Saturday, March 12, 2011

Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 39



Well, everything went as planned last evening. I set up the Black and Decker workbench in the kitchen and prepared the area for applying Evo-stik to both sides of the marine ply panel and to the inner surfaces of the two pieces of aluminium. Before spreading the Evo-stik on the respective surfaces I lightly sanded them and vacuum cleaned them. To clean the surfaces of the aluminium pieces I swabbed them with Acetone soaked in kitchen roll. This removed minute particles from the metal, so as to provide a perfectly clean, dry surface for the adhesive. I made sure that my hands didn’t come into contact with the Acetone and Evo-stik by wearing rubber gloves.



When the aluminium pieces were in place I clamped the whole lot together, paying particular attention to the edges, ensuring they were tightly bonded. I found the most effective way of spreading the Evo-stik was to first apply it with a spoon; then spread it evenly with a serrated plastic spreader that was supplied with the adhesive. Before parts were joined, I waited until the Evo-stik on both surfaces was touch-dry; this took approximately ten minutes. I was careful to ensure that the pieces were perfectly positioned before I joined them and applied hand pressure to seal the bond. The whole job was completed within an hour.



Fumes from the Evo-stik were not at all pleasant, and I was glad my wife was not home at the time. Before she returned, I opened the windows to allow the fumes to escape. This must have worked, because she did not mention that she could smell an obnoxious smell, as was the case when I was varnishing wooden bits for my daughter’s yacht a few days ago.

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