Weekend Work

July 4, 2005 D. H. McKee

Off

We did some work on the boats on Sunday. This was an interesting job for me, since I know nothing about boats. But we persevered, and actually did what appears to be a decent job. All that’s needed now is to do some sanding and replacing of broken parts. I’ve got to go into London to see if Novacraft has vinyl gunwales for the canoe. We decided on the plastic ones because wood gunwales look a little out of place on a 25 year-old ABS plastic canoe. Give me a good canoe, and I’ll put in the extra care that wood gunwales require.
I started by making use of Adventure Guide’s instructions on how to get a big dent out of an ABS canoe. We tilted the canoe up against the deck and poured boiling water in the bow and let it sit for about 5 min, then emptied it out and repeated the process. Then I took a heavy rounded object (in this case, a 10lb York barbell weight) and pressed it into the dent from the inside of the bow. After a couple of tries I was able to reduce the dent considerably. If I’d have given it a couple of days worth of trying, I might have eliminated the dent completely, but I kind of like the character a dent provides in a canoe. Also, I’m a very lazy man.
R worked on patching the holes in her Laser. Apparently, I get to paint it after I sand it down.

I installed some kevlar skid plates on the canoe. Apparently this canoe was frequently used for whitewater canoeing (shudder), and it had the battle scars to prove it. Many holes needed to be filled with epoxy resin and then covered with the skid plates. We bought an actual “whitewater” skid plate kit and the pieces fit exactly over the pattern of scratches and holes.

I was even able to cover the dent on the outside, which probably helped reinforce it.

One of the tricks I picked up on the InterWeb was to put Saran Wrap over the kevlar sheets after they’d been placed. This allows you to work on them with your bare hands, so you can smooth out any air bubbles underneath. It also helps reinforce the plates, since (apparently) the resin comes to the surface when you do this. It also gives the resin a nice smooth finish, so you don’t have to do so much sanding later.

Oh, yeah, and there was beers. That helped out a lot.

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About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.