The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[OP827]

Nice work KC, if it was me, I would pull the screws out and reinstall them back while the polyurethane is still wet, for proper sealing.

[KCStudly]

Thanks for the kind words and advice OP827. I am leaning toward taking them out until the final coat.

[GPW]

I’d take them out , dip them in hot bees wax, then screw them back in again , and remove, Do the finish and then re insert for the last time ...

[Wobbly Wheels]

Just a thought, but what about counterboring them a little deeper and plugging them ?
Or do you specifically want to keep them accessible ?

[KCStudly]

The screws are rather large and have flat heads. If I bury them far enough to plug them there will be little meat left in the spar and the conical heads could act like wedges to split the wood (however unlikely). Because they are stainless steel they are no more offensive to my eye than plugs would be, especially given their location on the underside of the lower edge of the hatch.

I pulled them out this evening and will put them back after.

The smaller screws holding the skin to the rabbet in the upper hinge spar are fairly well sunk into the skin and even have a little tinge of the stain on them, so I will just leave those and seal over them with the poly.

Tonight it was cold and wet. I ended up getting the big kerosene heater out and ran both for a while.

I am finding the idea of putting poly on the hatch somewhat daunting. It’s a large surface, but more concerning is that it isn’t flat. The ribs and braces will provide added intricacy. I’m concerned that I will end up with runs and junk that will be hard to correct if things go wrong. I’ll get over it eventually, but for tonight I used the cold weather as an excuse to shy away from that task… again.

I think that I have decided not to spray it. I don’t want the hassle or risk of trying to take it down the stairs, and the thought of over spray in the loft does not appeal to me, either.

Anyway, it was starting to get late and all I had done (besides chat with Karl) was to pull the aforementioned screws out. Then it occurred to me that I still hadn’t rounded over the lower front edges of the upper spar where the seal will wrap up onto the face of the spar (where it will get pinched between the spars under the hinge). So I knocked those out. Even though the ‘D’-shaped seal will flatten out a bit where it wraps around this corner, I figure that is a better solution than having a square miter joint in the seal that might leak, or having to slobber weather strip adhesive. I plan on placing the seal toward the outer edge of the hatch skin, so I only rounded over the first inch of either end of the spar. I used the same technique that I used for the bumper ends, except I used a chisel for the rough in before sanding to the traced line. Then I chiseled and sanded the edge of the corner to blend it down in a transition. Shown here with the hatch laying on its back.



Kind of lame, but that’s all I did tonight.

[Wobbly Wheels]

The screws are rather large and have flat heads. If I bury them far enough to plug them there will be little meat left in the spar and the conical heads could act like wedges to split the wood

I'm sure I'm not saying anything you don't already know - one normally counter bores at east half the width of the fastener's head to be sure there's enough depth for a good glue bond along the sides of the plug but sometimes there's not enough depth - good call

I worked for a boat builder years ago who was contracted by a another, much larger, company to build some boats for them. They had a huge stock of 2/4 teak and wanted us to mill it into 3/8" X 4" planks for cockpit coamings (screwed and plugged of course) In my new job I have since seen two of those boats in for service on the Yanmars and, in both cases, some of the plugs have popped and the planks are curling because the screws just didn't have enough meat under them to hold them down.

Running the screws in any further would create more problems for sure

Does the soot from the kero heater provide any problems with the poly ?

I like following what you're doing because it always me that what I'm doing now can make my life either easier or more difficult later on. It's kind of like navigating on the water: a little adjustment now saves a bigger correction later.....

[KCStudly]

...what I'm doing now can make my life either easier or more difficult later on. It's kind of like navigating on the water: a little adjustment now saves a bigger correction later.

"Small moves, Ellie. Small moves." - Ted Arroway, speaking to Jodie Foster's character in Contact, the motion picture.

I haven't noticed any issues with the heaters vs. poly, but it is something I am mindful of. The heaters run fairly clean except when starting and shutting down. All the more important to follow the can instructions and do a wipe down with a spirit damped rag prior to recoating.

[KCStudly]

Tonight I slathered the first coat of poly on the underside of the hatch (and the second coat on the cabin side hinge spar).

It was as if I was starting way back at the beginning and had forgotten all that I have learned. I had only done a quickie job sanding the skin, so there were some “fins” (those little barbs at the ends of grains). Because of that it was difficult to wipe down; the rag would want to snag and lift more fins, or spread lint instead of removing it. And as predicted, I had trouble with pooling and running on the various vertical and curved surfaces. It was a little difficult to reach some areas in the middle and I had to turn the hatch around on the bench and clamp the spars in turn to the edge of the bench so I could reach everywhere. Despite wearing my headlamp and having the turd hung up, lighting was poor with it being dark out so early now.

