Aint That Sweet

Me and my honey of 22 years. 

Ugly Stick Completed!

With the onset of rains, cooler weather and continued work, the glassing and finish process was slowed down a bit.  So here it is. 

8-6 x 22.5 x 16.5 x 15 x 2 7/8

The tint on the bottom tail is cedar dust from the belt sander bag!

Crazy thick rails, I know.  At least my knees will stay dry.

That's it.  I'll try and post a few action shots in the near future.

Ugly Stick 6 - Nearly Ready

Tuesdays update....

Here is the high-tech jig for routing out the fin dados.  Never though I'd use the old plunge router again!

First dado cut without mishap and along the intended line.

The fin is glued in the slot with a 4 degree cant.  The rears got a 3 degree cant.

Fins on.  Hooray! 

The fins will get more resin and shaping on the board now.

My signature epoxy leash loop glued onto the laminated top.  It will get several coats of resin along with the deck and become nice and clear. 

The tail block after the top lamination.  There is not enough curve in the top to get the effect I was hoping for, but it looks nice anyway.  Originally it was a square tail, but Rick March got me excited about a swallow tail, so here it is.

Son Andy shaping/attaching/finishing a set of plywood fins for his fish.  Nice job Andy!  Hey, don't break those fins.

Plywood Stick 5 - aka The Ugly Stick

Here is a pictoral update on the board's progress.  Here the rails strips are all installed and the upper strips have been sanded flat to accept the deck. 

The deck has been glued on and rough planed down to shape.   

Another view of  the newly installed deck.  I'm not happy with the shape of the ribs near the front...you can see in the lower left part of the picture where the curve of the deck edge pulls closer to the center line of the board, exposing more of the rail strips. This is because I put a little too much curve on the ribs, interrupting the fair line  of  the deck. Oh well! 

So after looking at the board with the deck on, reailzed it was a mistake to not put a crown on the deck.  As it is, the deck is completely flat and the thickness is carried out to the top of the rail.  I've never done a totally flat deck and I probably should have anticipated this issue. So the board has these massive rails that kinda look like 1970's down rails, hence the  new moniker.  

Lamination Day.  Hey everyone laminates in their front yard, don't they?  Finally got a few days warm  enough to start glassing.  I did this board in one layer of 6 ounce top and bottom.  All my other boards have been done in 4 ounce.  I had to repair an older board done in 4 ounce, that required stripping of all the glass work.  Once off, I  could not believe how thin the resin and cloth section was!  I mean, if I wanted to know it's thickness, I'd have to use a micrometer.  Crazy.  By the way, I have been using epoxy resin form John Greer in San Diego.  I''ve had very good results with it and the best part is it shows up at my door one day after ordering it! 

Leading fins.  The fins were shaped from 1/4 plywood scraps from the skins.  I laminated them with 2 layers of 6 ounce on each side, which makes them plenty stiff.  I'm going to route a 7/16" wide dado into the board, 1/2" deep.  The fin will be glued in with 5-minute epoxy then the remaining space filled with resin.  This way, I don't have to do 'footballs' or use fin rope and spend time messing with that.  If I ever do break a fin, I'll just sand flush, route through the old base and epoxy, and glue in a new one.  Easy.