Tuesday saw a day gaining 'Brownie Points' - taking my wife to the coast for a meal looking across the Channel and watching all the marine activity - including a tall ship with three small triangular sails set, two on the jib mast and one between the second and third main mast. [I have written all of this yesterday in the heat, then accidentally touched a key to the left of the keyboard and it wiped the lot!! Could not find out a way of retrieving it, so here we go again].
When I got home I decided to at least do something, so sat in the shade in the garden and started a slow, but methodical, approach to tidying the 'rubber' fenders spoken of earlier in this thread.
- I used the Perma-Grit block sander, a 'Stanley' style knife with the triangular blade, a pair of sharp pointed needlework scissors and a block of wet & dry paper of P800 grade
- I cut the casting 'plugs' off the end, using the knife. Do not saw through too much, try to put the item on a solid surface, then position the knife and cut in one motion [or two]. This leaves less lines to tidy up.
- Using the scissors I gently cut off the few areas of 'flash' where the 'rubber' solution had oozed out of the mould joint. Not many, but it helped the sanding process to be more uniform. Make sure that you are 'happy' with the scissors' positioning before making the cut - we've all been there before and wished we had listened to our gut feeling!! If required, start one end and then reverse and cut from the other end, this stops the hyperthenar edge of your palm getting in the way of the 'angle of attack'.
- I then took the smoother side of the block along each of the edges and the undercuts, again making sure that the edge being sanded was supported, so a more exact and uniform edge was achieved.
- I then fixed one to the starboard stern edge, using auto sponge double sided adhesive tape, which is quite 'tacky', but not very thin, hence you might be able to see it sitting a little away from the edges. Without, it fitted perfectly.
- I will not 'sand back' anymore until they are all glued on after the spray painting - a long way off - this will be to enable a continuous action to blend and 'marry up' any of the lengths, should it be required [on initial viewing this should not be necessary].
I only did two, but it was another small step forward. Remember that MbD originally did the fenders in two lengths [starboard and port], then went to ten pieces [five for each side], and have now gone back to the two lengths, as Andy has solved the casting and air bubbles problem. You will need to support these lengths, maybe using masking tape on a work bench [or kitchen table- if the 'good lady' is out - do not even contemplate if she is in!!]. John [Mk1] has achieved this, so as a scratch builder might give us some extra tips on the exact same product.
The other two photos are of a piece of the fender I got from Andy, early on, where I am throwing at it all sorts of conditions - stretching, pulling, twisting, salt water, immersion for a period, sanding of different grades and Autoglym rubber conditioner / protector. All seems OK still! One has the Autoglym on the first one not.
I believe that MbD will be at the Haydock Park Show this coming weekend, so you can go and have a look at the finished article and [having asked first] give it a 'prod'.