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Here are a few pics of the “Book end” and beam you make in this chapter.  I also made a few test coupons to weigh to ascertain the lay-up weight was  in the ballpark.  I went ahead and glassed a picture of Marc Beduhn’s cozy  on the book end, looks pretty cool! This practice piece teaches how to do  Flox corners, fillets and other tricks of the trade.  The confidence beam did just  that!  It made a believer out of me! I still am amazed at the strength of this simple  little beam. I had my brother in law stand on both ends of it while it pivoted on a  broom stick.  At the time he was probably over #300! It didn’t bend, creak squeak or fracture. You can just see it in the first pic under the coupons I made.

 
              

    Next thing to do is make a good table to work on.  I went all out on this. I used engineered lumber “TJ’s” for the longitudinal members.  Height adjusters on the feet for leveling. 6 duplex sockets,  3 per side. (this was not enough, 4 would be better per side). It has a ¾” plywood top with ½”MDF on  top of that as a removable surface should it ever get too bad.  Shims were placed between the plywood and the MDF  where necessary to level the top and make it as flat as possible. This was  probably over kill as you need to check and shim things as you go but it has been handy as more often than not I don’t have to shim or adjust things much  at all. Another feature is the ability to remove the top for chapter 6 where you assemble the tub. You would not want to do this on the table at normal height and the plans method, I think, is lacking. See Wayne Hicks page or chapter 6 in these pages for a better method.
  

                                       
          

    The Epoxy station, I don’t have to open the door for a squirt.  Glass cabinet is just above it, both stay nice  warm with a line voltage thermostat and light bulb, I keep it at ~100 f

 

            

 

 

 

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