Despite having an already canoe crowded shop I didn’t want to keep Tom waiting. He has begun to read this board and my descriptions of his foibles, and Tom is a constant source of entertainment. If nothing else, it promised to be a memorable shop day.
He was eager to get his Voyager back on the water after the week it somehow took to wet sand it, and two additional weeks it somehow took to buy the materials, Tom proposed showing up at 9am. I suggested 10am so I had time to move boats around and prep the shop.
10:30 is closer to Tom-time than usual. To set the day’s supervisory tone I met him at the shop door holding a wall clock.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
We brought the Voyager into the shop. Er, Tom did; I offered to help but he was already surly. Maybe it was the clock thing.
Part of the rational for using a clear coat instead of paint was to preserve not only the golden yellow of the Kevlar, but also to leave intact the custom Duckhead stickers.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Tom had done a superb wet sanding job. OK, that’s one in the plus column for Tom.
We had discussed first rolling and tipping a coat of West 105/207. The votes against; a professional rebuilder says that if the hull is in good shape he will lay an epoxy coat first only if customers insist, but he feels it is often unnecessary. Other votes against, a coat of epoxy would mean another week’s wait time for cure and I need some shop space back; the Helmsman can be sanded the next day.
Clear coat also precluded Tom’s plan to paint scheme of a sheerline band in Maryland Flag colors and design.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-MarylandTom is a talented if too infrequent artist, I have some of his work hanging in my shop office. I kinda want to see that slanted checkerboard and Calvert counterchanged cross botonée. Maybe on the next canoe.
Scorning the Little Boys Bench I had cleared for him Tom disgorged his constituent parts and pieces elsewhere, including the needed materials that somehow needed weeks to acquire, selected from a (I thought) detailed and specific list.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
As we laid those materials out to begin prepping the Voyager I noticed that the can of Helmsman Spar Urethane looked odd.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
That was because Tom bought water-based Helmsman Urethane, not oil based. I am only painting his canoe once; this isn’t the time to experiment with water-based urethane only to discover that the Voyager leaves a sheen floating in its wake. I told Tom that alcohol wiping, gunwale taping and rolling/tipping out should only take two hours (wrong again), go get the right stuff, we are doing this today dammit!
Tom left to drive to the nearest Home Depot. Which is across the line in Pennsylvania. His day, to say nothing of mine, kept getting longer and longer. He called from PA; Home Despot had no Helmsman Spar Urethane. His next stop was a Pennsylvania WalMart, just up the road a piece from the hardware store.
Nope, not there either. Tom’s next stop was an Ace hardware 20 miles south in the other direction. Ace had two cans of oil-based Helmsman; at that point, having thus far driven 40 miles hither and yon, Tom bought them both. A mere 60 mile round-round trip later and we were ready to start work on the Voyager. At 1:00.
While Tom was gone I looked through the other materials he purchased. Something I should have done before he left. On his list “91% isopropyl alcohol, available at Walmart”. He brought an old (dusty) can of Kleen-Strip Denatured Alcohol instead. Kleen-Strip is 40-to-60% methanol.
https://korellis.com/wp-content/uploads ... atured.pdfI have learned that denatured alcohol, especially those heavy on toxic additives like methanol, is unnecessary for most boatwork. I have plenty of 91% isopropyl. Time for Tom to finish alcohol cleaning the Voyager, under “You missed a spot” supervision. Well, I used to have plenty of 91% isopropyl.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
The rags and paper towels on Tom’s list for alcohol wiping and general cleaning? Nope, back to shop stock. Tom followed instructions for a change, alcohol cleaning the hull first, the outwales last, so as not to smear pop rivet and gunwale crevice contaminates onto the Kevlar surface. Tom had wet sanded and washed the Voyager before it got here; the black gunk is from the outwale edge.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Tom owes me six paper towels. And counting. Yes, I am keeping track.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
The (Lowes) foam brushes he bought were as soft and smooth as a Brillo pad. I once bought a batch of similar foam brushes from Amazon. Absolutely freaking not, I want it to look smoother after tipping out, not streakier. I had softer, better quality foam brushes; I guess we are using my stuff after all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-cCh9bTG4Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes yes yes.
