Plastic Classic Forum

Zach

I'm building a curved hand rail for the stair case on noel... and would like to make a curved board for it to attach along the wall. I can rip 1/8th inch stock off to about 3 inches tall off as long a board as I've got room to manage, using a piece of angle iron as the rip fence clamped down... and ...

Zach

Sounds like the biggest downside is a need to eat greek for lunch after using it... Grin!

I too would like to hear more about this. The hazards of epoxy still scare me a bit when it comes to the bisphenol-a, and amine sensitivity.

Zach

Oh... as far as local pricing goes on teak... around 19 bucks for the skinny stuff.
But, its been picked through hard... nothing new since the fall.

Zach

See if you can get your hands on some afromosia. If you are finishing it, it looks exactly the same. Old Hatteras exterior cover boards are Afrimosia... doesn't hold up great unfinished... but it does hold up, and look like teak. Hatteras interior veneers still are, trim is real teak. It can be a li...

Zach

I should add... Big boats don't have anything on deck that is flat enough on the underside to get a good seal with just sealant. It's all welded on plate... so you have to make the deck fit the part, thats all bent/warped from welding. (Flat to the eye when mounted on deck, but would rock if you set...

Zach

Rachel, If you have a cleat with a flat base you tape mylar packing tape to the bottom. Wax the bolts. Scoop out some epoxy thickened with cotton fiber and some cabosil. Plop it down where your hardware will go. Set your cleat or whatever on the pile of goop, sliding the bolts in through the holes. ...

Zach

Hi guys, Needing to run some 6 inch tall boards through the band saw, ripping off 6 inch wide pieces an 1/8th of an inch thick. I've learned that it takes a lot of tension, and that the blade does not cut a straight line if you go square to the table. (Take a piece of scrap with a straight line draw...

Zach

Rachel, I've talked with some epoxy reps that say a layup of biax without a mat back holds up just fine with epoxy, the mat is there to reduce the distance between the layers. I gather that with polyester or vinylester it might matter more that there are layers of mat in the layup, but some of the m...

Zach

Cool bracing going on in this thread.

I'll have to snag some of these ideas when it warms up!

Zach

Update on my router table.

A 3 pound maul banging on a 4x4 with it upside down did not unseat it. 2 pops with a dead blow it fell out, with some minor cracking around the corners.
I'm tickled. grin.

Yeah, jigs make life so much easier if you are doing a lot of something!

Zach

This job is made much easier by a Fein Multimaster or knock off... use the scraper blade held on an angle around the outer surface and it chews out the balsa quickly. It also takes off the loose bits that don't pull up off the core. My Triton was cored with balsa planks. When you find the planks tha...

Zach

I cut 8 layers of biax with them and didn't have to put any pressure on them. The blades are darn near 3/8ths of an inch thick. 12 1/4 inches in overall length, they weigh about a pound of rediculously sharp steel... with a hand hold big enough for my mits. Cutting length is greater than 6 inches pe...

Zach

Buy these today.

http://bodico.com/detail.aspx?ID=821

Thank me later.

Zach

Zach

How many yards do you need? Buy a pair of Wiss #22's that are 12 1/4 inches long. They are 30 dollars here: http://bodico.com/detail.aspx?ID=821 I bought mine for 39 bucks before tax through Paxton. I was thinking about trying to put together a group buy, but... wow. It takes absolutely no time to c...

Zach

I second Tim on widths and exterior layup. I think 2 layers of 1708 is a gracious plenty. I glassed 160 feet of rub rail on Noel over the fall, this is my system: I would buy a really nice pair of Wiss fiberglass scissors and cut 48 inch strips... Just don't cut them sideways across the cloth as it ...

Zach

I have one of these: http://www.m-powertools.com/products/perfect-butt/perfect-butt.htm It comes in handy... A little more precise than a plywood disc, which I have done. The only thing that sucks about doing this, is you have to warp a batten down and screw it in place on your template, then revers...

Zach

Tim, anything you'd like to add one getting a fair surface from the layup technique? I'm curious how you do yours. That being said, don't take me that I'm condoning or endorsing mixing by eye out of a waxed paper cup, which I've seen done with no illeffects by more than a few highly paid professiona...

