We are back in the boat house with the Acorn to Arabella crew as Arabella’s launch date is quickly approaching. In today’s video of the week, they mill more cedar for bulkheads and to build boxes that will hold Arabella’s lithium house batteries using Thixo Epoxy Adhesive and TotalProtect Epoxy Primer.
The lithium iron phosphate batteries by SOK Batteries for this DIY wooden sailboat need a safe, strong home in the stern section of the boat alongside the marine refrigerator compressor and Victron DC power inverter, so Adin is hard at work getting those boxes started. Adin needs boards that are 44” long, but the longest boards he currently has prepped are about 38” so he takes the board stretcher out and demonstrates the process to get his boards the correct size. He takes the two boards that he is going to join, creates the half laps, then glues them together with Thixo Fast Epoxy Adhesive. Once the epoxy is cured and the boards are stretched, Adin assembles the battery box with more Thixo. Now that the boxes are built, he applies a coat of TotalProtect Epoxy Primer to each one.
The rest of the episode, you see this amazing community come together. After milling the cedar, Steve realized they had plenty of cedar and white oak, but they were running short on the hardwoods like maple and cherry to finish the cockpit area. A couple of long time viewers heard the call and loaded their truck with wood and set out on a little road trip from Pennsylvania to Granby, Ma.
Steve and crew are always looking for volunteers, and they are hoping to get a large crew together to make their boat launch celebration on June 17 and 18 a huge success. Check out the links in their video description to learn more. And be sure to like and subscribe to their channel, and let the crew know what you think of their inspiring progress so far! Thanks for watching!
Thixo Fast Cure 2:1 Epoxy Adhesive
TotalProtect Epoxy Barrier Coat Primer
