Builders' Forum |
|
↓ Scroll to Last Comment ↓ | Forum Guidelines | Builders' Forum | RSS |
NE Dory -- Crack through Okume at bow
Hey all,
I put a crack through the Okume plywood at the bow, probably from stress on the gunwales when flipping back and forth to car-top it.
How do I repair this kind of crack (through the plywood)? Is this just fill with epoxy? CA glue?
See photos below, thanks for your advice
4 replies:
RE: NE Dory -- Crack through Okume at bow
Looking at this again on a computer, I see the crack runs along the top and appears pretty tight. You may want to use just unthickened epoxy here, so it has the best chance of getting in the crack. I would only glass the bow, and not along the top,
RE: NE Dory -- Crack through Okume at bow
to repair the crack i would use epoxy with cabosil and a bit of wood epoxy and i would leave it pretty runny so it can ooze into the crack.....you might want to create a bit of pressure to open up the crach a bit when putting the epoxy in.....and then bind it up tight to squeeze the crack closed.....some excess epoxy will likely flow out..
i would also reinforce the top of the bow (your last picture where rubrail, plywood, and center piece come together) with 3 to 4 layers of glass. it will wet out clear if you do it properly....and you can fare it into the unglassed part of the rubrail. this will signficantly stregthen the area. i would also ensure the bow has glass (3 to 4 layers) on it that wraps around the front of the boat (the first picture in your series. this will prevent further splitting.
bows and sterns and keel lines should have glass wrapping around that sharp but rounded edge precisely to prevent it from splitting open like you experienced.
all of this can be done without having any negative impact on the looks of the boat but will significantly strengthen these areas.
h
RE: NE Dory -- Crack through Okume at bow
Thanks all. Will get to it. Just worried about the cintinuation of the plywood cleavage but will just put fiberglass over to hopefully take the pressure off that section.
RE: NE Dory -- Crack through Okume at bow
» Submitted by C-Dog - Fri, 3/24/23 » 1:19 PM
Oh man! Here is how I would approach it. I would take some epoxy, with a small amount of wood filler, so that it is still runny, but brown in color and fill the crack with it. You can use painters tape to contain the epoxy in the crack.Then once firmed up, I would try to even it out with thickened epoxy because the first epoxy will drip out some and also settle to leave a depression. Then I would sand smooth, then cover the crack with some fiberglass and epoxy and sand smooth. Probably won't notice it once done.
You could also just try thickened epoxy and try to smush it deep into the crack, then follow up with the fiberglass.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes.