Day 109

Today we added the plate aft of the coaming. As it is greater than 10 feet wide, two peices had to be joined together. Joining 1/8" plate isn't to be taken lightly!
Long awaited sideplate in!	First the two pieces are tacked together while on a flat surface, then short welds are run equally spaced in sets of 4. The plate must be flipped to keep a constant stress on both sides. It seems as though, unlike thicker plate, that the welding pushes itself up during welding, not shrinks after welding. We're not really sure why this is. The best way is to check after each weld. If there is even a slight change, counter it with a weld to the opposite side.
Welding 1/8" while it sits firmly tacked to a framework acts differently again. If it is tacked solidly, and left to cool a bit, it generally comes out with nothing more than a slight point. This can be ground off anyway, an acceptable result as going under and over would be very time consuming! The short peice of sideplate that has been missing on bothsides was also put in first. I guess the aft deckplate forced it apon us ha ha!

Day 109:
6 hours: put in aft poopdeck plate and aft sideplate in preparation for the transom