This podcast/mp3 talks about why Australian (and New Zealand) wooden boatbuilding is different from the rest of the world..
Click to listen to the talk. This is the third of three.
This is the second of my talks in the USA. It focuses a bit more on construction and some of the methods that can be used to keep a boat light and simple, but very strong and stiff.
It also discusses how there is a “creep” in boatbuilding and design that increases the weight of boats way over what is really needed for a strong structure.
Gluing Endgrain Gluing timber end grain with epoxySee drawing of endgrain right.. The basic problem is that end grain is highly absorbent so it can steal the resin from the join leaving insufficient for good bonding. The trick … is to feed the end grain some mixed resin before the glue mix is put on read more →
There are huge advantages in keeping the epoxy at a slightly raised temperature. * It flows out better onto the work * It mixes easier * The curing kicks off faster in cold weather (and the box can easily only be turned on when needed. There are huge advantages in keeping the epoxy at a read more →
There was the suggestion that very coarse sandpaper was the best to use on a timber surface to ensure good bonding when gluing or fiberglassing the surface. This is not recommended – the following explains why. There was the suggestion that very coarse sandpaper was the best to use on a timber surface to ensure read more → This is a problem most of use come up against at least once. However it is unlikely to happen a second time. Richard wrote to me asking why his epoxy was still soft 3 days later. He suggested it might be because of one of: 1. The immediate guess is that it’s been too cold read more → There are two tricks to sikaflexing between strips. Use the Sika Primer – it improves the bond strength to the timber for a permanent job. You can get away without it often, but it changes the situation from a fairly strong bond to a hugely strong bond (you’ll know this if you have ever removed read more →
Most people know about using Cordless Drills to drive screws into timber now, but I remember when it was new and exciting! Here’s my spiel from my plans sets Cordless Battery Drill with Clutch. A marriage made in heaven. The drill can be battery (most convenient) or mains powered. It is best if it has read more → There are a number of labour and materials saving techniques that are applicable when using epoxy. Contents of this section Wet-on-Wet Coating and Dewaxing Cured Epoxy. Building strong lightweight boats – a note on the use of epoxy One Hit coating and gluing Wet-on-Wet Coating and Dewaxing Cured Epoxy. As epoxy cures some of the read more →
The two methods here save a lot of mess when building boats with epoxy. They also allow accurate and fast placement of mixed epoxy glue. Most supermarkets have varieties of “snap lock” bags. They have a seal across the opening of the bag that can be pressed together with finger pressure. They make it a read more → Most quality boatbuilding epoxy manufacturers have a structural boatbuilding product. They normally are “high solids” boatbuilding epoxies that have uneven resin to hardener ratios (2:1, 3:1, 4:1 or 5:1) which you have to add powder to make a glue or filleting mix The same companies often produce pregelled products that are mixed in a 1:1 read more →
One of the great leaps forward available to us when using epoxy is being able to eliminate fastenings (screws,nails, bolts etc) from the structure. Many builders now only use fasteners to temporarily hold things together while the glue sets up.The temporary fasteners are removed and can be re-used many times. Eliminating fastenings also speeds up read more →
Hole in Boat and More Fasteners in traditional construction are the ONLY way to go – whether metal or trunnel. But once moving over to glued construction there are certain advantages in eliminating the fasteners as far as possible. We’ve made a bit of a career of it over the last 20 years or so read more → “Soaking” Epoxies – not so good Generally the thinners based products were a precursor to the full high solids epoxy catastrophe (and I mean that in the most positive sense). The most common in Oz is the dear old Epicraft Everdure which we all used to seal the insides and underdecks and often under the read more →
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