Mea culpa

Okay, I'm coming clean. I went out today to buy the PL Premium and PL 300 adhesives for Thomas' build (along with various and sundry other needed things). I was driving to the building center to buy the stuff and my car steered itself to Lee Valley Tools. It does this sometimes. The car shares my joy being in the calming presence of quality tools and a quality company.

I arrived at Lee Valley Tools and proceeded to get in a good discussion with the store's adhesive expert, talking about laminating the sheer clamps, the frame/cleat joints and good waterproof glue. He recommended the Titebond III glue for the job - and felt it a far better choice.

While I was there I decided that regardless of the addition incremental expense, I'd use West System epoxy instead of the construction adhesives to assemble and saturation coat the boat. The incremental cost is not that huge - probably an additional $100-150, but in the grand scheme of things it will give the boat a much longer lifespan. I've been struggling with the whole low-cost paradigm, and have concluded that low cost is indeed important, but you also have to consider the potential for resale value and more than one kid benefiting from the boat and build effort. The one problem I have with my decision is that I'm not going to have Thomas participate in some of the build steps.

Almost all of Eric's build techniques still apply.

Part of my reasoning is that I already have both resin and both 205 and 207 hardeners here, as well as the 406 colloidal silica and 410 fairing compound. I'm not actually spending a lot extra money since a good part of this stuff was paid for long ago.

I'm okay with my decision, as we already have one boat built using the innovative but new and untested construction adhesive technique, so my caving in to the siren call of West System epoxy doesn't hurt that bad.