at the end of May (3 weekends away) and I want to have the boat to that stage before I go.
Time Spent: 55.00 Hours
Total build time so far: 834.00 Hours
Total Elapsed Time: 1 Year 7 months 4 weeks
