Re: Hey Rocketboy
GSPig,
You still around? Still have your boat? I have a lot of Updates I need to post pictures of, but the long and the short of it is I have Glued, not 1, not 2 but 3, yes THREE transoms together, so Let you me tell you I am now an expert and this time I'm getting it done right! First time I bonded in a transom, I used Home depot exterior grade plywood. I tried to vacuum bag the transom into the back of the boat, but couldn't hold a vacuum, and the transom was a poor fit and poorly laminated. Scratch $100 of wood and $100 of west systems, before the epoxy set up, with no suck on the bag, I pulled it out and cut it up for firewood.
2nd time, I was reading on one of the repar forums about using water resistant Okume, with is plywood usually used for laminating door skins. I bonded 7 sheets of .23" thick stuff to get the thickness I needed, and then bonded in the boat using a clamp set of long carriage bolts and 2 x 4. The clamps put a good squeeze on the transom but a couple days after the bond, it rained and I got a foot of water in the boat with no drain plug hole drilled. After the rain left I drilled a drain plug and noticed the wood was mighty soft so I reached down and pulled at the bottom edge of the transom, and the wood totally delamed with about 50lbs of force. Pissed, I laminated a test panel of the same skins together that were left over scrap and through it in a bucket of water and let it soak for a week. I could pull the wood plies apart by hand very easily. Moral of the story, don't use chinese made, "Water resitant" Okume from Home depot. The only bond lines that stayed together were the ones I did with west systems epoxy.
After the 2nd failed attempt, I lost the will to work on the project for a year. I finally bit the bullet and found a plywood distributor in the San Fernando Valley that deals all plywood grades including marine grade. I bought three 4' x 8' sheets, two .75" thick and one .25" thick. I cut the transom shape a few weeks ago, and bonded them at work last week. As soon as I get some warm weather I will try to bond in the Transom a thrid time. If I fail thsi time, I'm going to part the boat out for parts and go buy another boat. Currently, I'm excited about getting it right this time, and with the right wood, I'm excited to actually have a robust transom. Let me know how you are doing and whats up. I'll try to post some pictures of the boat in its latest stage in the next few days.
Cheers!
