Typing Slowly and Badly

On Apr 20th, 2009 Published By B.J.

I probably shouldn’t edit this post at all, just to show how ugly it is.

This project is apparently tough on the body; at least the way I’m doing it. As I type this the ring and pinkie fingers on my left hand aren’t working so well and the whole hand lacks strength. The index finger on the right hand is also numb and tingly.

I started last Thursday, when I finally got all the sick kids back to school, the taxes squared away, and a full day to work uninterrupted on the boat. A little after 8:00am I started running out caulk. I pretty much went full out until noon – when I stopped I noticed some funny feelings in the hands but figured an hour for lunch ought to get things circulating again. So I did that, then put a couple more hours in the afternoon before collecting the children.

It was then I noticed that things were just not right with the left hand – I barely noticed any problems with the right. It really struck home when I went upstairs after dinner to change into jacket and tie to take my daughter to the “Father and Daughter Dance” at school. What should have taken five minutes (ten if I dawdled) took half an hour – I couldn’t button my pants, I couldn’t put on my belt. I used to put my tie on driving to work with a stick shift in Manhattan; it took me three tries to get it right in my own bathroom with a mirror and two hands.

So, smart guy that I am I put in another four hours or so on Friday. Bad move, it only got worse.

For Saturday I purchased a brace for the arm, that did help a lot in that I could work all day and it didn’t get any worse. But it didn’t get any better either. Today (Sunday) discretion seemed the better part of valor, and I declared a moratorium on boat work for the day to recover from my self inflicted injuries (I’m not even going to whine about the knees, the back or my already irritated rotator cuff…too much). And there was much rejoicing…I can’t say the kids are enthusiastic about sanding teak yet.

The problem I suspect is the working space. I’m not a huge guy, but I am six feet tall and am overweight. I believe the cause of my left hand problems is the need to scuttle around like a crab under the winter cover with a teak gun in one hand, supporting my body with the other. And holding my weight on the left hand while running a bead with the right since there is no room to actually stand up, or in most cases kneel over the work area. Bad ergonomics. REALLY bad ergonomics.

So I’m hunched over, holding my weight on a none-too-strong arm in awkward positions for hours at a time. Repetitive motion injury, pinched nerve, whatever – the problem now is I really can not stop this project to heal for a couple of weeks. The boat needs to be ready to move at month’s end, and we would like to go sailing again some day.

We’ll see how it works this week. I can fit a rubber glove over the wrist brace and I am doing all I can to avoid putting any more unsupported weight on it.

Could just be that I’m out of shape and getting old, too.

Posted in injury, Teak | Comments Off on Typing Slowly and Badly

Pneumatic Babes & Teak Caulk

On Apr 16th, 2009 Published By B.J.

“Every one says I’m awfully pneumatic,” said Lenina reflectively, patting her own legs.

I have to admit that the first time I ever read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World I was a bit puzzled by the use of the word pneumatic. In his context it is used to refer with praise to a number of things – women, machinery, furniture and the like. As such it stands more for the objectification of women rather than praise for true virtues or strengths of the object of the statement. In my mind I kept envisioning tires…

After my first day of using a pneumatic caulking gun, I can really say that it is quite…pneumatic! Truly the highest praise in this context (though I still wouldn’t try using it on my wife).

A few hours with this thing and I now begrudge every minute I spent wrestling with the Ryobi caulk spewer. While not representing the Epsilon class of the hand pumped gun, compare to the pneumatic gun it is barely a Delta. Every other tube of caulk or so required that I stop and clean out all the caulk that squished out of the back of the tube. This thing was messy – sometimes requiring 2-3 pairs of gloves just to clean it while dripping and spewing caulk and acetone everywhere as I struggled to get the gum out of the mechanical works before it cured in there. Much caulk was wasted in the gun or left in the tube as it became too messy to function.

Today I went through one pair of gloves, and those weren’t really even dirty. Using compressed air to push out the caulk means there is no plunger to blow out the bottom of the caulk tube, and no mess. The button is easier to push, and the gun seems to use up every single drop of caulk in the tube.

I am on my third Ryobi caulker at $39.97 each, having had two lock up with cured caulk in their innards when I first tried this project. By comparison the pneumatic guns are $9.99 each from Harbor Freight; throw in an eight gallon compressor (caught on saile for $89.99), a couple of fittings and a fifty foot hose – all of which are usable for a LOT of other projects – and you’ve spent about the same. But you have a nifty compressor at the end of the day too, which can also run a Dual Action sander, a grinder, an air gun, a spray gun and a host of other tools for this and other projects. And at $9.99 each I can trash a lot of caulk guns compared to the $40 Ryobi…but they don’t seem to “trash” so easily.

I’m sold. Thank Ford for this little gadget!

Posted in Cool Gear, foul black sticky stuff, Teak | 2 Comments

Team Teak!!

On Apr 7th, 2009 Published By B.J.


The Admiral busy squishing the air out of a seam of caulk.

The family that “Teaks” together stays together. I suppose.

