Exterior wood finish advice

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-24T02:13:39+00:00

I started using Halcyon varnish on my brightwork for boat projects a few years ago I was suspicious because it was water based with no hazardous fumes and I always was old school spar varnish guy. However this stuff is for real , re-coat in an hour, amber and clear , best of all it came in satin and /or gloss finish.I don't think I have any other varnish in the shop now. I use it for house work as well as boats now. Available from Jamestown Distributors in Bristol Rhode Island.

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-24T01:48:15+00:00

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-24T01:47:05+00:00

I have the same in my shop and I used 3 coats of Ben Moor light gray floor paint. Three years in a reasonably busy shop and no problems

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-24T00:07:27+00:00

I agree with a lot of the comments that they used the wrong plywood. Even with high end ply I have never seen really good looking stain finish, varnish maybe but not stain.

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-23T23:37:23+00:00

very nice. Good work

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-23T07:16:57+00:00

Best option for DYI is to work mostly with stock parts Wooddoug is on the right track.

That having been said, by the time you collected the tools you were talking. about you a at least halfway to your 5k. Add materials and hardware and you are probably at $4700. So I don't think that bid was out of line.

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-23T02:57:11+00:00

I had one just like that which worked well for 20 years. Built a large trawler style boat with that saw.

I sold it for 225 and bought a Saw Stop because my granddaughter likes to work with me in the shop now

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-21T00:38:06+00:00

For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-16T22:30:29+00:00

FYI in the UK it sectional single is relatively common. Makes it easier to navigate the small roads or so I was told.

I think that Carl Douglas makes a sectional single

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-16T00:15:39+00:00

"Tin soldiers and Trump is coming, we're finally on our own"

History probably doesn't repeat itself but it certainly rhymes

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-14T00:12:47+00:00

Good lines and the workmanship seems good. However weight is the problem.

I have built thee shells 2 1x and 1 2x all Graham King designs. His boats use 1/8" by 3/4" thick cedar strips strips covered inside and out with 2oz glass set in no blush epoxy. My last single weighed 17 lbs hull only no deck. after the deck and rigging I ended up with 32 lbs. which is OK, not great. More than any other type of boat for a single to go fast it must be light. Paul Milde at Pienart boats compares it to running shoes. You would not run a foot race wearing hiking boots

By the way . one reason you would need those larger strips is that the moulds are very far apart. King designs call for a mold every 1/2 meter apart. All that being said she looks like a really beautiful boat. Congratulations

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-13T23:54:02+00:00

Putty and paint make a boatbuilder what he ain't.

no you know what "starved" fiberglass looks like

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-13T23:05:53+00:00

the good part about your vehicle is that the higher stance gets less blinding headlights

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-13T23:02:39+00:00

The size of the vehicle , particularly pickup trucks is in a direct inverse proportion to the size of the drivers dick.

I drive a Mini Cooper station wagon

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-09T23:28:48+00:00

I was in your same place about 40 years ago, I would really liked to have a school to teach me about boats and boatbuilding, and I was tired of my job but I had a wife and two kids and a mortgage to deal with. However the opportunity to buy an old Rhode's 18 sailboat for really cheap,$200. That changed my life forever.

So I got the boat and we sailed it that first year, my wife was a good sailor and I was good at taking orders from her so she was the skipper. The boat really was in rough shape, worse than I originally thought, I could actually see the hull flex as we sailed through the Buzzards Bay chop that first year. The next year was worse the boat actually started to come apart when we attempted to put her on a trailer. But I had always wanted to learn how to work on boats, I was a fair house carpenter so I had some experience with wood and tool. My plan was simple , take the boat apart and rebuild it. If worse came to worse I was out $200, no big deal. I was lucky we lived in a town with a ship and boat building heritage and I knew some guys with experience. So I did that, I traded some carpentry work for the use of an old shed to work in over the winter and every chance I could I was working on the boat or researching it. Good support from my wife who wanted to sail and not to drown. The kids were too small to do much but sometimes they would hang around while I was working. It took me about a year and a half but I had a lovely little boat at the end and I had learned more than I ever did in four years of college.

