plywood to teak and holly veneer laminate

[admin]

This is not for an Evelyn, but I thought I'd throw it out to the group and see what the collective wisdom is. Oddly enough, it's for a Johnstone design that has frighteningly similar targets (polars) to an Evelyn 32-2. I'll let you all guess the model.

A good friend whom I occassionally crew for wants to replace his cabin sole. The piece is about 42 x 21 inches. Turns out he found a chunk of teak and holly veneer and that, coupled with some 6mm meranti BS 1088 ply, scrap from my i550 build, is the perfect thickness to match the rest of his interior floorboard.

We were brainstorming on the best way to build the laminate. I started off thinking some epoxy mixed with silica to a thickness that would allow him to squeegee the stuff evenly across the two surfaces, then slap together and put some weight on it, no big deal. Then we got to thinking about the load cycles the laminate would see over the course of a few seasons, and got to wondering if a similar kind of application with something like 4200 or 5200 might be more appropriate, simply due to the fact that it will have a bit more "flex" in terms of the kind of way the floorboards will load up every time they get stepped on our a heavy cooler gets dropped on it, etc. We got to thinking the epoxy might be too brittle for this particular application.

anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, please chime in and thanks a million for your input.

tf

[peter ross]

You can bond it to the Meranti with some 6oz cloth. Wet out both sides, apply the glass to the plywood. Before you place the veneer on the still wet glassed plywood, scim coat the cloth with a silica thickened (not too thick, almost wet.) Use whatever method you have to weight it down evenly, bagging is good if you can. The glass should give the boards some stability and not add too much weight. It's all gotta cure together and important to make the scimcoat thin, wet and even.

[admin]

Thanks, Peter! That sounds like a plan. The 6oz cloth makes a lot of sense...I think it's possible he'll be able to v. bag, it too.
Excellent, appreciate the quick response, too!

tim f.
balto

[darkstar32170]

If you're concerned about epoxy being a little to brittle (though it shouldn't be especially with the glass in the laminate) you could alway use a polyester resin instead. It handles pretty much the same as epoxy and should be stronger.

This summer when I was recoring the deck on "Dark Star" there was one area that I was hesitant to repair by the method I had been using: removing the top skin and rotted core, replacing the core with foam, and laying on a new glass top skin. I had a large area of the cockpit sole from the step (where the traveller usually mounts) back about 24" for the full width of the cockpit that needed recoring. I was concerned about being able to lay out such a large area of glass from the top and being able to match it into the sides of the cockpit. I shuddered at the thought of glassing an overhead surface (replacing it from underneath). The solution was to remove the bottom skin of glass and the rotted core and laminate a nidacore panel to the underside of the cockpit. After applying the thickened polyester resIn to the underside of the cockpit and the nidacore panel I wedged the panel into place with a 2x4 framework. I have yet to glass in perimeter joint and the cockpit sole is nice and stiff in the repaired area.

I got the nidacore and polyester resin at LBI Fibeglass in Groton, CT. See their page at: http://lbifiberglass.com/

I've seen Peter's work. I would go with anything that he recommends.

[admin]

Good stuff, thanks David! Appreciate the link to LBI, also...they carry a LOT of good stuff and a bit cheaper than West, too ;-)

[Pterobyte]

I got the nidacore and polyester resin at LBI Fibeglass in Groton, CT. See their page at: http://lbifiberglass.com/

I've seen Peter's work. I would go with anything that he recommends.

I think Peter has a handle on this craft. I am using NidaCore extensively on the refit of Pterobyte. It is really great stuff and very reasonable. I started out Vacuum bagging and switch to just lay between boards with weight in order to save the cost of the vacuum supplies. I quickly found out that what you spend in vacuum supplies you spend in extra resin. so I am back to vacuum.