Zach

If you do starboard, make sure you add a frame to one side to keep it from distorting. Great idea, but a lot of the ones I see warp over time at the top and bottom corners and are no longer flat. Make a template and use a router to machine it. Three cutting surfaces on the bit leave a cleaner finish...

Zach

Yeah, packing tape is awesome, particularly if you put a coat of wax on top of it... I use it alot for making fiberglass risers for bedding in hardware. Still have to hammer the cleat or whatever loose, but easier than gluing it down forever and always. I made a router table earlier this week, and d...

Zach

Oh... on mixing stuff by eye... Go get a scoop of the proper size for your bucket or bag of ballons and cabosil. Mix the resin by volume in a big pot, add scoops of balloons until it turns into whipped cream. Add cabosil till its starts to stand up. After awhile its not by eye, but by feel... West s...

Zach

Yeah using proprietary fillers can be nice, but it sure is expensive. You get easy to sand stuff that has some structural integrity... But really if you have to do much grinding, its because what was under the glass was lumpy, or you are using to much resin and it is floating the cloth. Take a strai...

Zach

Thanks Tim! Shoot, thanks for the education and quick tips along the way that make it easier for things for some of us neanderthals to pick up the tools and save some of these boats! (I do however blame your Seabreeze... for the inclination to cut out Pylasteki's triton from one side to the other an...

Zach

Yup... Right after the glass is on, the compound comes out. If its getting painted white, I add white pigment to the balloons to cover any darker patches of glass... then Precote comes in an eyeball melting white... Makes for quick progress. Dave, as a rule I don't thin epoxy unless I'm rolling some...

Zach

Thanks for the ideas guys. I snagged a few pieces today and planed them to see whats what. Grabbed a few boards of honduras mahogany, afrimosa, kahaya, sapele, and cherry today. Sapele turned out to be the nicest grained of them... smells more like mahogany than the honduras for some reason. I'll ke...

Zach

Apologies, that last post sounded like a snot nosed punk.

I just spend every day working along side work boats with metal rudders. They are starting to make sense, run across a reef and maybe bend on rather than turn a wooden one into tooth picks.

Zach

Zach

I buy glass microballons 10 pounds at a time. Around 70 bucks wholesale through Paxton here in NC... A "50lb" bag of aerosil is around 52... Mix it 2-3:1 balloons to cabosil depending on the application. 2:1 for doing fillets, 3:1 for fairing. Spreads like heavy whipped cream at 3:1, and s...

Zach

Mike, I've never had a need to have anything passified, but if it's going to see salt water it is a good idea. I started out polishing tool and die equipment, which just gets oiled down... Grin. Only real tip hidden in there for anyone that has done any polishing, is using an angle grinder! Cheers, ...

Zach

Anything of the right dimensions with a piece of mylar packing tape will let you get by. Put a slight draft angle on the piece so it will pop out, and make it taller than it needs to be so the epoxy can't lock it down. (I just goofed on a router table plate... Used cotton fiber as a thickener instea...

Zach

Absolutely... its a dumb idea on a Triton in its original design form. In my winter time "Can't do much work outside" way... I'm contemplating having a stainless steel rudder built with a solid shaft down to a bearing cup, if I go that route, it'd take a real deep hole to get it out. A new...

Zach

Talk to me about shaft couplings to take two piece of prop or rudder shafts and put them together. I was reading in Self Sufficient sailor about using a shaft coupling on a rudder shaft to avoid having to dig a hole to get the rudder out of a boat. Seems like a novel idea for a Triton, even though i...

Zach

Yeah Britton...

(Hopping on the band wagon.)

Zach

Zach

As far as losing small parts goes... Go get a gallon of carburetor cleaner and drop the bits in the mesh bucket that comes inside. The solvent is lighter than most grease and oils, so the goo settles out to the bottom so you can still see the stuff, unlike diesel that turns into a black hole full of...

Zach

Wrote this for another venue, thought somebody here might find it useful... So one of the things I have to do quite often, is polish stainless steel. 316 will still tarnish if it was ground on by a disc that touched mild steel in its life... The mill scale and carbon present on the surface allows fo...

