Brazos after glassing, front side

I woke again at 3:30 and was unable to go back to sleep. So I finally rose after an hour, brewed some tea, and finished my reading for class. At 6, I went out to the shop to check the paddle. I had some concerns about how I was going to trim away the excess glass, but it turned out easy enough to do with a single edge razor blade. There were some high spots on the edge of the blade where some epoxy had hardened into "dribbles." These were easy to shave down using my #2 shave (didn't want to risk my Boggs on it). I wore my respirator during the process of trimming, just as a precaution against the combination of green epoxy and fiberglass, but lordy! how that thing hurts the bridge of my nose. It positively makes my eyes water from the pain. I should have sprung the extra twenty bucks for the dee-lux comfort model. Maybe I'll ask for another as a birthday present.

Here is a photo after glassing.

Read more...

Blowing Dust

I wanted to put the second coat of epoxy on the front face today. The temperature is going to be just right (70's), but there is a spring wind advisory for this afternoon, with gust up to 50 and blowing dust. So I decided to get out to the shop first thing and put the epoxy on, in hopes that it will have solidified before the dust starts flying. The temp in the shop is probably about 50 (didn't check), so I'm hoping it is warm enough to do some good.

Notes: This time, I put on the epoxy and left enough on to let it level out. I also stirred it less so that there would be fewer bubbles, and pricked the larger bubbles that formed with a toothpick. We'll see if that helps.

Read more...

Epoxy tip--the day after...

Well, I wasn't at all sure how this epoxy tip was going to turn out. I had visions of something really clunky and inelegant--that is, something amateurish. Still, I was excited to see it, even if skeptical. So when I got up this morning, I made a cup of tea and went into the dining room (where I had carried the paddle last night so it would finish curing in a warm room) to check on it. I tried peeling the modeling clay off, and that didn't work very well, so I went out to the shop and got a leather knife to trim the rest away. After I was done, the top side didn't look that great--it will definitely need to be shaped and sanded. So far I wasn't impressed. Then I turned it over and saw the power face. Wow.

The power face looks very good, even without sanding and shaping--just like a professional job. I am sold on this technique.

I'll definitely do it again. However, the modeling clay dam leaves a lot to be desired. So I think I'm going to look into other ways of building the dam. Douglas Ingram uses an MDF form, as described in this thread. So I may investigate that. The downside to using the form is that your paddles all have to be the same shape when you're done carving them...I'll give this some thought.

Now on to fiberglassing the blade. I can get the tip shaped this morning, but after that I'm going on a promised bike ride with a friend. I suppose I can glass the blade later this afternoon, but I really need to get some writing done...ah decisions. Work or play?

Notes--very little leakage on the power face side, so the epoxy must have been running out under the dam.

Update: The bike ride got canceled, so I sanded the paddle and glassed the front side of the blade. For photos, check out the paddlemaking workshop blog. The link can be found at the top of the sidebar to the right.

Read more...