Glen-L.com

I am planking my canoe project, the Huron, and have thought of a couple of questions for the next phase. Please provide me with your suggestions.

1) What product should I use to fill the countersunk screws? My spacing, according to the plans is 2 inches, so there is a lot of covering to do. I am using Okume plywood, plan to finish it natural and fiberglass the exterior. Will the filled holes show thru the fiberglass, encapsulation and what ever clear coating system I decide to use.
2) A few of my screws stripped out the hole so they did not countersink. Should I replace them with bigger/longer screws or just remove and fill? Everything is epoxy glued so I would not think a few missing screws would pose a big problem. Correct?

I think painting the hull would be a lot easier, but I would prefer a clear finish if it is not unreasonably labor intensive.

Thanks,

Tom

I am only familiar with the Huron design thru the online pictures on the Glen-L website. If you leave the screws in, and they are sunk deep enough, the bores can be filled with a mixture of epoxy thickened with sanding dust.

I suggest you try it on some scrap to see how the colour will look.

If you have stripped screws, I would just fill the holes. I would not bother replacing them with larger screws.



If you want a nice natural wood (bright) finish.... and assuming you epoxied the planks down well, another option would be to remove all of the screws, bore the holes in and fill them with bungs (wooden plugs).

Here is a picture of the bungs I installed on my deck.

_________________
Bruce.

~~ Do what you love, and love what you do. ~~
~~ To me - only my boat is not yet perfect. Everybody else's is to be admired for I know the path they have walked (Dave Lott, 2010) ~~
Dow's Monaco Project

I have attached some pics of the Huron project for visual reference.

That's a nice looking boat.

If you want a bright finish, and your plywood is well-epoxied, I would vote for removing the screws and filling with the bungs.

If you are painting, I would just cover the screw-heads with thickened epoxy.

_________________
Bruce.

~~ Do what you love, and love what you do. ~~
~~ To me - only my boat is not yet perfect. Everybody else's is to be admired for I know the path they have walked (Dave Lott, 2010) ~~
Dow's Monaco Project