Zach

Hi guys... Putting out a feeler for lumber yards that deal with mahogany. I'm at the cross roads with Noel that I'm needing to pick up 3-400 board feet of the stuff to do all the interior trim... Looking for yards on the east coast that will work with you on pricing. Best I have found so far is 4.10...

Zach

Beautiful work!

Zach

I cut my own tabbing. Sharp set of scissors, mine are ghinger pinking shears... made it through 4 rolls of glass and still sharp. Fold the glass over a few times and cut it all at once. Most of my fiberglass cloth and paint comes from Barbours Marine Supply in Beaufort. 410 Hedrick Street Beaufort, ...

Zach

I've found that grinding at at a higher speed with a grit greater than 36 helps. Almost itch free when I use an 80 grit flap disc on my 4.5 inch angle grinder. It shoots off talcum powder, not big strands that lay around. Though I have found that if I mix a lot of cabosil it makes my arms itch somet...

Zach

I'd remove it... Cuts down on the weight on board, and when you've got a winch that leaks you know about it before it starts dripping on your bunk and creating a mold farm behind the liner. Fine print: Sanding overhead sucks. Get a few of these for the curves: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?...

Zach

Haven't ever been snow skiing (Allergic to the white stuff...) But I make a similar comparison to motorcycles and sailing. But I get the feeling pretty much anything that gives an adrenaline rush on the edge of control right before a crash gybe... works out well for the genetic combination that driv...

Zach

May the UPS truck bring boat parts and other goodies... warm toasty weather to all, and to all a good night.

Grin.

Zach

Zach

Idea: Big honking eye bolt through the stem close to the waterline. Run a nylon pendant from it to the anchor chain, leaving slack in the chain over the anchor platform. Now the load won't be anywhere near the platform, and the effective scope of the anchor rode is increased by a few feet, on accoun...

Zach

Time saving advice... Use a metal cutoff wheel to cut the fiberglass around the chainplate. If it sparks, you are hitting metal... move along. Grind down the tabbing with a flap disc. Lowes carries them, they go on a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder... They are intended for polishing stainless steel. Cheers...

Zach

Makita 9227CY - http://www.amazon.com/Makita-9227CY-Variable-Electronic-Polisher/dp/B0001GUE9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1256391457&sr=1-1 A soft pad for sticky paper... Norton Blue Mag sandpaper. Or reasonably sticky equivalent. The Makita is a variable speed... constant speed... sand...

Zach

I've been enjoying working with Awl Fair, awlgrips fairing compound... Mix it up and it doens't take on air, so you don't have pin holes in the filler. A drywall knife with a hard handle spreads it out thin enough that a little goes a real long way. Long, long pot life. The coolest one I've learned ...

Zach

That McMaster-Carr sandpaper is some lovely stuff. Progress report: More sanding done on hull. Port side nearly 23% completion. (% made up, but added for dramatic effect.) Noel report... Well check here: http://83footernoel.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-...

Zach

I know I know... It was one of those "forgive me for I have sinned" moments that what works on a 15 foot radius doesn't work on a 2 foot radius... folks that do small boats for a living are working harder for their dollars! I've got about 2 feet of gelcoat off the port side now, by golly t...

Zach

Hi guys... Noel is tempting me with a blank slate for a transom... (step off the staging and walk through...) I've been scouting around and found a few nice boards of mahogany long enough to do the job, but they are cathedral grained. No sense using them for much structure... so I'm pondering rippin...

Zach

I'd take out the bearings and measure the shaft OD and housing ID, shoulder depth and housing depth... and take that info to a bearing distributor if the cost has you slowing down. Then I'd see how hard it is to grab hold of the commutator and spin it on a drill motor, taking an emory stone or sand ...

Zach

You'll want to use a depth gauge, like the back half of a vernier caliper... or the sliding stick on a folding rule to measure the depth around the edge. Install one side, and double check that you don't need to take off more on one side or the other. Mark the part indelibly, perhaps a number punch ...

Zach

Agreed, but if you look close... the stands can't go high enough to catch the counter! Margaret is a beauty inside and out... envy! Anyhow, been doing some more sanding of gelcoat on Pylasteki. Tried doing my norm of running an angle grinder with a flap disc over the surface... but the hull has to m...

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