Boat Building with Calvin

 Today I spent the morning sanding and sanding and sanding. At one point I was using 60 Grit and started getting blisters. I was preparing my boat for the Cetol that Mike gave to me! I was nervous about the drip marks that would appear but the Cetol covered all the blemishes and made the boat look clean and crisp. I was very proud of myself. I have a couple exciting things to do tomorrow with the help of Mike! We are going to tape off and paint a white bootstripe above the blue underbelly. It will look so clean and rocking! I also have the rest of that plank we are painting white to brush Cetol onto. I can't wait to have my paint job and sealant completely finalized! I am also installing the metal oar holders! Can't wait to finish up tomorrow and throw her in the pond for graduation!  Thanks for reading and stop in tomorrow! It's your last chance! Calvin Hours: 7

  This week has been really fun. A lot of sanding, but it was really a great time.  The disco ball kept me going. I listen to a lot of reggae and country hits on my disco ball. I’ve been jamming to Greta Van Fleet as well and of course, Taylor Swift because everyone’s been talking about her concert. But my favorite song that has been getting me in the mood for woodworking is this song, dirt on my boots by Jon Pardi! Such a fun song. I also love it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. I’ve been coming in earlier to the boat shop which has been a great success and also makes me a lot less stressed! I would say the favorite part of my way was when my parents and sister came to surprise me at my dorm. They came for my last-ever Shabbat at Proctor. I almost cried when I opened the door. All my friends came to support me, including my bestie, Lisa P, who took me out to breakfast the following day! The whole week was such a blast. I’m glad I got to go home to see the funniest comedy show. Alex Edelman! He

Today I woke up and ran to the boat shop to add another coat of paint. The boat has been looking so beautiful, and all the blemishes that I thought would show up have suddenly disappeared. The boat looks gorgeous and is almost pond ready. My disco ball has been blaring music and is a real lifesaver. Thank God, Mike Walsh, saved the day! I let the paint dry for a solid four hours, and came back to add another coat! At this point, I was around four coats in!    

I had a great visitor come to the boat shop today who honestly saved the whole process. Mike Walsh walked up the stairs and just admired my disco light. He asked me what part of the boat I’m painting blue, and I said the whole underside. He was like, please don’t do that. And thank God he said something because that would’ve been a terrible mistake. I mixed the paint and then poured it into the roller tray!  I started with a thin coat of the blue bottom paint after taping off the boat. The color looked beautiful, but a little brighter than I was expecting, but so pretty. It was hard to get into a few crevices, but I managed my way through 30 minutes of the first coat. 

Today was the day I brought in my DISCO BALL! I decided to spice up my Boat Building life. Everyone loved my disco ball speaker. I blasted a bunch of tunes and sang out loud. It made the sanding process so much more fun. I spent the entire seven hours of my day sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding. Was it fun? I’d definitely say the sanding wasn’t. But the party was a blast. Lisa P came to check in on me, and so did Becky Walsh! Great friends to have visit! Hurricane by Luke Bryant was my favorite song of the day!

I entered the shop at around 9:45 ready to get to work. I started sanding and it was still peely and looking drippy and not very clean. I decided to add ANOTHER layer of epoxy to try and even out the top layer! I used a roller and an extra brush to smooth the bubbles! It seems to have worked. I am stressing about getting started on the painting.  But after epoxying the boat 2 times today I believe sanding will not be as difficult. I am excited to put the boat in the pond during graduation. 

Hey Everyone! Lot of wiping today! I bought some epoxy on Amazon because I ran out of my original resin and hardener. It was fine for the first round! But a bit sticky after a whole day of drying! That was worrying but I added another layer and this layer on top of a sticky layer was a huge mistake! I began wiping and wiping and wiping. It was a mess . I waited till it was partially dry, and added a normal layer of epoxy which hardened perfectly! I started sanding that layer and it came off really uneven and peely from the new epoxy I bought. I panicked a bit. I will wait till tomorrow to try and sand again.

I was psyched to get back in the Wood Shop after such a fun weekend with friends! Greg was psyched to see me, and I was psyched to get my hands dirty again! Greg showed me the thousands of spots I forgot to sand after I thought I was done. I spent around 3 hours just sanding. And waiting for my extra bottles of epoxy to arrive from Amazon. I used a rounder machine to make my outrails rounded. I spend another hour sanding. At around 1:30 I went over and grabbed my TotalBoat Ultra Penetrating epoxy. I mixed it up and started applying it everywhere. It made my whole boat darker and shiny. I used a roller to evenly apply it. It looks great, come see for yourself! I will hopefully have my boat painted and varnished by the end of the week!  Thanks and stop by anytime! Calvin

