stapling on weekender sides

[Al Stead]

Hello everyone,

I've been fiddling around with all the little projects I can waiting for warmer weather to start gluing up my hull.  I am about to fit and glue up the sides on my weekender and I have a construction question for you.  I have a pnuematic stapler that I use on quite a few things that I build.  If I use galvanized staples, would it work to staple and epoxy the sides into place?  I test fitted a piece in place before I got my hip replaced.  Now that I am mostly healed I took it off in favor of different material.  I was a bugger to pry it off without damaging the plywood that I had on there temporarily.  If I can use the gun, it sure will make gluing it up faster.

Al

[Ken_Potts]

  Hi Al,

  Try stapling over some strapping material - The plastic stuff that is used to tie things down on pallets.  When you're ready to remove the staples, pull on the tape.

[Al Stead]

Thanks Ken,

I wasn't intending to remove the staples.  They are 1" long with a 1/4 inch top.  They hold pretty good so I was intending to leave them in in place of the screws that are called for in the plan. 

Al

[Hirilonde]

If the fasteners are integral and screws are called for in the plans, then staples are not an acceptable alternative.  They have no where near the holding strength, and they can work lose over time even if loads on them are not great.  If they are just a temporary fastener, then I would do something like Ken suggests and remove them after the adhesive cures.

[Al Stead]

The screws are in addition to the epoxy glue and are not temporary.  I think it is a bit of overkill, but what do I know about the pounding that a sailboat might take.  I guess it will be screws and glue as per the plans.  I'd sure hate to be out in the middle of nowhere and have the sides start to pull away from the bottom.

Al

[Andrew_Butchart]

Stapling is a damned good idea for initially putting on the sides.  I found that to do it right you needed to be a five armed-monkey with 8 foot long arms - Obviously I didn't do it right even after enlisting the assistance of a second monkey

After the staples are in place, yes - by all means go back and strengthen the fastening with ring nails or screws.  I've actually been moving away from screws and have been using galvanized nails :shock: where I can.  In fact the toe-rails on my Weekender are nailed in place with galvanized spiral finishing nails.  Under a coat of paint they'll last longer than I will.

Just my heretical 2 cents.

[Al Stead]

Thanks for the input guys.

Today she is a boat.  I'm pretty sure I could plunk her into the water and she would float and not leak.  I went ahead and used the screws to mount the sides, and it went pretty well.  I did need an extra pair of hands to hold the panels in place, but I had them hanging around so why not use them.  I am using stainless screws with a finish head.  They go into the plywood pretty easy because they are self tapping and set well in so I can cover them up.  They don't pull the joint as tight as a regular construction screw would, but I don't imagine that I would want to squeeze out all the goo. 

I still think the one inch staples would work, but that is for the next boat.  Here's a question.  Do any of you guys find yourself at the end of a building day just sitting back and staring at your boat?  I am enjoying building mine more than I have enjoyed anything in quite a while.  A big part of that is sitting back and staring at her, imagining the fun we are going to have, and planning my next move.  I have built quite a few interesting things in my day, but this project inspires me more than I thought it would. 

kind of odd

Al Stead

[Steve Day]

Al,

I find myself spending some time just contemplating the project almost every time I work on it. On the present project, I have a co-conspirator (co-builder) and he and I find ourselves spending a while just sitting around and talking about the build and what we plan to do next.

I find the process very fulfilling and a lot of fun. To others that haven't build projects like these, that might appear odd, but that is the real essence of the process, IMHO. :grin:

Comment on galvanized staples and fasteners - I don't use them because of the salt water environment. You would be surprized at how fast and easily corrosion appears on galvanized fasteners, even though they are encased in epoxy. I would not use them on any build I am doing.

Have a great build!

Steve

[lewisboats]

Galvanized stapes and other stuff these days tends to be electroplated rather than hot dipped. The thickness is in order of molecules rather than measurable amounts. Hot dipped galvanizing has staying power in a salt environment but the electroplated stuff just doesn't.

[Al Stead]

I live on the shores of Gitchee Gumee, so salt isn't a big factor.  My main idea was that boy you can sure stick things together fast with these air powered guns so that you could get quite a bit done before the goo starts to kick off.  I have found that if you set the pressure a bit too high, the staple will bury itself into the plywood so that you could cover it with epoxy and protect it as well as possible.  Also, if the staple is in addition to a full epoxy lamination, even if it rots away, the goo will still be as good as a stitch and glue joint.

I did use a few regular construction screws in my weekender, but they are all in areas that won't come in contact with water unless the weather turns foul and they are all covered over with epoxy.  If they start to cause trouble, I can get at them easily enough that I am not concerned.  Some of what I am doing with my first build is pushing the envelop just to see how bad different things really are.  I'm not afraid to put her in dry dock and go to town on her if I have to, but I really like learning from my intentional mistakes.

Al