Glen-L.com

I'm curious on the process of gluing and screwing the battons, chines and sheer clamps. What is the best practice? Right now I predrill and dry fit, then glue with waxed temp screws, but I cant tell you how many temp screws I've snapped using this method if I don't remove them at the right point. Should I glue and use temp screws to hold them in place or is it sufficient to clamp until glue dries and then screw? Using temp screws seems to much of a gamble to me.

Your thoughts.

First off use fine thread screws if you go the temporary route. If you are using fillers for thickening epoxy resin, most of the mill fibers or cotton fibers grab and hold on after the glue dries completely. A good method to achieve success when backing out temporary fasteners is to heat a tip of a screw driver a bit and use the hot tipped screw driver to loosen the fastener up in the beginning. I use and reuse fine thread sheetrock screws. Of course if you are using some serious hardwoods, you may also experience an unusual snap off. But if your fasteners are buried its not a big deal after the fact as long as you have enough room over the snap off piece to fill across it with some thickened epoxy fillers. For most instances where gap filling does not come into place, Cabosil is the nuts and rarely cause much of an issue, IMO.

I'm using an equivalent to the bronze screws as my temp screws, but in steel. My epoxy isn't being thickened either.

I'm gonna use clamps only to hold it and see how that goes.

Thanks

If you're laminating or wetting out glass cloth, unthickened epoxy is the right thing to use. I would not try to glue up joints without a thickening agent or a glue like Glen Ls thickened epoxy. The resin will drain out of the joint and starve it leaving a poor, weak joint.

Roberta

_________________
Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

Roberta Thanks for the Info. Well I haven't been using fillers in the epoxy. The bad news is that the only framing left is the Chines and sheer clamps, so up till now everything has been glued up with unthickened epoxy. I'm a bit worried now. everything seems strong so far though. My only hope is that since its just an 11' utility skiff and it's not gonna be a speed demon that I can get away with it, but I'm ordering filler right now.

Well better luck on my next build.

Thanks again

You can also use wood flour for filler....I get mine from the beltsander bag or stationary sander

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

My guess is that the gusseting on the framing and the lamination of the larger parts like the stem and transom will be OK. There are a lot of screws in these assemblies and are usually laid up flat so hopefully the glue did not drain out excessively. If the joints feel good and strong, they will be fine. Look for any voids along the edge of the joints and try to wick some epoxy into them. The shears and chines will be harder to control the drain out of adhesive and you should thicken that epoxy. Like UPS said, sanding dust will work well for a thickener or get a pre thickened adhesive.

Roberta

_________________
Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

Well while sanding dust from ordinary discs will work. It does use more resin. So maybe for some small jobs or at the last resort it works. But depending on the grit of your paper, its can be coarse and even pourous too, and can cause some imperfect fitting too after the final fitting takes place.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm ordering some filler from Glen-L just to be safe.