Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

[jonesg]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

It does go off a lot quicker with cabosil, in the past I've slowed it down, gone to 24 hr resin and added a bit of alcohol but you still better have your ducks in a row before catalysing.

I actually had a pail of poly resin almost catch fire with cabosil,
the faster its removed from the mixing pail the more time you get to work it. Let the heat escape or it will start tripping off regardless how long its "supposed" to take.

I'm sure seacast is great, but for the price I like my resin and kevlar pulp.

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

YEAH!!! My transom wood is attached to the outer skin of the boat!!!! I am soooo happy!!! I am actually making progress. Maybe tonight I can get out there and get some peanut butter down around the bottom and sides and seal that up and then actually glass it to the bottom and sides!! I will get some pics up tonight.

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Okay everyone, now I really need some help with a few things.
1) When I was putting filets in around the transom the other night, I mixed my peanut butter to a very thick consistency. When I pulled the mixing stick out of the mixture, the ridge it left stayed standing straight up. When I went to put the filet in, and pulled it it formed PERFECT! However, when I left the boat, and came back about ten minutes later, the filet had gotten runny, and started to sag. What happened? I was given a tip when forming filets, to use a large spoon dipped in turpentine. So that is what I did. Could this have been my issue?
2) I am going to be making my stringers this weekend, and hopefully, everything will go good, my question on those is when making them, I have read on here to make sure there is a way for natural drainage back to the bilge. Does this basically mean drill holes through the stringers? Or is there a specific method for accomplishing this drainage?
3) I accidentally ground quite a way through the hull of the boat in my bilge, and then went back and laid two layers of 1708 over it, now when I step on it, it does flex. Not much more than anywhere else in the hull, but it does flex nonetheless. Should I lay this up until there is no flex? This being where the motor is and where the boat runs most of the time? Thanks again!

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

OHHH yeah, one more question. I may get yelled at here, but when I laid my 1708 on the transom and the bilge, I used a stiff squeegee and wetted the glass out till trans. I then was reading on here the other night, and saw that there was a fiberglass roller that was made out of metal washers. What is this? I had a very hard time wetting out all of the glass with my little piece of plastic, does this metal roller do things different? Is there a link to a good thread on rolling fiberglass?

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Personally I wet the glass out with a foam roller. Other people use brushes, squeegees, etc.

The metal rollers are really mostly for pressing the glass into narrow spaces or curves, flattening it, and also for getting out bubbles. They don't spread the resin very well.

But, they're great for rolling the stuff down into tight spaces.

Erik

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

I am making more progress, but am having a VERY difficult time getting the glass (1708) wet out completely. Please see pics. What can be going on here. I have tried the squeegee, I have tried a roller, not foam, though, it is just like a tightly wound regular paint roller. I can get it to a certain point, and it will just not take any more. I did notice yesterday though that the glass was a little moist. We had a bad pop up storm come through unexpectantly and I had left it in the boat. I have a cover on it, but it still got wet. Anyways any ideas on what happened here, and how I can go about fixing it? Do I need to grind all this new glass out? What needs to happen? Also, as you can see, my plywood has warped, this is going to be one of the pieces for the stringers. What am I going to do? I had it sitting with 400 lbs on granite on top of it while it dried. Then when I removed it to begin cutting it, it warped almost instantly. What can I do?????

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Okay, I am going to beg!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!! I dont know if the guys here are just out on the water or what, but PLEASE!!! I have pretty much figured out the rest of the stuff that I have asked, but I need help on what to do about this plywood. Everything that I read, says to introduce moisture in the concave side and lay it convex side up on a flat driveway until it flattens out!!! But my thought on this would be that it would then just warp the other side unless, I quickly put epoxy on it to keep its shape. But if I put epoxy on it, it will lock in the moisture. NOT what I wanted!!! What have other people done on here before. Please HELP!!!

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Tell me what you guys think about this. I am buying my fiberglass from Raka Marine in Florida, VERY good prices, and he sold me the 1708 for the transom, and it worked out okay. Please see pics above. But now, I am moving on to my stringers, and he informed me that standard 18 oz cloth +/-45 will do fine. What do you think? One layer to completely cover them, then tab them in and be done with it? He seems to know his stuff, but I am worried about not having the layer of matt there. Should I be?
Also, in my recent responses, I indicated that I had a serious problem with the plywood warping. Well, my solution to this was to sister two pieces side by side, with a joint in the middle. The reason why I had to do this this way was because I did not have room to sister a piece of plywood on both sides of a single joint because of gas tank issues. Also, because what I did was put two full length 3/4" planks together with the bow facing each other, and glued/screwed them together with Cabosil. I will remove the screw obviously before going into the boat, but magically, the whole stringer came out perfectly straight! Yeah baby! I am just worried about the joint. I have two foot of joint, so I figured that should be adaquate. What are some opinions here? Thanks!
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[erikgreen]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Good call on the ply, that's what I did. Pretty standard since plywood loves to warp unless it's the multilayer marine stuff.

On the stringers since you're using epoxy you don't need mat... mat helps poly resin adhere in that application, and it's not needed for epoxy. I'd consider using two layers myself, however.

It looks generally like you're doing fine. I think the problem on the fillets was that once peanut butter is mixed extra epoxy can still flow out of it and it can still sag. The only cure I've found is to make it even stiffer, which makes it harder to work with. It'll also sag less if it's closer to hardening, but again that makes it problematic to shape.

I tend to put it in place once, then check it a little while later to make sure it's not sagging. If it is I shape it again, and usually the second (or third) time through it holds... and it reminds me to mix it thicker next time.

