Day 22

After some grinding and cutting out the slot on the split pipe, we carefully positioned and levelled the keel pipe then tacked and welded it on. There was no distortion and snaping off the top was even with the keel bottoms.

Shown above: Welding on keel pipe

Grinding off the millscale in preparation for priming wasn't so easy. We tryed using some rather expensive brushes on the grinder. They didn't work so well on the mill scale and wore out darn fast! It was quite a setback as we're so far from town it wouldn't have been feasable to go in for some more, and they're too expensive anyway. We tryed using a sanding disk on the air grinder, but the air grinder decided to spit oil all over the metal we were trying to clean off. That was set aside. Finally we decided to use the grinding wheels. That worked but couldn't clean around the welds. So out came the wore out brush again. I hope there are better brushes on the market because these ones were pretty poor compared to the ones I used 18 years ago while buffing welds on the pipeline. - Long story ;o)

The bow cleaned and primed

All said and done we didn't get much primed as a result. Just to back to frame 2 from the bow. Hopefully we can get a bit in during the week and next Saturday as this must be done before we cover the boat for winter. In the photos it looks like summer, and indeed it isn't as cold as it normally is for this time of year. One never knows how long it will last. Snow is the final work-stop for us!

As only grinding and priming is left to do this year this will be the last entry until next spring. I hope these entries have been both entertaining and informative for anyone else thinking of building their own steel boat. We are a bit sad we have to leave her sit for winter, but glad at the same time. We need a rest!
Have a good winter,

Sandy & Georgena

Day 22:
6 hours: Cut and placed split keel pipe, cleaned steel to frame two and primed.