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Help repairing wood...
 
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Help repairing wooden decks.

11 Posts
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Peter knapp
(@pknapp66)
Posts: 686
Chief
Topic starter
 

My latest project is a glass hull/wooden deck Tornado. I found some soft spots around the ports and was wondering what the best way to deal with these is? I have experience with epoxy injection, but zero experience with all wood decks. It appears that water got into the end grain of the wood at the port
openings.

Pete

H18m
p16
Venture15

 
Posted : December 23, 2013 8:40 am
PIRATE39
(@PIRATE39)
Posts: 101
Mate
 

Do you have any pictures ? I'm certified in marine coatings and will help if I can.

 
Posted : December 23, 2013 8:54 am
Peter knapp
(@pknapp66)
Posts: 686
Chief
Topic starter
 

I will take some pics tomorrow and post them. Not sure how much they will show with the decks being painted white.

H18m
p16
Venture15

 
Posted : December 23, 2013 9:18 am
PIRATE39
(@PIRATE39)
Posts: 101
Mate
 

Just knowing that their painted helps. I would remove the port cover and turn the boat upside down. Sand the inside of the hull as far as you can reach . It's better to go about 6" out of the delaminated area. Delam usually starts on the inside. Use 36 grit and nothing finer than 80 grit. Blow all the dust out and then wipe with acetone. Use west system epoxy or similar and half oz. matt . NOT CLOTH !
Allow to set up and see if it added any stiffness to the outside. If not , flip boat back over and grind out the bad area until you are into the good wood / epoxy. Build the surface up a little higher than before then sand down to existing deck. Finished with 220 grit , prime with Awlgrip 545 epoxy primer. Sand again with 220 grit and paint.

 
Posted : December 23, 2013 10:57 am
Peter knapp
(@pknapp66)
Posts: 686
Chief
Topic starter
 

I posted several pictures in the technical section. but as expected they don't show much detail.
I like Pirates idea in that it does not require cutting the section out. First order of business will be
to dry the wood out. Any suggestions on the best way to do that will be appreciated.

Pete

H18m
p16
Venture15

 
Posted : December 24, 2013 9:17 am
(@gahamby)
Posts: 575
Chief
 

A sailing buddy suggested to me, draping the hulls loosely in black plastic sheeting and letting the sun do the work.
This was suggested for drying out H14 hulls.

 
Posted : December 25, 2013 2:24 am
Peter knapp
(@pknapp66)
Posts: 686
Chief
Topic starter
 

Will probably use the black plastic after I get the soaked wood somewhat dried out so it does not freeze rather than dry. I am looking for ideas not including a light bulb and fan in the hull. Don't really want light bulbs burning 24/7 in my garage. Was thinking of building a small version of a beer can solar heater but I fear it may be too hot on very sunny days.

H18m
p16
Venture15

 
Posted : December 27, 2013 1:06 am
(@gahamby)
Posts: 575
Chief
 

I knew a mono hull sailor who kept a light bulb burning in the cabin to keep the interior dry. It was just a porcelain base on a metal duplex box screwed to square of plywood. He put a #10 tin can with some holes in it over the bulb,
seemed to work well. If you don't like that how about the heat tape for keeping pipes thawed. I've got a milk house heater I use for cold weather curing jobs. It has a tilt switch for safety.

 
Posted : December 28, 2013 10:19 am
(@nautilus)
Posts: 9
Lubber
 

We repair a lot of transoms made of plywood ,pirate39 is on track with the use of acetone as it does accelerate the drying process of saturated wood .

PIRATE39 wrote: Just knowing that their painted helps. I would remove the port cover and turn the boat upside down. Sand the inside of the hull as far as you can reach . It's better to go about 6" out of the delaminated area. Delam usually starts on the inside. Use 36 grit and nothing finer than 80 grit. Blow all the dust out and then wipe with acetone. Use west system epoxy or similar and half oz. matt . NOT CLOTH !
Allow to set up and see if it added any stiffness to the outside. If not , flip boat back over and grind out the bad area until you are into the good wood / epoxy. Build the surface up a little higher than before then sand down to existing deck. Finished with 220 grit , prime with Awlgrip 545 epoxy primer. Sand again with 220 grit and paint.

 
Posted : December 30, 2013 12:57 pm
Peter knapp
(@pknapp66)
Posts: 686
Chief
Topic starter
 

Please elaborate on the use of acetone to dry the wood. I believe that Pirate was talking about using acetone to prepare the sanded surface for epoxy. I have access to bulk acetone so am very interested
in how to dry the wood with it.

H18m
p16
Venture15

 
Posted : December 30, 2013 1:12 pm
PIRATE39
(@PIRATE39)
Posts: 101
Mate
 

Actually , acetone will evaporate water. I use it when I grind out blisters on boat bottoms. It wont completely dry it but it will help.

 
Posted : December 30, 2013 10:25 pm