Journal
Fitting the keel to the hull (cont.): I'm back. My doctor has cleared me to do heavy lifting and all of my blood tests are negative. You might say that this has been a lost summer!
During my down time I didn't totally wimp out. I reorganized my shop so that my most-used tools are on the peg board in front of my work bench. All of the other stuff either went onto an adjacent pegboard, on a shelf, or into the trash. I also got industrial-type dollies to put under my table saw and planner. This makes everything in the shop movable, which is handy for sweeping and cutting/planning long wood stock. Since the temperature here in Florida still reaches 90 degrees in October, I also broke down and got myself a 24,000 BTU window air conditioner.
My rearranged workspace.
 |
 |
| My roll-around table saw. | New A/C. |
While taking measurements for the rest of the keel, I noticed a small swale in the keel area. It's so small that I easily could have ignored it, but it's bothersome. I decided to fair that area before continuing the keel installation.
 |
 |
| Applying filler to the swale. | Using a scrap of luan plywood to fair the keel area. |
Using extra filler to fill knots, screw holes etc.
My next step will be to lay a 2X8 on the keel area and measure for the remainder of the keel. This will probably take place in about three weeks.