Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Teaser update. I got most of the "demo" complete. motor, sterndrive and all transom rigging is removed. Foam and rotten stringers are out. Transom has been templated and new layers of 3/4" AB marine Fir is cut and ready to go. This weekend i'm hoping to glue in the new plywood on Saturday and then tab it in on Sunday. I'll end up with 3 layers of 3/4" plywood on the transom. I found evidence of the original fiberglass layer over the original transom, and I am pretty confident that the factory installation was just 1 layer over the whole thing, with a little extra reinforcement around the sterndrive. This should be much sturdier, and if I ever decide to hang a bracket and outboard on the back it should be a good foundation for that.



Phil

Nice start Cowbro!!! Jeff

Good start Cowbro. May I recommend that you coat each piece of plywood before attaching them together. That fir marine ply will suck up the epoxy and if not precoated give a poor bond between each layer of plywood.

Tom

TomW1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 6:20 pm Good start Cowbro. May I recommend that you coat each piece of plywood before attaching them together. That fir marine ply will suck up the epoxy and if not precoated give a poor bond between each layer of plywood.

Tom

Totally. The fir plywood looks thirsty just sitting there. lol. My plan is to get 1 or 2 coats of neat epoxy on it first thing tomorrow morning, then once that starts to gel up, i'll spread thickened epoxy on it and clamp it together on the transom, then follow that with the same procedure for the next layer. I am horrible at remembering to take pictures, but i have a helper coming over, so i'm hoping i can task him with helping me document the work.

Phil

TomW1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 6:20 pm Good start Cowbro. May I recommend that you coat each piece of plywood before attaching them together. That fir marine ply will suck up the epoxy and if not precoated give a poor bond between each layer of plywood.

Tom

It is actually really required..good advice Tom.

That plywood for the transom is an amazing, precise, fit! Impressive work.

Fuzz wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:16 pm That plywood for the transom is an amazing, precise, fit! Impressive work.

Thanks. It turned out about as good as I had hoped. im hoping that the "Squeeze out" from between the ply will be enough to fill the gaps around the perimeter. I forgot to take a picture of the template before i cut the plywood, so i threw the template back in last night to show what it looked like. All 1/4" underlayment plywood and hot glue.



Something else i wanted to throw out there. I picked a few new tools for the project. 1 of which i haven't seen mentioned here. The Makita 1-3/16" x21" belt sander is amazing. It burns through fiberglass like a grinder, but shoots all the waste out in one direction for easy clean up, it is also perfect for sanding fillets and getting into small corners.

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-9031-8-In ... 0947&psc=1

The other one is the DeWalt 5" Rotary Sander. The dust collection on it is 1000x's better than any grinder and it is nearly as powerful, with variable speed it is much more controllable than a 4.5" angle grinder when doing heavy demo.

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DWE6401DS ... 9649&psc=1

I agree with you on the Dewalt and depending on the grade of sandpaper you use it can vary from a destroyer to a finisher sander. Tom

I have a 3/4" X 18" belt sander and YES, it does the best job of cleaning up fillets. For the hard-to-reach areas, I use a 6" long mandrel with little cone sanding drums. Both tools need a very delicate touch, or you remove to much.

I too have one of those Makita belt sanders and find it just about right for corners and fillets. A few years back I bought myself a Fesstool vac and a couple sanders for X-mas. After I got over the wallet pain I have loved them. But the grinders are much better when you have heavy work to do and don't mind the mess they make.