When we lost all my help for this project, my wife and I decided that I needed all the help I can get. Maybe it was something about me being unbearably grumpy to be around that inspired her, however whatever the reason I’ll take the help.

So this weekend the whole family was on the boat working the teak, I was sanding and caulking with my wife while the kids took picks and cleaned out some grooves. Everyone was a good sport about it.

Some observations:

  • I can not believe that professionals waste half the caulk that we seem to. Look at that picture above – to squish the air out of the seam and make sure it is full you have to put a lot of caulk in the seam to start, then squish it down and sand it all off after it cures. At around $11.00 per tube, I’d rather not sand half of it off but that seems to be the drill.
  • I do not think it is safe to actually bathe in acetone, but short of full body immersion I have no idea how all this caulk will come off. The two ways I know to get it off are with acetone, or with a belt sander. I’m not sure which grit is best to use on my arms.
  • The creatures that died in La Brea tar pits got off easy. While the caulk is as nasty as tar in some ways, I suspect that if it did not kill those woolly mammoths outright they’d still be trying to get this crap out of their fur.
  • There has to be a better way to cut the tips on the caulk tubes, I think I am not doing something right. Caulk comes out the back of the tubes, I suspect there is too much pressure because my hole is too small, yet a bigger hole puts out too much caulk.
  • If I was using a manual caulk gun as has been suggested my right arm would look like Popeye’s by the end of this project.
  • While working under the shrink wrap is clearly the way to go, there are problems I had not anticipated – mostly to do with lack of head room. I do not contort well to get to tricky spots. This is even more fun when failure to move in a coordinated fashion (a frequent problem of mine) is penalized by a fall into the sticky mess I just caulked.

For now we are using a Ryobi cordless caulking gun. It works well, however there are a few issues. With the battery it gets heavy and awkward. The button is placed where you have to reach up for it, my finger slips off. And most importantly if the caulk blows out the back of the tube the caulk squishes up into the ratcheting mechanism – if the caulk is allowed to cure up there then you might as well throw away a $40.00 caulking gun. Last year I destroyed two this way when I was doing the “Proof of Concept” for this whole project.

In my shed is a compressor and some pneumatic caulk guns waiting to be tested. Based on the high mortality rate of the Ryobi’s I ordered five pnematic guns (hey, they were only $9.99 at Harbor Freight) – looking at them I doubt I will go through that many. There aren’t as many moving parts and the teak isn’t likely to get sucked back into the gun when air is coming out of it at 90 psi. The guns are smaller and lighter, but DO require a hose. That might be awkward – if they work out, they should be easier. However I am having visions of dragging the hose across sticky teak caulk and turning the entire boat into a horrendous mess.

Posted in foul black sticky stuff, hell, Teak | 5 Comments

Best. Teak. Tool. EVER!

On Mar 31st, 2009 Published By B.J.

Drumroll please…the best tool for working on your teak decks is now….

The Amazon Kindle 2!

How does this little wonder help you refinish your teak, one might ask?

Well, technically it doesn’t. What it DOES do is read to you, which goes a LONG way towards alleviating some of the more mind numbing aspects of prepping the teak.

My apologies in advance for this almost completely non-sailing related techno-gush, but after spending six hours today listening to the book I am otherwise reading when my hands and eyes aren’t busy was a much better way to pass the time.

The Kindle 2 is the second generation of Amazon’s e-book reader. In and of itself it is a pretty cool piece of gear – the Kindle allows almost instant access to hundreds of thousands of books – old stuff, best sellers, etc. via free wireless communication. Its as easy to read as a paper book, and is much smaller in size than a C.S. Forrester trade paperback and holds around 1,500 books. I can shop for new books anywhere I can get a Whispernet (which is really Sprint) signal.

But the Kindle 2 has one other important feature – it will read almost anything you have in it out loud. So in addition to being a BOOK, it will read to you like an audio book. I say like an audio book, because it is still a computer synthesized voice so it is like listening to the Voice of NOAA weather reading to you. It does lack the emotive impact of a true audio book being read by a human. But for switching back and forth between reading a book and listening to it while you work it works just fine once you get used to how it pronounces (er, mangles) all the protagonists names.

So instead of listening to commercial radio (where half the music and all of the commercials I don’t like) or talk radio (most of which makes my head want to explode in short order) or non stop CD mixes (which still get repetitive after a few hours) I can now continue “reading” the latest novel I am wrapped up in.

Is it Nirvana (or “Nerdvana” as Scott Adams so acurately put it)? Well almost, except you are still barking your knuckles on things, stabbing yourself in the hands with teak picks and chisels, and crawling around on your hands and knees under the shrink wrap. But at least your mind is engaged in your book.

…….

To tie this all back to boating for a minute – one thing we strongly considered when I browbeat my wife into we decided on His & Hers Kindles for anniversary presents is that when on a boat it will reduce clutter AND ensure we never run out of books so long as you are in range of the wireless Whispernet and/or the internet periodically. Since we can share books between the Kindles we can buy a books once and there is no need for more paperbacks stuffed into various corners in the boat. So there actually IS a boating angle to this, though it somewhat saddens me to think that we might not spend as much time browsing book stores at our destinations.

