Mercury Mending

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Pat
Posts: 2555
Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 1:42 pm
Location: West Wiltshire (Wessex)

Mercury Mending

Post by Pat »

Pete's obviously doing a special good job of this one - looking forward to seeing you back on the water Bob!

http://www.petevincent.co.uk/news/news_ ... icle_id=21
Garry R

Re: Mercury Mending

Post by Garry R »

I was surprised to see that there was no mention of cutting the existing veneers back leaving a 1" tongue of the central veneer layer protruding and giving a really strong bond for the inner and outer layers. I did this with the 15" x 8" hole that was in Vivette and have had no problems with it since it was done. A good idea when stapling is to cover the patch with a plastic sheet then use a little square of cardboard and staple through the whole lot. It saves the "bridge" part of the staple from digging intot the veneer and it makes a neater job as you can barely see the staple point marks in the wood. Since doing thit I would use cardboard with brown adhesive parcel tape stuck to it with the shiny surface against the joint as it really does not allow the epoxy to stick to it. (Thank Chris for that tip and it can be used in many situations where you need a bit of ply between the cramp and the wood you are glueing to prevent compression damage to the wood)

I'll try and get a few photos on here when I figure out the new programme I have here
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Ancient Geek
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Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:50 am
Location: Sletten,3250, Denmark and Hampshire GU33 7LR UK

Re: Mercury Mending

Post by Ancient Geek »

Garry is quite right the waxy Tetra Packs or Cornflake pakets do it very well.
Simples.
Mercurial
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Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:20 pm
Location: Bristol, UK.
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Re: Mercury Mending

Post by Mercurial »

Well, well. I had no idea he'd written it up. Thanks Pat. I think I'll have get some royalties off him.
Yeah, I am well content with the job he's done. We agreed that he'd leave the final finishing to me as I had some Blackfriars mahogany varnish left over from the emergency bodge job I did on the hull last winter and it wasn't worth him having it another week just to slap on this piddly bit of coating.
Am now experimenting with various mixes of stain and varnish to get an approximate match - but the hull is already such a mish-mash of tones, the only real cure is to strip her down completely. The vast majority of the hull below the waterline is original West system epoxy coating, (circa 1983/4) and I am not yet ready for the timesome and gruelling task of stripping off a coating that is still very sound. I just content myself with the thought that the reality is that I don't race her with my head hanging over the side looking at the effin' varnish!
Currently boatless - but watch this space.
Ex-various Mercurys and Fireball.
Pat
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Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 1:42 pm
Location: West Wiltshire (Wessex)

Re: Mercury Mending

Post by Pat »

Here's Bob's photos of the work in progress.
DSCN5181 (2).JPG
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DSCN5180 (2).JPG
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Mercurial
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Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:20 pm
Location: Bristol, UK.
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Re: Mercury Mending

Post by Mercurial »

Oooh, Pat, you are clever. Can I do that?

Ref the colour; Jonathan R has suggested trying Earl Grey tea, and that may work nicely on bare wood, which I am not going back to at this late stage of the season as I want it on the water on Sunday.

Current potion under test is Blackfriars mahogany stained varnish, made slightly darker with a little Ronseal mahogany woodstain. A couple of coats seem to have set quite nicely, though very matt and I will be rubbing down and then slapping some regular Blakes on top. Will do a proper job in the winter.
Currently boatless - but watch this space.
Ex-various Mercurys and Fireball.
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