New Plywood Sidewheeler Building
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 6:08 am
Building a flat bottom steam sidewheeler, the project has gotten underway in earnest this month, the hull is very similar to a conventional "Sharpie". Six sheets of Hydrotek Meranti marine plywood, complying to British Standard BS1088, 12mm sides, 15mm bottom have been recieved, and glued up into 20 foot lengths using butt blocks with West system epoxy.
Framing is heavy, and fairly conventional, using Douglas Fir lumber, spaced 16 inches on centers. The frames are built up with polyurethane glue and coated screws. The plan is to glue the sides and bottom to the frames with thickened epoxy, and to cover the hull exterior with 9 oz bi-axial fiberglass cloth set with epoxy.
A few open items with respect to this construction:
Should boat nails or screws be used to attach the plywood to the frames? Or should I just use temporary screws, and let the epoxy do all the holding?
Should I paint the interior of the hull with epoxy, followed by a UV resistant polyurethane, or should I just polyurethane the interior without epoxy? I want to keep the natural wood visible on the interior, in order to be able to detect possible water intrusion.
The exterior of the hull will be painted a conventional color above the waterline, and some have recommended that the bottom receive a coating of epoxy with powdered graphite to better endure groundings and abrasion. Do any of the group have experience with this?
Thanks in advance for information.
Framing is heavy, and fairly conventional, using Douglas Fir lumber, spaced 16 inches on centers. The frames are built up with polyurethane glue and coated screws. The plan is to glue the sides and bottom to the frames with thickened epoxy, and to cover the hull exterior with 9 oz bi-axial fiberglass cloth set with epoxy.
A few open items with respect to this construction:
Should boat nails or screws be used to attach the plywood to the frames? Or should I just use temporary screws, and let the epoxy do all the holding?
Should I paint the interior of the hull with epoxy, followed by a UV resistant polyurethane, or should I just polyurethane the interior without epoxy? I want to keep the natural wood visible on the interior, in order to be able to detect possible water intrusion.
The exterior of the hull will be painted a conventional color above the waterline, and some have recommended that the bottom receive a coating of epoxy with powdered graphite to better endure groundings and abrasion. Do any of the group have experience with this?
Thanks in advance for information.