Preventing "stiff Joints"

[drewmitch44]

So what is everyone putting between wood stringers and the fiberglass hull to prevent these "stiff Joints"? Im getting close to getting to the stringers and im wondering what i can do to prevent these stiff joints. I dont have a verry large budjet and im wondering what the most cost effective way of doing this is. Also i have a lot of dust that is just really really fine fiberglass dust. Someone asked me if they could have some of it for their restore project. Could this dust be used with resin and hardner to make like a paiste? I am just wondering what someone would do with that glass dust? Its pretty clean i seperated out anything that was not glass or resin dust. I got about a 70 lb bag of it and still got more grinding to go!!

 

[Robj]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

Peanut butter, there are lots of posts on the topic. As far as your other question, I do not know. In mine I used Cabosil which is relatively cheap and chopped strand. The Cabosil only cost $20 to do my whole boat.

Have a great day,

Rob.

 

[drewmitch44]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

What do you mean by peanut butter?? Im the kind where if i dont understand ill be out there with some Jiffy and a butterknife and using peanut butter under the stringers! LOL and also what did you use the cabosil for? I see it listed on ebay as a epoxy thickener but what do you need the epoxy resin to be thicker for? The resin im using is pretty thick for any application that i will be using it for. As a matter of fact i wouldnt mind if it were thinner as it would be easier to wet mat and roving out if it were thinner. Is there a way of thinning out resin? Someone told me to use mineral spirits. I looked at that stuff in the can and it dosent look like that is what it is for. Thanks for your help as im learning what everything is for!!

 

[andy6374]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

What you are trying to avoid is hard spot.


Get some thin plastic spacers and place in the hull. Not set the wood stringer atop the plastic spacers. Now mix up a little resin and cabosil (just a little) to a peanut butter consistency. Now use the thickened resin mixture here and there (not everywhere) and let it kick. The spacers will keep the stringer off the hull and once the resin kicks pull out the spacers and the stringer will be "floating" above the hull. Now run a thick fillet between the stringer and the hull. Then tab the stringer to the hull with fiberglass, which helps ease the hard spot too.

If you just place the stringer into a bed of thickened resin you don't know if the stringer is actually hitting the hull in certain places.

 

[oops!]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

hey drew! glad to see the worst is allmost behind you....

i got three boxes of dust....i dont know any way to get rid of the stuff responcibly besids land fill...if they allow it !!!!

wuz gonna burn it....nope.....that stuff is so tough we should be able to press it and make a table or sumthin

AND WHADDA MEAN NO JIFFY OR SQURREL PEANUT BUTTER.......

now i gotta start grinding again...been waiting a week for it to harden....and it smells better than resin

 

[salty87]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

i'm at the same point as you it sounds, about to shape new stringers.

im in the same camp as a few others who have said it's not that big of a deal. from looking at what was in mine, there was peanut butter at the very ends and about every 4 feet between them. it doesn't look like they worried much about the rest. mine is from 1987 and has taken some pretty decent abuse wakeboarding, no issues found when tearing it down. solid stringers and deck properly sealed in the belly of a hull and nothing is going anywhere.

i'm alot more concerned about getting the new stringers at the appropriate height and level.

 

[Smokin'Mo]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

Salty,
I used a template to hold mine in place at several places on the hull. I'm sure you measured the stringers before you pulled them out. I measured at 1ft. intervals along the entire length of mine and built frames that were the correct width to hold the stringers apart. These frames are covered with the appropriate sized 1/8" ply. Temporarily screw frames to insides of stringers resting frames on the hull. remember to lift stringer off of hull before screwing to frame. once you have a number of these at several points along the hull, your stringers can be tabbed to the hull and the frames can then be removed. you will end up with perfectly vertical and level stringers provided your frames were square. I haven't glassed mine in yet but I have the stringers positioned in the boat with 5 frames holding the stringers apart and off the hull.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

i'm alot more concerned about getting the new stringers at the appropriate height and level.

Ayuh,.....

Pulling String Lines will tell you Where to put the bracing that Smokin'Mo speaks of......

 

[salty87]

Re: Preventing "stiff Joints"

jackpot...i hadn't heard of using frames like that. thats awesome.

i'm going to start another thread about motor mounts if you guys wouldn't mind taking a look at that too... http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=1576107#post1576107

thanks