More window prep

There are probably quite a few ways to figure out where to drill the cabin-side screw holes for the windows, this is how I did it:

The aft-most screw (bottom left in picture above) actually goes into the cockpit storage compartment.  This is how it has to be I think given the window dimensions on the plans (can't move them any farther fwd) .   I noticed some builders shortened the rear windows to avoid this, but I think it is ok like this.

Here I'm using a scrap piece of acrylic to figure out how long my screws should be:

I am using 1/4"-20 pan-head machine screws, with a rubber o-ring under the head, and a flat washer and locknut on the inside.   In the picture above, that is a 1 1/4" long screw, and the end of the screw did not quite reach the outside of the nut.   (Someone - me - must have gone too heavy on the fairing compound.)   So I ended up with 1 1/2" long screws.

Time for flame polishing the edges!

I had asked the folks at the plastic store if the protective paper should be left on during flame polishing, they said yes.    Being quite literal, that's exactly what I did:

Well, it turns out they didn't completely explain the procedure.   When they do it, they do leave the paper on...but they pull it back temporarily from the edge about 6" or so, in order to not scorch the paper (like I did above).   The scorched sections do not peel off - you have to scrape them off, tiny bit by tiny bit.    The plastic store folks recommended a product called De-Solv-it to help remove the scorched adhesive, I am going to try it.    The parts I've scraped off so far look ok, I am not re-doing these windows.    The good news is, the flame-polished edges turned out really nice and smooth.

It didn't occur to me until too late that if you are going to drill holes in a cored boat, then you need to seal those edges.    So my job tonight was scraping edge foam out of 58 tiny holes, taping the back (inside) of the hole, and filling each hole entirely with thickened epoxy:

I tried to set up things up assembly line style, so it would go fast.   Every hole has a loose bit of tape pre-staged, so that after I inject the epoxy and fill the hole (thank goodness for syringes), I can quickly cover the hole so nothing leaks out.    Tomorrow I'll have to go back around and re-mark and re-drill each hole for the windows.   Have to say, this method of mounting windows is very time-consuming (someone call the wambulance... :)).