On his materials list, 4” roller pan, sleeve and roller handle. My bad, that was not specific enough.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
What the hell is that? Those actually, Tom bought three. I have never considered a pan that deep and stubby, and have no experience keeping a just-right wet roller sleeve with such a midget. I have the longer, shallower style 4” roller pans I am accustomed to using. Note also that the roller sleeve is of the thick, fuzzy sort, not foam. Also a nope; my pan, my sleeves. Yes, yes, yes.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/15a0fd3d-7 ... d05accaa4eLesson learned, if I ask someone to provide their own materials, I am also asking to accompany them to the hardware store when they go to buy the stuff.
Tom returned, more curmudgeonly than usual, from his tour of southern PA and an Ace Hardware in northern Baltimore County, some two hours later and declared that he needed a beer. All work stopped. Not that much work had begun.
Eventually we got back to work. I taped the outwale on one side, explaining that the curvature of the sheerline meant that the tape first wants to creep below the outwale edge and then, after midships, begin the reverse, creeping higher up onto the hull. Minor tape adjustments are needed as the curvature increases.
Taping is a learned technique, it took minutes for me to tape my umpteenth outwale. Tom, despite many intonations and exclamations of the WTF variety, was somewhat slower. Talking to the tape doesn’t work Tom, you need to carefully manipulate it into curving.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
He even carefully taped over the HIN plate; a nice touch with paint, maybe not as necessary with urethane.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Tom appreciated the wheeled shop chair for that eye level taping task and, though still somewhat peeved from his travails, he delighted in the ease of rolling along at ease.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Outwale and deck plate taping done I rolled and tipped one side with Helmsman, demo explaining rolling short sections from keel line to gunwale before moving a step further down the hull and rolling another piece, pulling the cart alongside and later keeping a wet edge on the tip out brush, one overlapping streak at a time.
The most challenging part of tipping out is again the curved nature of a canoe. The distance from gunwale to center line at the stems may be 18”, but the distance from gunwale to keel line in the center more like 27”. It is a (), and it is impossible to tip out straight lines on a ().
With one side rolled and tipped, I gave the paint cart to Tom to do the other side.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I watched Tom’s efforts briefly, before abandoning my supervisory role and retreating to my office where, oddly enough, I could not hear his testy tipping invective.
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Mike McCrea, on Flickr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rrx2f6sza0Tom eventually finished rolling and tipping his side, leaving only a few holidays just below the outwale at the chine bubble, a tricky area to roll, necessitating vertical strokes instead of horizontal.
Fully rolled and tipped it was time to pull the outwale tape before it became urethane stuck. Rolling and tipping did not necessitate gloves, but gloves would be handy for pulling 18’ of still urethane-wet tape from each outwale.
On Tom’s list, “Disposable gloves”. Take a guess, did Tom bring disposable gloves? I thought about letting him recreate a Rolling Stone’s 1971 hit, but he was already having a tough day, so yes, yes, yes, I provided some. Add two purple nitriles to the list.
Rolling and tipping the first coat was done, and a process that typically takes two hours required six.
There was a shop denouement shortly after Tom departed, one that, having been mildly abused for an afternoon, I know he would have appreciated. I had four canoes on sawhorses in the shop; the max is really three, two is better, so there wasn’t much walk-around room.
I went out later that night to put things away and see how the Voyager looked. There was just enough space between boats to clip one sawhorse leg with my foot, and break my fall on the concrete floor with my left knee.
Not just that, but on the way down I managed to smack my elbow on the sawhorse crossbar and punch myself in the nose. My scabby bloody knee still hurts - knees and elbows are a horrible places for road rash - and wearing glasses hurts almost as much.
Even without being there to witness that Help I’ve Fallen and Can’t Get up action in person Tom found it the best part of his day, and mentioned something about chalk outlining my body on the shop floor.
The Voyager looked 100% better, shinier, glossier and more UV protected with just a single coat of Helmsman. The second coat, from wet sanding to taping to rolling & tipping will be all Tom. I can’t wait to see what he does with that deep-dish pan and a fuzzy sleeve, tipping out with a Brillo-pad foam brush. In the backyard. While the oak catkins are falling and the dogs are running about.
I really don’t want to see that. Same deal Tom; wet sand it and bring it back up to the shop. We’ll see if we can break your current 6-hour record for taping, rolling and tipping. Bring the correct Helmsman, 91% alcohol, proper pan, roller sleeves and foam brushes, disposable gloves, etc.
Try the Home Depot just across the State line.