Erik

 

[oops!]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

hey bud....sorry i was away from my puter during most of july....
glad you got the plywood straightend....

erik above is correct....(as uasual ) including everything is looking fine...

in responce to your glassing question....(i just re-read all of this thread)

are you sure your whetting out the glass enough?....i know epoxy is expencive...so the tendancy is to use it sparringly..... but 1708 drinks....lots!

mabe try a test patch on some scrap plywood.......use what you think is correct on one peice....and toatally soak the other......

remember the rule..... totally saturate the glass no more no less.....any left over resin will collect on the roller........(i ....on a big patch....after total wet out....press really hard on the roller...this squeezes out any excess resin....
some people use a squeegee)


ok.....more....as erik said.....the cloth will work by it self with epoxy.....

as i dont know what kind of cloth you are using......here is a tip if it woven anything like 1708!
read lunds thread in the compleated resto forum......we went over it there....

when you laid out the 1708.....remember the ridges in the cloth after it hardened? .....when doing stringers....dont cut the material so the ridges are up and down !!!!! cut the cloth so the ridges will go legnth wise....it will save you a big headach !

also on my hull ext thread.....we had quite a delemma with wraping the stringers.....wise one suggested a method for wrapping stringers with epoxy.........

the next time i do stringers.....(single peice of ply thick) ill use the dowelling method suggested in the hull thread....that will make for an airless wrap....

thats it for now....post pics and good luck bud

cheers
oops

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Well tonight, got out there and final fit the port stringer. YEAH BABY! It is almost ready to go in. However I have one question. This thing is VERY heavy, and I am afraid that I am going to have so much weight when I go to bed it in peanut butter that it will actually force its way through, and make contact with the hull. How would I prevent this?
Oops, when I went to tab in the transom, I did first try to lay the glass down so it would run horzontal and that was when I had a hell of a time wetting it out. I would try for sooooo long to wet it out that the resin would begin to gel and make a complete mess of the glass. I would then have to yank that whole piece of glass out and start over. I had a WHOLE LOT of wasted glass and resin. So I desided to do alot of little pieces. Hopefully, now, with just using the cloth, it will go ALOT better. Any ways, I should be able to galss in the port stringer this weekend and get the starboard stringer made!!!! Any help of the above mentioned dilema would help!
Thanks!

 

[oops!]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

small shims....some people actually use foam peices.....(i hate foam)

that stringer wrap thing might be a real pita....try wize ones method on the hull ext thread.....(approx page 18...post around 400 ish)

you might want to test a peice on an unused edge......round the corners on the stringer

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

I skimmed some of the recent posts and didnt see if you got an answer to the question about the glass turning white. It's from water in the glass, it needs to be as kept as dry as possible, a small amount of water will make it turn white, much more and it will stop the resin from curing, either way it will weaken that area.

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

DANG!!!! So what do you think? Should I grind out the old stuff and throw in some new back on the transom?

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Well I am now bedding my port stringer in Cabosil. I do have one question for ya though, when pulling the other out, almost the entire length of the stringer had about an inch to an inch and a half of bedding under it, is this right? I had the old one to use as a template, so that is what I made my new one from and once again, both at the bow and stern end of the stringer there is about 1/8" and in the middle, there is almost an 1 3/4" of peanut butter. Beside using a TON of silica, I really dont mind this. I am only concerned about it possibly breaking while underway. The stuff that was used as bedding before was VERY hard, so I guess I am not too worried, buut, nonethess I am worried. Should I be?
Thanks!

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

It's not a problem, just costs you more in filler, after it's glassed nobody will know but you.

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

Great thanks Ondavr! What do you think about the transom? Should I grind that old stuff that didnt get wet out completely or do you think it would be fine? Feels pretty good! But I just want the experts opinion! Thanks!

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

It wouldn't hurt to grind out the white areas and redo it, grind into the whitest one and see how soft (if it is) the resin is.

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

I will do that buddy and report back! Thanks!

 

[pigrge]

Re: Sea Ray Transom, Stringers and Storage

So I am progressing slowly, and I am actually, right now, out of fiberglass, I think I have been going a little overboard, but you know, I do not want to do this again! I have been epoxy coating my two stringers with two coats each of epoxy for water proofing. Man those things SUCK the epoxy into the wood. Which IMO that is a good thing! Then I took the port string and rounded off the strings at the top and bottom, and wrapped it in 17oz. cloth over the top, NO BUBBLES, and then down the sides. I have that one in the boat, and glassed in on the bilge side. That turned out GREAT. Two layers on tabs (17 oz.) each layed about an inch over the other and MAN is it solid already, and I havent even glassed the other side yet!!! One REAL quick question, I am going to be putting foam back in there and I do not want water getting to those stringers, so I have read about drilling holes in the wood?!?! I dont like this idea, but is there anyone that can go in depth about how to make natural drainage back to the bilge from the outboard side of the stringers? Anyways, glass should be in today, I ordered more 17 oz. and some 9 oz. on the starboard side, I am just going to use 9 oz on the top and sides of the stringers, for water proofing and then use the 17 oz. to tab to the hull. So far so good.
Also, one more question, when Sea Ray made the boat, I KNOW they used the foam as a structural support for the floor, but they also had an itty bitty stringer on about two inches from the outside hull on the sides of the boat. It was not glassed, only stapled to the deck and set in place. Not even peanut buttered to the hull. What do you guys think? Should I make this one? How should I go about it, it would be a PAIN to get glass into a two inch space but I respect your opinions and want to get this right! Anyways, I know I have been posting alot without pix, so here are some. Thanks!