Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #2-12A . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

In the midst of a train of cold fronts trundling their way down to north central Florida,    I was reduced to make-work projects, to keep going on my SCAMP build.
Such as sanding down the Mahogany rub rails which are really needed much later in the process.
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Nothing like freshly-sanded hard woods!! 
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Unless it's adding oil to them. 
Nearly forgot the Mahogany anchor rode rub rails, for the cabin sides. 
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Four done, two not; to show the oil contrast.

And after wiping off the excess, from the  first coat of oil.
I've had oiled wood on sailboats before, so I know the drill:
Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, and thereafter, as required. 
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Notice the mast at left in the pic.

The mast has holes in it, where the spreader bolts used to go through and they needed filling.
Back in August, I had experimented with using an aluminum brazing rod, to try and fill in the holes and possibly mitigate any possible stress fractures, from the holes.
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(Quoting from my future epitaph: )
"Well, Hell. THAT didn't work!!" 
Even MAPP gas failed to heat up the work (the mast) sufficiently to get a good brazing flow going.
The problem was that the aluminum was such a good conductor of heat, that you couldn't get a high enough localized heat source, to flow the brazing rods. Proved it to myself, by cutting off two small pieces, which I brazed together without issue.
The above pic was the best I could do and that was with a 12" length of mast section on a much smaller hole; Good Luck, trying that with a 17 foot mast section. 

My only recourse, was to fill in the hole with some thickened epoxy; but I didn't want it dripping off on the inside and/or falling out of the hole.
So I folded some cardboard to make a form/dam.
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Covered it with packing tape so it wouldn't get stuck inside and taped it to an extension pole.
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Like so:
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And set the length of the extension pole to match the mast holes.
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And gooped it up with some thickened epoxy.
Took it THREE FULL DAYS    in this cold weather, before it was no longer "green" and could be sanded smooth; a far cry from the 4 or 5 hours of cure time, back in August! 
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But it finally cured hard and finally sanded smooth(er).
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Also sealed up the mast head gaps and filled in random gouges and violence, suffered during its long life elsewhere.
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Forgot to get a pic after sanding. 

Then I sanded down the whole outside of the mast and when THAT was done, sanded the inside sail track, even though the balanced lug sail, doesn't actually use it.
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FINALLY!! 
Got an all-too-brief reprieve in the weather and promptly applied primer to Grate II, Son of Grate the Broken.
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And also on my athwartships main sheet cam cleat bracket.
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Armed with nearly a quart and a half of EZ Prime, I went after the cockpit and veranda.
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Until it looked like this: 
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Good News:    The entire inside of the hull is now primered! 

Bad News:    Ran out of EZ Prime before I got the decks and roof and transom cap done. 
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And I KNEW I had already bought all the EZ Prime, within 50 miles of my house. 
And another cold front was blasting through. 
Got soooooo desperate, I even went on Amazon, only to learn I could have as much EZ Prime as I wanted, as long as I didn't want it before December 24th. 
Or from West Marine, by December 28th.   
Swell. 
Figured since I couldn't paint anyway, I'd go 85 miles to St. Augustine, to get one of the last three cans remaining, at this end of the state.

It's starting to look like I get a one-day gap between cold fronts, and I can probably live with that.
If the weather starts getting too far out of hand, I may be forced to re-arrange my garage, putting half the junk out in the carport and figure out some way to shoehorn the hull into the garage, to finish painting.
When I first moved in up here, I added R-19 insulation above the garage ceiling and Styrofoam insulation to the garage door.
As a result, I can get as much as 25ºF temperature differential between inside and outside, which would be well within the painting environmental requirements. 
Just not sure if I could still move around in there. 

I'm also having to revise my project sequencing.
Starting out, the sequencing was logical simply because you had no choice:
Can't paint a plank, until it's epoxy sealed.
Can't epoxy, until it's glued on.
Can't glue it on until it's cut, sanded and fit in place.

But for now, it looks like I'll have to jump ahead all willy-nilly, doing Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
(Think I SAW that movie!) 
But I'm going to keep on keeping on! 
Even if it's only another coat of oil. 

Charles Brennan