Blazer Lauterbach Build Thread

[Mario Johnston]

It's 1am,go to bed, Rich!

 

[Rich Jones]

It's 1am,go to bed, Rich!

I’ll go when you go . Seriously though, I have a deadline now, I want to at least have the Lauterbach, along with the Backlash, at the fun run. I doubt the Slingshot will be ready, that’ll be a little later in the summer, along with a couple nitro boats hopefully.

 

[Rich Jones]

Got a bunch more little things done today. I cut the rudder blade down to size and hung it on the bracket. I drilled the holes for the hatch pins, made the hatch pins, and glued those in. I painted the ends of the pins with some red testers paint and located where to drill the holes in the hatch frame and got those done. I located where the turn fin bracket mounts and then drilled and tapped for that and got it mounted. Lastly, I went ahead and put a generous coat of epoxy on the insides of the sponsons to seal and strengthen those. I still have to sand the sponson tops so I’ll probably do that tomorrow and possibly start doing filets on the hull joints.

 

[Chuck Mason]

You are movin at the speed of Right ! ! The dowel pins for the cowl, spot on, with style...
IMHO Pre-fitting everything is So smart, I would go back if I could and re-due my turn fin mounting blind nuts. and use a flat piece of Aluminum like you did. Far stronger and I bet easier to re-tap if ya needed to.
C.

 

[Rich Jones]

You are movin at the speed of Right ! ! The dowel pins for the cowl, spot on, with style...
IMHO Pre-fitting everything is So smart, I would go back if I could and re-due my turn fin mounting blind nuts. and use a flat piece of Aluminum like you did. Far stronger and I bet easier to re-tap if ya needed to.
C.

I’ve used t nuts in the past and decided to try the aluminum this time. With the t nuts, you coat around the edges good with thickened epoxy trying to keep out of the threads. It’s much harder for them to work loose this way. I’ve had t nuts work loose in the past and the only solution is to cut open either the deck or the ride pad. I plan on glassing around the edges of the aluminum . So anyway, nothing wrong with either, just personal preference but the aluminum does give you the ability to move and retap.

 

[Rich Jones]

Took the hardware off and spread epoxy along all the internal joints in the hull. With that step completed, today I block sanded the sponson tops, added some fiberglass cloth and resin to the perimeter of the aluminum piece that’s inside of the right sponson transom, and got started with sealing the rest of the inside of the hull with thinned epoxy. I also sanded the edges of the sponson decking to make sure the fit is right before I start on all of the decks.

 

[ChrisHerzog]

Moving along nicely!!

 

[Rich Jones]

Moving along nicely!!

Thanks, I’ve been a little sparse on updates the last few days. I’m still working on sealing the inside in manageable sections. All the non-joint areas got a thinned epoxy which goes on and then gets wiped off 15-20 min later. This boat has a LOT of nooks and crannies so I’m just taking my time with this part. I did manage to get a piece of plexiglass for the radio box cut and shaped to the exact size and shape of the wooden lid that comes with the kit. I also used my Harbor Freight gift card this weekend to enhance my supply of various style of clamps as well as some other odds and ends since deck installation is looming and should happen this week.

 

[Rich Jones]

With the sealing of the inside of the hull complete, it’s time to get the floatation and waterline in place. In the pics you can also see the plexi lid I cut with paper still on it. In yet another pic you can see where I cut some pieces of wood out of a piece of 1/4 in Pine plywood for use in clamping for the decks.

 

[Chuck Mason]

1/4 in Pine plywood for use in clamping for the decks

That is a very smart play, I can see how it will protect your work and give you major clamping area.
I was thinking how I was going to fill the seams and small gaps as I Finnish the inside sealing... So I got a handful of 10ml syringes with irrigation tips (Not sharp) going to mix the epoxy and micro-balls and use the Syringes to make it a clean as I can.

 

[Rich Jones]

Good idea on the syringe. I just went ahead and slopped on slow cure epoxy into the joints. Not the neatest trick in the book for sure. Yours should look much neater. I was just sick and tired of nitpicking on everything lol. Some of these steps start kinda dragging out for me at times.

 

[rhomodel]

Throw-away piping bags also work great: just cut a small piece of the tip..

 

[Rich Jones]

Throw-away piping bags also work great: just cut a small piece of the tip..

Not sure I get what you mean by “bags”?

 

[ChrisHerzog]

Like someone who decorates a cake. Put the epoxy in a bag, cut a small hole in one corner and twist it up tight so that the glue come out the small hole.

 

[Rich Jones]

Like someone who decorates a cake. Put the epoxy in a bad, cut a small hole in one corner and twist it up tight so that the glue come out the small hole.

Ah I thought he was talking about the floatation. . Now I get it. Not the sharpest tool in the shed over here…

 

[Rich Jones]

Well the fun has begun. After a couple days of looking at the boat and trying out clamping schemes, I decided not to try to get both front deck halves on at the same time. I kept getting a separation at the seam even using gorilla tape to hold the halves together. So, the left deck half is clamped up now. I don’t like, I repeat, I don’t like putting decks on!

 

[rhomodel]

That is always the most challenging: glueing compound surfaces. But the reward wil be there once done with these 2 parts. So far it looks good ! (as always I tend to say).

 

[Rich Jones]

That is always the most challenging: glueing compound surfaces. But the reward wil be there once done with these 2 parts. So far it looks good ! (as always I tend to say).

Thanks yeah it’s coming along. I just get a little stressed when I’m working against the clock trying to get the decks clamped down before the epoxy kicks off.

 

[Rich Jones]

Clamps removed on the first half yesterday. Everything stuck down fine. I then got to
work on the seam area in preparation for doing the other half. As much as I tried to keep the epoxy wiped out, there was plenty I had to remove and I did that with a chisel mostly. I then went through the process of trial fitting the other deck half. I wanted to make sure the seam comes out as tight as possible and to minimize high and low spots along the seam. The last thing I did last night was to run some dark walnut Transtint die diluted with denatured alcohol along the seam and on a couple small chips out of the veneer. I figured that if the seam didn’t close up perfectly you would at least not see light colored wood underneath. This morning I applied epoxy to the underside of the deck piece and on the boat and clamped up side two and that’s where we are currently. I likely won’t unclamp until tomorrow. Still have the rear decks and sponson tops to go after this step.

 

[Bob Blazer]

Hey Rich, do not trim the deck overhang off above the sponson yet. You can use that overhang to hold the sponson deck down by cutting various lengths of the 1/8 X1/8 spruce pieces and wedge them along the inner side of the sponson deck to hold it down.