FREE BUILDING, RESTORATION & REPAIR with EPOXY Number 52 Spring 2021 In this issue EPOXYWORKS ® Editor/Designer Jenessa Hilger Managing Editor/Copy Editor Grace Ombry In This Issue Contact/Subscriptions Mari Verhalen Big, Beautiful Barn 1 Contributors ATL Composites, Bill Bauer, Russell Robert Garrison used WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy in repairing Brown, Robert Garrison, Rachael Geerts, Greg and modifying the barn he designed and built. Hatten, Julie Jezowski, Terry Monville, Lorraine Murray, Grace Ombry, Donald Weir. Coating Small Parts 2 Epoxyworks is published twice a year by Gougeon Coating small parts can be challenging. Russell Brown Brothers, Inc., Bay City, MI, USA. shares tips for tackling little items neatly and efficiently. Product Number 000-605 Oh, the Places You’ll Go… in a Wooden Boat 4 © 2021 by Gougeon Brothers, Inc. Reproduction in any form, Noted drift boatbuilder Greg Hatten talks about the in whole or in part, is expressly forbidden without the written origins of his obsession with building, adventuring and consent of the publisher. repairing his rugged wooden river dories. Epoxyworks is a registered trademark of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. WEST SYSTEM, 105 Epoxy Resin, 205 Fast Hardener, 206 Slow Hardener, The Restoration of a 1957 Fiberglass Runabout 6 410 Microlight, G/5, G/flex and Six10 are registered trademarks of Boat carpenter Bill Bauer and young neighbor Kami join Gougeon Brothers, Inc. 207 Special Clear Hardener, 209 Extra Slow forces to resurrect a 64-year-old MFG 15. Hardener, 422 Barrier Coat Additive and Episize are trademarks of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. Stormy Weather 7 Strong and lightweight, this East Coast 32 was designed Subscriptions, US and Canada by Andy Dovell and built by Denman Marine. Epoxyworks subscriptions are FREE to US and Canadian Repairing Gelcoat Stress Cracks 8 addresses. Subscriptions do not expire. To start or stop Gelcoat cracks and crazing are an unfortunate reality a subscription, change address or subscribe for a friend, for fiberglass boats, but you can fix them yourself. complete and return the tear-out mailer or call 866-937- 8797 toll free. You may also subscribe by filling out the Boat in a Box 10 subscription form at epoxyworks.com. Our mailing list The Globe Mini 5.80 is a yacht aimed at home builders and is strictly confidential and will not be sold. racing sailors looking for a fun, affordable, DIY sailboat. Contribute to Epoxyworks Flame Treating Plastics 12 If you have completed an interesting project, or This surface prep method greatly enhances the bond between epoxy and solid plastics. Terry Monville breaks developed a useful technique or a practical or unusual down why and how to flame treat plastic. use for epoxy, tell us and your fellow epoxy users about it. Send a photograph or two, or e-mail digital photos G/flex® 655 Epoxy Now in a Convenient Dual-Syringe 13 (about 300 dpi). Include a note describing the project Now you can dispense this tenacious epoxy in tiny and how we may contact you. By sending photographs quantities. Big strength for even the littlest repairs. you are granting permission to publish your photos in Epoxyworks and other Gougeon Brothers print and Go with the Faux 14 online publications or promotional presentations. How cool would it be to take a little veneer, epoxy, and Mailing address Epoxyworks colorant and give a Facebook Marketplace coffee table P.O. Box 908 its own tributary? Bay City, MI 48707-0908 The Art of Choosing a Topcoat 16 Email [email protected] Researching UV-stable topcoats can feel like falling down a rabbit hole. Here's some expert guidance. Epoxyworks Online Unlimited Canoe 20 Visit epoxyworks.com to browse back issues, look for This 45’ cedar strip, outrigger canoe is large enough to specific topics, or share articles on social media. accommodate seven people and quick to build. Weatherproofing my Little Free Library 22 Treating book-sharing boxes with epoxy can make the paint last longer, keep the books drier, and deter insects. High-Tech Composites Will Revive Champion Keelboat 24 Saltash, a 30’ Yachting World Diamond keelboat built in 1966, is undergoing a major restoration. I designed and had made some steel supports that could be attached to the lower ends of the top beams. Big, The steel plate is 1/8" thick and the threaded bolt attachment block is welded in place. The back of the plates were all sandblasted just before installation. Beautiful The plates were attached by coating the beam with epoxy, adding a 4" x 