Today was a 35 degree day. By mid afternoon I guess it to be 40 in the shed at floor level and 45 at deck level. Fortunately I am working at floor level. I am hoping for a cool change soon as there is no way I can wet the roof glass out in such heat, the resin goes off fast meaning you have to work fast which is hard to do in the heat.
As I predicted yesterday, I glued the last of the duflex offcuts into long planks today and sanded the glue dags off the roof. You have to have a smooth surface to glass to for 2 important reasons, first the dags catch on the glass as you try to position it causing threads to pull which in turn causes lumps in the wet out, they smooth out but it is more work, but more importantly dags cause voids to form under the wet glass causing air bubble. These are more of a problem so having a smooth surface to glass to is very important.
I also managed to glue another plank onto the roof, so I now only have about 900mm either side to do but all of this will be thin planks and more difficult work as the roof curves both ways. Tomorrow I will strip the planks down to 30mm – 40mm and glue them down. If it is also hot I may use the same method I used on the side decks, that is leave a paddle pop stick gap between each plank and then squeeze glue into the gap without removing the planks. The planks are not as long so buttering them is not so much of a problem but if it is hot you really have to get the glue on fast if you don’t want it setting hard before you get the plank back down!
I am a bit disappointed that I am back to working 66 hours a month after a few months of 80 plus hours. I really have to keep getting 80 hours each month if I am to get the boat finished within the 5 years. I missed nearly 2 full weekend days this month so with them I would have been in the 80’s so I worked the correct amount for the rest of the time. I just have to avoid missing days now.