T his first week was a great success. I’m already on the step of sanding my whole boat down. The first few days of senior project were very hard for me. I was pretty sick and in and out of the health center. And everyone knows how annoying blackflies have been. Forgot to mention the terrible allergies. I did everything I hoped to do my first week on senior project. Greg has been a great help and has encouraged me to spend more time on my boat. Being on campus during senior project, it’s very weird. I can barely see my friends and having a car on campus is like having a Nerf Gun that your parents never let you use. Tennis has been an easy little getaway in the evenings. And going to the matches are fun too. And I made a hypothesis at the beginning of senior project. Senior project is going to be harder than my solo on Mountain Classroom. A Solo is 3 1/2 days all by yourself in the woods without any human interaction. That was a piece of cake compared to 2 1/2 weeks of not seeing my frie

Today was a little too sweaty. I went into Boat building to sand everything down and prepare for epoxying. I grabbed 80 grit sandpaper and made my way across the whole boat. I spent time underneath the boat scraping away at sharp bits of epoxy. I then took a wooden block, attached the sandpaper, and vigorously sanded the grooves away. After I was satisfied with the boat, I realized there were sharp and messy spots I have forgotten to sand properly, so I flipped the boat and crawled under again and tried not to hit my head whilst handling a heat gun and sharp scraper. It was not very well air-conditioned in my air pocket so I began to overheat and sweat profusely. I continued scraping till 3:00. At 3:30 I went home to see my dad who returned from his travels across the world. And after wanting to see this movie called, "Beau is Afraid" for around 3 or so weeks, he politely agreed. The movie theatre looked abandoned and the seats were so uncomfortable, and as for the movie... m

Today was very similar to yesterday. After flipping the boat, I mixed up my epoxy and epoxy hardener and added a ton of wood flour to have the peanut butter consistency that I used yesterday. I set up a sandwich bag and scooped all the mixed epoxy into the bag like yesterday. Using a box cutter, I cut off the corner of the sandwich bag like yesterday. I told you it was all very similar to yesterday. The only thing different was the location of the fillets. This time I was filleting on the bottom crease of the covers and seat.  I wish I told you I didn’t go to Pizza Chef again, but that would be a lie too. With easy access to the top of the boat, I grabbed the sander and sanded.  I also grabbed the heat gun and scraped away at a few globs.  Hopefully, we don’t have another groundhog day like today!  Happy "EEARTH" Day!  Feel free to stop by anytime to see my progress! Thanks for reading,  Calvin

SEE THE BOTTOM FOR THE BEFORE AND AFTERS The day has arrived. I am installing my seats today! After some heavy-duty grinding and sanding, everything fit into position and all the pieces were ready to be filleted. I combined my epoxy and epoxy hardener and added a ton of wood flour to maintain the peanut butter consistency that is required. I set up a sandwich bag and scooped all the mixed epoxy into the bag. Using a box cutter, I snipped off the corner of the sandwich bag for easy application. I added some weights on top of the bow cover because the left side was poking up a bit. A ton of cleanup was required but nothing this football player can’t handle!  I took a breather for lunch by jogging over to Pizza Chef which was very vital to my success. I sanded some other parts of the boat to prepare for epoxying the whole boat! Exciting day in Boat Building! Can’t wait to finish the seats tomorrow. Hours: 6 BEFORE:     (One Year Ago)  (Two Days Ago) AFTER: (Today)

I stormed into my second day of Senior Project with the intent to prep my boat for the installation of my seats.  With my two doublers installed, I had to fill in a few gaps to make the walls flush. I also coated both air chambers with epoxy.  I added a few more fillets and started sanding all inner walls so I can epoxy for the seats to be installed. The stern cover’s bottom was also epoxied today.   The bow cover was fitted with sanding because it wasn’t sitting properly. Today was very efficient and full of successful prep. Can’t wait to install my seat tomorrow. The three pieces I add tomorrow will be the last addition of wood to my boat. After I piece my boat together, I will have a smooth rest of the week sanding and epoxying the entirety of my boat. Still thinking of some names for my boat. My two favorites are: 1. blub blub blub 2. Titanic 2 Comment down below other names you recommend! Stop by to see my progress anytime! Thanks for reading, Calvin Monfried Hours: 6             

Today I woke up, headed to the Boat-Building Shop, and started my first day on my Senior Project. I've been working on my boat for two years now, and the time has come for the final few steps to be put into action. I am so eager to finish it up. Right when I walked in to see my Eastport Pram, I knew what I had to do: 1. Remove the clamps from my doublers. 2. Sand the handles of the bow and stern. 3. Work on filleting the internal frames. 4. Install the motor pad and scrape up the oozing epoxy. There were some dents when removing the claps, so a quick sanding came in handy. I used a heat gun and scrapper to remove access/dried epoxy around the edges of the doubler. My first go at filleting the frames turned out pretty nice “looking”, but not dense and supportive enough. This led me to add another supporting layer of extra-thickened epoxy. The end of the day came in fast, so I quickly spread unthickened epoxy on the motor pad's surface, then quickly mixed up some thickened epoxy