The stRingers are out!

[Nova II 260]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Lowell?
Where ya been? How's the project coming? Had mine out 4 times this year haven't seen ya!
Eric

 

[jddenham]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Anything going on with this project?

 

[OhioLowell]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Hello all!

Sorry to be away so long but life has been extremely busy over the past year. Another new baby, my home business, and a job change has resulted in about a year and a half of 80 hour work weeks. However, last week I started a new job and my schedule looks as if I'll once again see some normalcy.

Unfortunately, the boat has set for the time I've been away. It holds water well,, lol.. A few days ago I finally got around to drilling the bilge drain. This evening I installed the drain pipe and bedded it. The boat has developed some damage to one of the new stringers from freezing. Long story short I'll keep you all posted and will add plenty of pics like always. My new goal is to have the boat in the water by the middle July. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks,
Lowell

 

[Nova II 260]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Hey, welcome back. Just set your sights in doing ONE thing at the time. It'll get done....

 

[OhioLowell]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Here are a few pics. The boat's been in limbo again as I've been working on the motor, but hopefully I'm getting close on it so I'm getting ready to refocus on the boat. I hope to have it on the water by july, but I'm afraid that may be a little over optimistic with all we have going on right now.

The first one is a pic of the damage from the freezing. As best I can guess water got under the stringer and once it froze then the stringer popped loose.

the next pic is of my new bilge drain. Nothing fancy but it still serves it's purpose. i hope to maybe be able to grind out the stringer and get it repalced maybe this weekend. After that then we'll roll her over.

best,
OhioLowell

 

[OhioLowell]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Ok gang, here's what I've found while removing the stringer in my last post. I took the sawzall and cut the stringer about 6' up and began pulling on the loose end. The whole thing came up in one piece. It did not even act like it had bonded to the hull at all. The other 2 stringers are in there like rocks, but for what ever reason this one didn't stick. The fiber glass on the stringer itself is hard as a rock and appears really strong. The glass under the stringer in the boat was ground down to the same level on all the stringers but again this one did not stick.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what I might have done wrong here? Why would this have done this? What can I do to correct this issue in the future?

This pic shows the area where the stringer was, in this pics I've done nothing but pull up the stringer, no grinding or anything, it is exactly as I found it under the stringer.

Here is a picture of the stringer with the fiberglass still on the stringer.

As always thanks for the help,
Lowell

 

[oops!]

Re: The stRingers are out!

hi lowell....im new to this thread....my name is oops.

some of the faces have changed around here a little bit. but the advice is still top notch......(ondarvr keeps us in line...lol)

ok.....the reason the bond on the stringer failed was because of improper bedding and glassing.

i read backwards to the point where you placed it....it looked like you just layed it in resin????...kinda coated it with resin and layed it in the boat....then glassed over that shape?

resin by it self is very very brittle.....and when in thin lavers it is useless for any kind of bond.......(add fiberglass to the thin resin and you have somthing as strong as steel.

you need somthing to attach the stringer to the hull with then fiber glass the whole shabang into the boat.

people are using peanut butter......some use pl 9000 for bedding or 3m5200.

after the strings are bedded....you have to tab them in then glass over them.

and.....uh.....welll......uh....you must get alot more air out of the fiberglassing process then you are......nothing will bond with that much air.

just grind away the old stuff, scuff it up.....clean with aceitone have a beer then bed it and tab it in.....then glass it over!

i look forward ti watching this one!

 

[chumslinger]

Re: The stRingers are out!

i have read several posts on transom repair, and they all say the same thing regarding using fiberglass mat between the two layers of ply. what is the reason for using mat between the layers? i understand external covering, just curious about the inbetween bit...thanks

 

[ondarvr]

Re: The stRingers are out!

I didn't re-read the whole thread, just skimmed a few pages to refresh my memory a little.

There may be a few of issues creating the poor bond.

1, It looks like you glassed over a surface that was white, most fiberglass has sort of a translucent amber or brown color to it, not opaque white. Are you sure you sanded the surface down to fresh clean glass.

2, You also talked a great deal about bad weather and rain, if there was any moisture on, or in the surface, the bond will be poor.

3, Cleaning the surface with a solvent before glassing may clean the surface, but it can also just spread any contaminate that may have been in a small area to the entire surface.

 

[OhioLowell]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Thanks for the replies all.

When I set the stringers I set a layer of cut glass onto the area where the stringer will lay and then set the stringer into it. Once that glass began to tack up a little then I tabbed the sides and laid the glass up the sides of the stringer. I didn't lay over the top as I will lay more glass on the top prior to installing the floor.

As for the white area under the stringers, yes that is raw glass because no matter how deep you grind it never changes color. Believe me there is ALOT of grinding to get it to that point,, lol

Does this sound like I was on the right path and just had something go wrong causing it to fail?

Any thoughts?

Again, Thanks,
Lowell


I just had a thought, as I tend to think in worse case scenarios. Do you think all the other stringers are in OK? They are much more stable than the one that I removed. They do not have the cracks around the stringer near the bottom of the boat like this one did. I don't relish the idea of grinding out all of those stringers again. I would think they'll be OK?

oops,
You mentioned about getting out all the air in the fiber glassing process, could you expound on what you mean?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: The stRingers are out!

Here's another possibility.

Was the inside if the hull a mold finish, or did it look like hand rolled glass?

Many older small boats were made in a closed mold, normal boats are open molded, this means the mold was in two parts, a top mold and bottom mold.
The resin used in this type of production is typically highly filled and may even be a different type of resin, this creates problems with secondary bonding. On products made in this way epoxy is normally used to do any repairs.

I say this because you said the entire glass layup looked to be white, many of the fillers used are white, sometimes a white (or any other color) pigment will be added to make it a uniform color.

 

[jonesg]

Re: The stRingers are out!

the next pic is of my new bilge drain. Nothing fancy but it still serves it's purpose. i hope to maybe be able to grind out the stringer and get it repalced maybe this weekend. After that then we'll roll her over.

best,
OhioLowell

possible problem here, the bilge drain looks like it might be installed with improper material ...

and the glass coth on the transom definately looks dry. its not good enough.