To be honest, I hadn’t intended to do any work on Shoal Waters today, after all, it is Christmas, but in the end I have been so enthused about the project that I just could not resist. I took the case side down to the workshop for some work.
You see, I made two mistakes with the vacuum bag clamping. Firstly, I used far too much tape and secondly, I really should have stopped the vacuum an hour or two into the process and removed as much of the squeeze out as I could.
I managed to remove most of the tape by hand, and fingernails, but the parts of the tape that had epoxy on just needed something a little sharper.
Here is what I mean about the blue tape. It is right in the corner and under epoxy.
And this is the unremoved squeeze out after the tape has been removed elsewhere. I cleaned as much of this up with a sharp chisel, being very careful as it is a cold day again and then I used one of the special planes I have. So special, in fact, that I keep them in the workroom and not outside so that they do not rust.
One of them is different from standard planes in that the blade extends with across the width of the plae.
Like this.
Using this plane I am able to get all the way into corners provided that they are ninety degrees or more. Anything less than this requires using a chisel for all the excess removal.
The result, as you can see here, is a much better joint and no blue tape. There is still just a little epoxy left in the very corner as I did not want to risk planing away any of the plywood. I will chamfer the edge of the runners a little to allow for this before assembly.
Even without this chamfer the top runner is quite a close fit, almost good enough. But there is a slight gap, so I added the chamfer and when the time for the assembly comes, I’ll make sure that there is plenty of sealant in the joint.
One thing that I did not think about is the pivot bolt hole which you will notice is full of epoxy. This is a good thing as I was planning to do that later in the build anyway. Well, not filling the hole completely, but sealing the edges of the hole with epoxy to prevent any water ingress. All that I need to do now is to drill out the hole and the plywood should be already sealed.
Finally, for the day, I taped up the port side components of the centerplate case that I cut out yesterday.
Much less tape than yesterday and only on those parts of the plywood that need it.
Time for a cup of tea.