Day 22 - Reinforcing the Deck

Step one. Sand. Then sand some more. Was able to use the orbital sander to smooth out the under side of the deck and the ramps I created the other day out of the thick epoxy. The sander made pretty quick work out of the job. Took me about 45 minutes sanding to get the underside in shape for some reinforcement.

Here's a picture of me in my personal protective equipment. The respirator was well worth the money. Easy to breath in and it keeps me from inhaling all that dust. The glasses - they just look good.

My sander has a dust collection system on it. I was a bit skeptical about it actually working, but this pile of dust was from just 30 minutes of sanding the fiberglass.

I applied fiberglass tape over all the joints in the deck. Even with the ramps on the reinforcing deck pieces, the material tended to pull up a bit. I snipped the areas where there were big problems, and figure I'll go through and add another layer of tape in those areas to doubly reinforce it. After I got the whole thing glued up, I lowered the hull from the ceiling and set the deck on top. Most of it fit like a glove. Only some spot areas required a little coaxing to fit. The whole boat is now tucked away for a night of rest while the resin cures. I'm using strapping tape to hold the thing in shape.