15: 25 For your ply cover-sheet - 1. Lay plastic over your bow planking for protection 2. Lay over-size ply sheet on site 3. Thixo a square-section bead around perimeter of ply 4. Splash/brush water across ply every half-hour for three days, replacing lead-weighting after each wetting 5. Final dry-off. Team of three on shifts. With timers.
Interesting that the TB epoxy is taking so long to kick off. Im using their high performance stuff with slow hardner and left a glue up to cure outside with the temperature dipping below freezing overnight and it was set up enough to remove the clamps and sand the following afternoon. Nice update and thanks for going into detail on some of the builds!
I've found the Thixo very handy. I tend not to use the nozzle. I just squirt some on a palette and mix it with a putty knife. I love that it's thick without having to add the usual thickeners. Easy to make very small batches, no measuring proportions, no waste from whats left in the nozzle or requirement to have a box of spare nozzles handy. Of course the nozzle is the way to go for certain applications. A passing thought would be to consider vacuum bagging the canvas onto the cat deck. That would solve the saddle issue. You'd have to caulk the seems for air tightness and maybe add a ledge along the gun'l for the bag seal. I can see you guys have a lot fun up there. If it wasn't so far away I'd be knocking on your door every day. 🐬👍
The canvassing is an interesting thing because, of course, there are lots of Beetle Cats in the world, so we're definitely neither the first nor the last to be doing this. In the Beetles I've taken care of over the years, there isn't any caulking in the deck, and I learned to maintain the canvas deck by applying very, very thinned coats of paint. We'll definitely be doing a video about it when we get to installing the canvas! -Anne
Have you done the canvassing? I've done it many times. Like most boatbuilding operations have a good procedure set and followed will give a good result. I could describe it to you or come down to help.
Hiya Thad! Anne Bryant here, I hope you're doing really well and it's great to know you're out there watching. I'll let Graham know you're up for helping. :)
@@lowellsboatshop I'm doing ok, I think. I will be talking at the TSCA meeting in Gloucester Dec. 11. Looking at Chris's comment below, vacuum bag not needed.
@@ChrisTietjen_00 The canvas is pulled tight and conforms to the curvatures, then it is additionally shrunk to tighten further. It works. You start at what I call the middle points, bow and stern, and sides, stretching and fastening, back and forth from the initial attachment points until the canvas it stretched all around. After perimeter fastening is complete it will be tight if done well, but then you take boiling hot water and rub it into the cloth (without rubbing it in it will just run off), which will help the cloth take it's shape and shrink it to tighten further. Then, when the canvas surface is dry but the threads are still wet inside, paint on the first enamel coat, the water in the thread resisting paint penetration preserving flexibility in the cloth. To my eye that is the proper shape for a deck.
@@thaddanielson6491 So I guess to get across a saddle point one direction of tension has to be greater than the other direction. I was thinking it might require some glue on the wooden deck prior to applying the canvas. It seems like an understanding of the amount of tension generated when the cloth shrinks would be where the skill lies in handling double curvature.
Thixo is a must have for any boat shop!
15: 25 For your ply cover-sheet - 1. Lay plastic over your bow planking for protection 2. Lay over-size ply sheet on site 3. Thixo a square-section bead around perimeter of ply 4. Splash/brush water across ply every half-hour for three days, replacing lead-weighting after each wetting 5. Final dry-off.
Team of three on shifts. With timers.
Interesting that the TB epoxy is taking so long to kick off. Im using their high performance stuff with slow hardner and left a glue up to cure outside with the temperature dipping below freezing overnight and it was set up enough to remove the clamps and sand the following afternoon. Nice update and thanks for going into detail on some of the builds!
I've found the Thixo very handy. I tend not to use the nozzle. I just squirt some on a palette and mix it with a putty knife. I love that it's thick without having to add the usual thickeners. Easy to make very small batches, no measuring proportions, no waste from whats left in the nozzle or requirement to have a box of spare nozzles handy. Of course the nozzle is the way to go for certain applications. A passing thought would be to consider vacuum bagging the canvas onto the cat deck. That would solve the saddle issue. You'd have to caulk the seems for air tightness and maybe add a ledge along the gun'l for the bag seal. I can see you guys have a lot fun up there. If it wasn't so far away I'd be knocking on your door every day. 🐬👍
The canvassing is an interesting thing because, of course, there are lots of Beetle Cats in the world, so we're definitely neither the first nor the last to be doing this. In the Beetles I've taken care of over the years, there isn't any caulking in the deck, and I learned to maintain the canvas deck by applying very, very thinned coats of paint. We'll definitely be doing a video about it when we get to installing the canvas! -Anne
Manus Forti Graham
Have you done the canvassing? I've done it many times. Like most boatbuilding operations have a good procedure set and followed will give a good result. I could describe it to you or come down to help.
Hiya Thad! Anne Bryant here, I hope you're doing really well and it's great to know you're out there watching. I'll let Graham know you're up for helping. :)
@@lowellsboatshop I'm doing ok, I think. I will be talking at the TSCA meeting in Gloucester Dec. 11. Looking at Chris's comment below, vacuum bag not needed.
@@thaddanielson6491 I'll be interested to see how the double curvature is handled.
@@ChrisTietjen_00 The canvas is pulled tight and conforms to the curvatures, then it is additionally shrunk to tighten further. It works. You start at what I call the middle points, bow and stern, and sides, stretching and fastening, back and forth from the initial attachment points until the canvas it stretched all around. After perimeter fastening is complete it will be tight if done well, but then you take boiling hot water and rub it into the cloth (without rubbing it in it will just run off), which will help the cloth take it's shape and shrink it to tighten further. Then, when the canvas surface is dry but the threads are still wet inside, paint on the first enamel coat, the water in the thread resisting paint penetration preserving flexibility in the cloth. To my eye that is the proper shape for a deck.
@@thaddanielson6491 So I guess to get across a saddle point one direction of tension has to be greater than the other direction. I was thinking it might require some glue on the wooden deck prior to applying the canvas. It seems like an understanding of the amount of tension generated when the cloth shrinks would be where the skill lies in handling double curvature.