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I checked out the joint on the bottom. It looked pretty good but when I tried to flip the bottom over to join the other side it slipped from my grip and the joint bent along the tape with the butt ends losing contact with each other. I’m debating what my next move is and have posted on Duckworks Forum to get some advice.
I didn’t really do all that much else today but it seemed to take a long time. Lots of time spent moving stuff around and setting things up.
I set up two sawhorses in the driveway (to try and keep the dust/sawdust outside) and nailed the bilge panels to it. Then, I used the jigsaw to cut within a 1/4 inch before using the router to trim exactly to size. I wasn’t able to finish everything completely due to various issues with the setup and had to bring the panels inside to finish the job. I have an old interior hollow door that I use as a work surface and I finished off the finishing using it laying on the floor and a few pieces of scrap to support the panels here and there.
I used an old wood rasp to do some of the smoothing of the template panel’s fiberglass joint as I hadn’t previously trimmed it. That’s another great tool to have!
Anyways, got them finished and they look pretty good. Cleaned up and reorganized the garage a bit. I am terrible for leaving tools exactly where I last put them down and every so often I just have to go around and pick everything up. I wish I had the good work habits of my old friend, Terry D., who puts things away as soon as he finished with it…and everything has its place. He is totally organized.
Speaking of tools, I completely love using a router. I think it is one of the greatest things going. Bits available to do all sorts of neat things. The only thing about my plunge router (Porter-Cable 7539 3.5 hp) that I don’t like at times is that it is heavy. Of course, that is also a good thing as it allows me to be very deliberate and the weight also controls the thing from moving but if I were to use it vertically it would get heavy real fast.