Posted in Cool Gear | Comments Off on Best. Teak. Tool. EVER!

The Mendacity of Hope

On Mar 31st, 2009 Published By B.J.

I’d HOPED to be writing about something other than teak by now.

That ain’t happening. Because Teak is now my life.

So we’re back from vacation and tomorrow the kids go back to school and I restart the Teak Immersion Process, whereby I bury as many daylight hours as I can working on the teak project from hell. I don’t see another way to get this done in time for the season unless I eat, drink, breath and dream about nothing but teak for the next two months.

It kind of makes me wish I had something else to do…something gripping and fascinating like a head project. Seriously, if you think this blog is getting tedious I’d be happy to lend you a pick and a magnifying glass for a few hours. You will then have a much firmer grasp on tedious and repetitive.

I actually DO have other things to do (if you recall THE NEVER ENDING LIST from a few weeks back) which I sort of need to get done at some point. Unfortunately, Jeff & I started some parts of the deck we thought we’d have time to finish, but now I am short handed. So now I can just dream about installing a salt water wash down pump or finishing my propane system or cleaning all the greasy crap out from under the engine.

I am actually looking forward to some of those things, because they do not involve teak. That’s kind of sick.

I’ve got plans…some darn good ones. I hope I get to write about them some day.

Posted in hell, Teak | 2 Comments

Hasta Luego…

On Mar 18th, 2009 Published By B.J.

Off to Curaçao…back in ten days or so.

Posted in Curaçao | Comments Off on Hasta Luego…

The Best Laid Plans…

On Mar 18th, 2009 Published By B.J.

Must enjoy repetitive drudgery, bent backs, crossed eyes, long hours, lousy pay and awful black crud ingrained in your skin and under your finger nails.

Disaster strikes…Jeff found a job. Dave was always a short term proposition since he had a job lined up after graduation, but Jeff and I had figured he’d be looking for a while for jobs after he finished classes this week.

Turns out that I’m not the only person that recognized his talent, and they want him to start Monday. So good luck Jeff…

And now I have a huge problem on my hands of course.

This is compounded by the vacation my family planned months and months ago. Great vacation – 10 days at an all inclusive resort in Curaçao. It should be a blast, but unfortunately now I will be thinking about the teak in the back of my mind the whole time. Because I know there are not enough available hours in my day between now and the end of May to get this project done.

Annually I have this problem one way or another – my children’s school has vacation schedule for two weeks in March every year instead of the one week vacations like the Public Schools in February and April. So this two week block of time occurs right at the start of boat commissioning season. So every year I’ve got half my mind on the to-do list, and a mad scramble. But we’re ready for vacation by now.

Don’t look for a lot of updates in the next two weeks…nothing will be happening, and don’t like to post if I’ve got nothing to say.

Posted in foul black sticky stuff, Teak | Comments Off on The Best Laid Plans…

Proud? More like "Rode Hard…"

On Mar 13th, 2009 Published By B.J.

and put away wet.

The description “proud of” from my surveryor’s reports always amused me. “The caulk stands proud of the deck…” just sounds so…dignified.

Of course it’s not, it’s a concise way of saying “sticking up”. Generally the sticking up is caused by something else wearing down. In this case, it’s the teak wearing down and the caulk sticking up.

In prior posts I’ve mentioned that the deck seems to have been over cleaned – using firm brushes and acidic teak cleaners – which may explain why it needs to be redone after less than 12 years.

In removing all of the various deck fittings to access the teak caulk for stripping just how much the Teak has been stressed is apparent.

What you see here is the normal deck, and the raised area under one of the dorade vent fittings. Even in this cheesy cell phone picture the amount of wear is obvious. Below you can see just how much teak has been eaten away.

Fortunately the remaining teak is still quite thick – thank you Hallberg-Rassy for your top quality construction. So even when this job is finally done there will be a long life for the deck.

It’s just too bad the abuse inflicted in the first few years can not be undone.

The object lesson here: Be Kind to Your Teak! Just Say No to acidic cleaners and never use a hard brush or brush with the grain. Or don’t even brush at all.

Posted in Teak | 4 Comments

Doing the math…more than a mile?

On Feb 27th, 2009 Published By B.J.


I counted the strips of teak caulking on the boat the boat the other day. In the middle of the boat there were slightly more than 100.

100 X 53′ = 5,300 linear feet of caulking.

Of course, that’s just an average, some of those strips end before the bow.

But that number does make one reflect a moment.

Posted in Teak | 6 Comments

And then there were Three…

On Feb 25th, 2009 Published By B.J.

Somehow, I’ve convinced another of my unwitting classmates to join Jeff and me on the Great Teak Debacle of 2009.

Welcome David to the project everyone. Hopefully he will still speak to me when this is over.

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Posted in Teak | Comments Off on And then there were Three…