I brushed back and forth instead of in long strokes; there were lots of bubbles and specks of debris.

I guess it has been a while since I did any poly work. Karl commented, “you have texture”.

Here it is after the initial coating.



I waffled back and forth whether the excess would evaporate off, not looking forward to trying to fix any trouble areas (thinking there would be a lot of them); and recalling (IIRC) that Mary and at least one other person said that they use a rag to wipe the poly on then wipe the excess off. So eventually I decided to try that.

Other than having some areas on the ribs that had already started to tack up, wiping the poly back off seems to have solved several issues. The surface is now smooth; the debris came up; the little fins have all laid back down (or came off) and seem like they will be sealed in; and there are no bubbles, no drips, and no runs. I did get some lint balls that pulled off the rag due to the tackiness (probably would not have happened if I hadn’t waffled), so I had to go around and rub those off with my gloved finger… hope I got them all. I’m not sure that I would use this technique for a final coat using gloss, but for an initial seal coat it looks like it will be less work to get a better result on the second coat.

Tomorrow I will have daylight on my side, and since I sopped up all of the puddles, maybe it will be cured enough to do a better job on the second coat. I’m sure it will come in fine by the time I am done (the power of positive thinking).

[dales133]

Have you guys got speed brushes there?
They are made by scotch I think.
Flat pads that fit a plastic handle the are fantastic for this sort of work, they don't snag and are great at even paint distrobution

[KCStudly]

Haven't tried those. I will look for them next time I'm at the hdwr store (which will likely be today). Thanks for the tip.

[KCStudly]

Just a couple of hours in on the build this afternoon. Scuffed the hatch down, wiped with spirit damped rag, and wiped on another coat of poly going straight on with a rag.

I like this technique for this piece. It is easy to control any excess and there is no brush to clean up afterwards. I’m sure I have some dry spots that maybe could have gotten better coverage, but to every technique there is a learning curve, and I’m still getting used to the std. poly vs. the high build that I was using before.

Pics don’t look much different, but this is the second application on the hatch (third on the cabin side hinge spar). First pic is with the flash, the rest are without.

[dales133]

Looking realy good mate

[KCStudly]

Thank you.

I'm happy to be getting the hatch dialed in, though I may spring for another gallon of the high build stuff just to see if I can't get some better coverage. At this rate it will take a lot of time to get the finish that I am after with the regular poly, and the little quart can is almost used up.

[KCStudly]

If this seems somewhat repetitive, that’s how I feel, too. Couple more hours on finish work today.

Scuffed the hatch “ceiling” down with 220 grit.


The ribs were smoother so I used 320 grit on them, being careful not to work the edges too much. The maple braces were pretty nice, so I avoided them. The lower spar had a few dry spots so that got the 320 grit, as well.

This time I used a cloth rag to dust off, then a tack cloth (which I don’t always use), then a cloth rag (instead of paper) damped in mineral spirits. In an effort to try and avoid the little lint pills, I snapped the next clean rag like a whip several times switching among opposite corners of the rag until I didn’t see any more lint coming off in the sunlight. Then I ragged on another coat of poly. Still wet in these pics.




I still got a few lint balls toward the end, but they were easy enough to pick out, and there were a lot fewer of them. I avoided the maple braces; the harder/smoother wood just doesn’t need as much product to coat and seal.

I can still see individual fibers of lint from the rag in the finish, and there is still a texture to the coatings, so I think I will have to either spray the next coat or two, or try the applicator pads that Dales133 recommended.

The oak hinge spars, maple bits, and Red Grandis ribs all have done fine with the std. poly formulation, but the Okoume is telling me that it likes the high build version better; so I picked up another gallon. When I looked at the price difference it was about 3 to 1 on the gallons vs the quarts, and the high build was only available in the gallons. Combine that with the improved coverage from the high build and I figured even if I don’t use most of the can on this project, it should save me time getting thru the last few things that I have left to do, including: at least another coat on the hatch; galley counter edge and another coat on the galley upper shelf face frame ; the small vent fan chase; a wire-way cover for the rear of the hatch actuator switch; wing tables; lantern boxes; and any other thing that should present itself “to the committee”.

I also picked up another can of spirits and Coleman fuel.

[KCStudly]

ryuandwings is using some pretty nifty J-trim to secure the top of his aluminum diamond plate rock guard and trim on his build.

This reminds me that I need to plan for some sort of way to secure the top of my planned rock guard, before getting too far along with the foam installation. That, and my galley hatch handle.

I like the J-trim he used, and need to figure out where to find some, and what provision it has for fastening (reminder to self).