1995 Larson 214 LXI... Floor and stringers

[TRH299]

1st race cancelled this past weekend due to weather so I got my 4lb foam poured. Cut all my holes then did some rough calcs on volume of each bay. My shop was about 70 degrees so to get to 80+ (as recommended for proper foam cure) I put my heat gun in each bay for about 5 minutes to preheat the cavity and I also set my measuring cups on my wall heater to preheat them a bit. Seemed to work out nicely. On my first pour I ended up drilling one additional hole to add a bit in a corner. I ended up with a process using concrete blocks to cap holes as the foam rose to the top thus forcing the foam to spread out more internally towards remaining open holes. All in all I am pretty satisfied that I have completely filled bays.

 

[TRH299]

I made up a simple tool to sand out the foam pour holes to proper depth so that I could re-install the plugs with epoxy. I just made an extra plug out of the same plywood and then put a bolt in it along then added a large fender washer and nut. I then superglued a disk of 36 grit sand paper to the end. Chucking it in my drill , it made short work of pocketing out the holes to the exact proper depth thanks to the large fender washer acting as a depth stop. I then installed the plugs with epoxy. Will sand them all smooth tonight.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Looking good!

 

[kcassells]

Cool work! Like that sander attachment. I'll add that to mine when the time comes. Still cold here in Pa today.

 

[oldrem]

That's a fantastic idea - will have to put that in my memory banks for when I'm that far along.

 

[JASinIL2006]

A cupped wire brush attachment for a drill works great, too. Your sanding rig is pretty cool, though...

 

[TRH299]

Yep.... pretty much anything would work but the depth control of the fender washer made it worthwhile for me. I simply dumped about a teaspoon or so of epoxy in each pocket and pushed in the plugs which forced the epoxy up and I was done. Went back last night and suited up for a major sanding session. I sanded everything in preparation for glassing the floors and painting the bilge and ski locker. Tonight I am going to do a quick epoxy touch up job on some of edges I sanded to make sure they are all sealed up. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have glassed floors.

 

[ACon977]

subbing to follow along, as much as anything for that drill idea! brilliant. Im at the hull on my project, need to finish grinding and then cut and glass the stringers in next.

 

[TRH299]

Thanks ACon977.... Last night I decided to epoxy up some raw edges and to seal up the top of my stringers. I wanted to cap them and the floor with a piece of fiberglass tape, but I did not want to make a big fillet as my fuel tank bay cover needs to sit between the floor edges on top of the stringers. To avoid having the glass pull away at the relatively sharp inside corner, I decided to use some scrap plastic bars I have laying around as "caul" strips. I ground a slight chamfer along the edge then pre-drilled a couple screw holes in each.

I then ground about an 1/8 x 1/8" chamfer on the top edge of my plywood floor to created a valley for my epoxy so that when I grind the excess glass off tonight, I will not expose raw wood. the caul bar will provide a dam to keep the epoxy bead from running down. I soaked the end grain ply multiple times then layed down my glass tape with a bit of excess epoxy then screwed down my "caul" bars.

It worked out great as the plastic popped right off this morning once I removed the screws and tapped them with a hammer.

A light sanding tonight and plug a few screw holes and that job is done and will be ready for glassing the floors.

Bars installed



Removing bars this morning before work



Bars removed



A sketch showing how I sandwiched the glass tape

 

[TRH299]

Made a sled then used my table saw to cut two pedestal seat mount bases out of 3/4" ACX plywood. Was not sure it would work to cut the angle and the circle but they came out nice. I will epoxy these to my 1/2" deck then glass over them and paint them. My stainless screws will be potted in epoxy and will not penetrate completely through the deck. This is where my rotted deck appears to have started originally.... Won't happen again.

 

[mickyryan]

very nice!

 

[JASinIL2006]

Those are slick!

 

[chevymaher]

I am impressed. You did a awsome job on those.

 

[Bayou Dave]

They look great. Didn't know you could use a table saw to cut a circle..

 

[oldrem]

That is too cool

 

[ACon977]

Cool idea! I like the pivot on the bottom board to allow for the seat base to spin. very clever.

 

[kcassells]

I like it! I like it a lot! Thanks for the Method!:joyous:
I'll take 2 please.

 

[JASinIL2006]

They look great. Didn't know you could use a table saw to cut a circle..

Neither did I. Learned something today!

 

[TRH299]

Sunday instead of working on boat as planned, I ended up having to repair my race car after losing half of the front nose and the right fender in a self inflicted crash (still managed to finish 5th out of 18 cars lol).




Last night I was able to finally put down some 10 oz glass and epoxy on my new starboard floor. I then glued down my new seat riser disk. Tonight hopefully I will get the port side glassed. I then after a bit of scuff sanding, I intend to glass over my seat pedestal risers. Hoping for a damage free weekend at the races so the boat can keep progressing.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I can’t wait to see the bases finished with the pedestals installed. i bet they will look sweet!