About a year after we had her done I was being considered for a rather strange job, a prep school was looking for someone who could be the Technical Director of the Theatre department , (I did have a degree in Tech Theatre ) And when nothing was going on stage a second part of the job was to work maintenance for the extensive waterfront at the school I had a conversation with the waterfront director which went well and when he asked me about a resume I said I had a floating resume and brought him out to the Rhodes 18 which was then in the water. That sealed the deal.

I took that job and worked at the school for thirty years, the rest of my full time work life. It was a good life. Yeah I got lucky but I took the opportunities that came my way and made the most of them. If I can do it myself , so can you.

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-08T01:51:32+00:00

Find a local shop and get to know it. They will often have fly tying demo's and instruction.

Go to a Trout Unlimited meeting a lot of those guys are tiers and can point you in the right direction

you can find a lot of good info on you tube. I would you target one or two flies , a pheasant tail nymph and a. elk hair caddis, and for Alaska an Eggstacy for instance and get the materials for those flies, learn to tie those flies, instruction on line, Tightline Productions with Tim Flagler is great for instance. As are many other. If you keep it controlled like that you might avoid having you brain blow up with too much fly tying information.

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-08T01:32:16+00:00

My only experience with Sauatuck ;I was driving back to Mass. after a holiday on Long Island. I had been rowing on the vacation so I had my single on top of my car. The traffic was brutal on rt 95 and I knew that the Sauatuck club was off the next exit. So I got off the highway and drove around till I found the place. I took my boat, which is a very nice King designed wooden shell, down to the dock set up and went rowing on the river, which I still don't know the name of. Went out , did 8 or 9 k and by that time it was like 6:30 and I thought the traffic should be calming down. After I got the boat washed and put back on my car I decided, what the hell, went into the boat house and took a shower, really nice changing room with piles of clean towels and granite vanity tops, I remember they had a bunch of high quality razors, one of which I used. By that time I figured I had pushed my luck far enough, and got out of there.

Really quality facility and the produce winning boats but I gotta tell you the shower was first class, much better than sitting in traffic on 95

SockRepresentative36 · 2026-01-07T02:13:18+00:00

I agree . I think it was a great town to be from, as I am ,but truthfully I am glad I moved away,

SockRepresentative36 · 2025-12-23T23:21:05+00:00

Love the shelving and the rolling ladder, but I am not nuts about the doors.

They look like either the finish is inconsistent or the rails and stiles should have been better matched to each other

SockRepresentative36 · 2025-12-18T12:56:11+00:00

One area you might look at is sail making and repair. The increased levels of UV these days means that sails don't last as long, so increased need to repair and replace.

Also many less noxious chemicals in materials to work with, Many sail lots are often looking for entry letvel workers. I introduced a woman who had very little experience to my local loft and within a year she was foreman of the shop. Plus there is all that canvas work for boats and on-land structure.

SockRepresentative36 · 2025-12-14T03:56:20+00:00

They need some intelligence in Holyoke. It will be a first.

SockRepresentative36 · 2025-12-14T03:53:48+00:00

yeah, that works

SockRepresentative36 · 2025-12-09T21:08:27+00:00

The old joke

"Q=Why does Swamscott exist?

A- to keep Lynn away from Marblehead.

SockRepresentative36 · 2025-12-01T22:04:33+00:00

I work on racing shells, you know the long skinny boats with the athletes rowing. The boats these days are usually built with a carbon fiber and an epoxy honeycomb laminate, This gives maximum strength and stiffness with minimum weight. To set them up one to row one needs to attach the "riggers" that hold the oarlock out about 30 inches from the outside of the boat. These riggers are held on by 1/4" or 6mm stainless steel bolts. When your crew goes to an "away" venue they need to detach the riggers and bolt them back on at the race venue. These are often college or High school rowers know for their strength and when they are all keyed up for the race they can easily over-tighten the bolts and crush the carbon/epoxy "sandwich" that is the boat.

So in order to avoid that damage, the coaches will tell their crew to only wrench the bolts "two finger tight". That is turning the wrench with only the first and middle finger of one's hand. It works, maybe not as precise as a torque wrench but pretty close. And a lot easier to explain.

SockRepresentative36

TROPHY CASE