12" piece of fiberglass tape to the top and bottom and then bonding the metal plate to Barn the roof beam with WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin® and 209 Extra Slow Hardener thickened with 404 By Robert Garrison High-Density Adhesive Filler. I designed and, with the help of others, built my A 1.25"-long #8 screw was put through each hole barn many years ago. While we didn’t use epoxy in and into the roof beam while the epoxy was still wet. the construction, I’ve used WEST SYSTEM® many The 4" glass tape was added to help spread the load times to make repairs and modifications. Much of on the wood. There is another identical plate on the this was needed because the construction crew didn’t opposite side of the beam. There are four plates used follow the design instructions. on each truss assembly, two per side. Attached to each The fourth floor of the building is a 24' wide by plate is a 1/4" x 1" steel bar which in turn is attached 60' long clear-span room. The weight of the roof, to a 3/4" diameter steel tensioning rod and assembly. cupola, and sometimes a lot of snow, are held up by The tensioning assemblies are epoxy-bonded to Cover Photo: Robert six trusses. I strengthened the trusses by adding the wooden blocks. These wooden blocks are free to slide Garrison's barn. missing gussets, adding additional lumber to some on the bottom of the horizontal truss beams during The trusses were parts, and strengthening weak spots in the grade F tensioning. The sliding blocks push up on the roof reinforced with lumber I’d used. above and pull the walls together at the same time. WEST SYSTEM Epoxy. The trusses were strengthened by adding the missing gussets, additional lumber, and strengthening weak spots in the grade F lumber used. An 1/8" custom steel support. A close-up The back was sandblasted of one of the before installation for better sliding blocks adhesion to the fiberglass. that connect it all together. The sliding blocks push up on the roof above and pull the walls together at The tensioning the same time. assembly. Unfortunately, the top beams and the bottom Now the weak link in all of this is the wooden beams of the trusses running all the way across the purlins but since they survived for over 25 years room were assembled by just nailing the parts of without much assistance, I think I don’t have to the trusses together. All of that was supposed to be worry anymore. screwed and glued. I am not sure why it didn’t fall Something to consider when combining wood down. The main weak link was the joint at each end and steel in a structure is that steel has about twice of the horizontal tie beam from one side to the other as much thermal expansion as wood. You have to and the top beams that go up to the peak. There can make the steel thin enough so that when it gets cold be many tons of force trying to push the walls apart. the shrinking steel doesn’t crush the wood or break The rest of this tale is about what I did, with the help things. Luckily, steel makes a good spring if you don’t of WEST SYSTEM Epoxy, to hold the walls together make it too thick. and help hold up the roof. Number 52, SPRING 2021 1 Coating Small Parts By Russell Brown There are many Pre-finishing parts with ESTW SYSTEM® and provide a base that can hold the part upright ways to support Epoxy before installation is a technique that was and be used as a handle. There are many ways to small parts for popularized by guess who? The Gougeon brothers. It do this, but I often use a hot melt glue gun, scrap coating. The most can save time and increase the quality of the finish. plywood, nails, screws, and dowels to make bases important aspect is to allow good access Coating small parts can also be a challenge, but for the parts. to all the surfaces it’s much easier if the parts are held in a way that Some of the parts shown are affixed to a base (a that need to be provides good access for roller and brush coating. strip of scrap plywood) with nails. The nails were coated. Our Port Townsend Watercraft dinghy kits tapped into pre-drilled holes in the bottom of the have a lot of small parts; foot braces, oarlock riser parts and then the heads of the nails were bonded blocks, alignment clips, daggerboard trunk cap, to the base with hot-melt glue. etc. Some of these parts must be pre-finished Small sticks and hot-melt glue could be used before installation, but I find that even parts instead of nails, but good access to the surfaces that could be done later are often easier to finish and the ability to get the surfaces clean, especially before installing.