Randy C. Posted May 29, 2008 Author Posted May 29, 2008 Is it neccesary to do a fillet on the bottom side of the seat stringer? Charlie, I looked up google, looks like a good time. I assume you'll sail both ways, since it's in your backyard, why wouldn't you? Lucky!! (Maybe not, I guess you did pick where to live). Quote
Randy C. Posted May 30, 2008 Author Posted May 30, 2008 Man, I'm glad you said you were just joking!! As I was reading your reply I was thinking how the heck am I going to get under the seat to fillet and tape. That was a good one. Quote
Charlie Jones Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 Unfortunately no. It would be 200 miles upwind for one thing, for another my wife is already taking several days without pay, plus swapping days with others, to be able to make the sail back UP here. I plan to drive down on Saturday- it's about 4 hours on the road. If it goes as planned, I'll be traveling in convoy with Graham ( I hope anyway) and possibly a few others. We'll run ALL the vehicles back up here Sunday morning, park them, and have chartered a bus to take all sailors back down Sunday afternoon. Gonna be a busy day Sunday with like 8 hours on the road ;D Quote
Randy C. Posted May 30, 2008 Author Posted May 30, 2008 It's a lot of driving, but still sounds like a lot of fun. Will you have to take your boat apart to tow on the highway?? Sounds like it's too wide to legally tow. Quote
Greg Luckett Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 I was wondering how this was going to be accomplished. Quote
Charlie Jones Posted May 30, 2008 Posted May 30, 2008 Oh yes- it's 10 feet 4 inches rigged. Built to be unbolted. Of course from our house to our beach we just tow it all put together- that's only 5 blocks, in a VERY laid back community. ;D Quote
Randy C. Posted May 30, 2008 Author Posted May 30, 2008 Charlie, I would have been surprised if you didn't have a plan. I was just curious. Have you thought of putting a temporary hitch on one of the boat trailers to pull two boats behind one vehicle(if it's legal in Texas) for delivering your boats for the Texas 200. I've seen two trailers behind one truck lots of time. It would save some gas money. I'm fiberglassing the sides to the bottom this afternoon, let it setup until Sunday afternoon, open the butterfly, and hopefully I will have something that resembles a boat. Quote
Randy C. Posted May 31, 2008 Author Posted May 31, 2008 I was done doing the epoxy at 3:00PM today. So, if I do the blocks, I should be able to open it tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. Quote
Randy C. Posted June 2, 2008 Author Posted June 2, 2008 Ray, I unfolded the butterfly today. Even though it had been 48 hours since I did the joint I still put the block of wood just aft of the tape. Everything went as planned. It's pretty amazing how it just unfolds and shazam, there's a boat sitting in your garage. Seeing is believing. In about 3 hours I got stitched back to the temporary bulkhead. Everything looks centered and even so far. I will post some pictures from work tomorrow. Quote
Ken_Potts Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008  Congrats Randy! It's a great feeling to see the boat unfolded. I'm one of the people who unfolded the boat and was rewarded with a heartbreaking CRACK! I didn't use blocks to protect the tape at first but they certainly came in handy when I repaired the tape... Quote
Randy C. Posted June 2, 2008 Author Posted June 2, 2008 This morning the seat stringers are loose from the starboard side between the temporary and the forward bulkhead. I don't know what went wrong. I used screws to attach until the epoxy dried. I'm wondering if I screwed the stringer down too much squeezing out the epoxy. I'm starting to wonder how much more is going to pop loose, if any. Can I just put epoxy under the stringer and reattach, or do I have to prepare(sand) the wood somehow? Should I put a fillet under the stringer to help strenghten? Quote
Greg Luckett Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Did you use a thickener in the epoxy? Epoxy by itself does not glue as well as with the thickeners. Wish I could recal off the top of my head the one I use the most from West Sys. It is fluffy and white and very light in weight. I ad wood flour for color too. Quote
Designer Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Greg is right. Your seat stringers were either resin starved or not cured properly. Quote
Ken_Potts Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Â The white fluffy stuff is colloidal silica. Quote
Randy C. Posted June 2, 2008 Author Posted June 2, 2008 They cured for probably a week, so I must have squeezed too much epoxy from the joint. I did use the filler that Carla sent, maybe not enough. At this point should I do anything?? Quote
Greg Luckett Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Randy C., can you post a pic or two? You could be right about squeezing it down to much. What species of lumber are your stringers made from? Sometimes that has an effect. Another thought. Did you wet the areas to be epoxied with epoxy sans the filler first? This keeps the wood from sucking away too much of the epoxy from the epoxy filleting mixture. Quote
Designer Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Yes that was colloidal silica. I doubt that you could have squeezed the joint too tightly using drywall screws because the ply is not stiff enough to keep that kind of pressure between the screws. Does the glue feel hard or is it still flexible. There was plenty of time for a cure but you could have been off ratio or you were resin starved. There is no way that the seat stringer would debond while building, you would see wood fibers from the ply still attached to the stringers if it was properly glued. The ideal way out of this would try and pry off the rest of the stringer and re-glue. If the epoxy set properly you might damage or break the stringer or the hull. I would gingerly try prying off the stringer. The next step depends on whether the glue was a good mix or not. If it is still flexible then you need to remove the bad glue so that you can get a good bond. If the glue is nice and hard you might be able get away with wedging the debonded area apart and getting plenty of thickened glue in there. It is not as good as if it was a primary bond but you can compensate by filleting the bottom side of the stringer and putting a larger fillet on the cockpit seats when it is installed. If the epoxy is nice and hard then I suspect that you were too frugal with the glue, you must see some squeeze out on every joint. Quote
Greg Luckett Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Amen to that one Ray!!! I buy squeegees by the ten pack now from Duckwork, and reuse them as long as I can. Incidently, those acid brushes, the kind with the metal handles, I mentioned them before, I found from Rocklers on sale and bought a package of 50 for about a dime each. I also save the popcycle sticks as that small radius is really good at times, and also the chop sticks from the local Chinese place are good for leaving a very small, even radius on a fillet like on the top of a seat stringer to side. Quote
Randy C. Posted June 2, 2008 Author Posted June 2, 2008 I will post some pictures tonight. When I glued up the stringers I glued both the stringer and the hull to make sure I had enough glue. It did squeeze out, so I should have had enough glue. I will have to check when I get home to see how hard the glue is. It seemed pretty hard this morning, but I will check again. When I mixed the epoxy I used a measuring cup, so I think that part should be O.K. I'm thinking I didn't use enough filler. Quote
Greg Luckett Posted June 2, 2008 Posted June 2, 2008 Do you mean the amount of thickner you added to the epoxy or the amount of the epoxy thickner mixture which you applied to the work? Quote
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