Epoxy Works 10
Epoxy Works 10
Epoxy Works 10
Special issue
In this issue
1
Strip construction
Planking basics
10
Edge fastening
11
14
Panel warping
15
20
21
22
EPOXYWORKS
Editor Grace Ombry
Graphics Michael Barker
Assistant Kristen Lore
Contributing Editors Jim Derck, Brian Knight, Bruce
Niederer, Roy Oliver, Tom Pawlak, J.R. Watson
EPOXYWORKS is published twice a year by Gougeon
Brothers, Inc., P.O. Box 908, Bay City, MI 48707-0908 USA.
1998 by Gougeon Brothers, Inc. Reproduction in any
form, in whole or in part, is expressly forbidden without
the written consent of the publisher.
EPOXYWORKS, Gougeon Brothers, WEST SYSTEM,105,
205, 206, 207, 209, Episize, Scarffer, PRO-SET and
Microlight as used throughout this publication, are
trademarks of Gougeon Brothers, Inc.
We welcome your comments and suggestions about
EPOXYWORKS, as well as tips, techniques, and news of
interesting projects completed.
EPOXYWORKS, P.O. Box 908, Bay City, MI 48707-0908.
E-mail: [email protected]
WEST SYSTEM product and technical information is
available on the web at: www.westsystem.com or by
calling 989-684-7286.
Strip Construction
An Overview
By J.R. Watson
Strip planking
Strip planking, as it is most commonly known, began as a
method for planking round bottomed boats that was
quicker and easier than carvel planking. It eliminated
much of the spiling, steam bending and caulking that
went with carvel construction. It became a more widely
used method to build boats when water-proof adhesives
became available. Resorcinol glues were used with edgenailing of narrow (often square in section) planks over
frames. The nails held the planks as the adhesive dried,
and were left in place. They offered some cross-grain reinforcement along with the frames. Epoxy took strip
planking a step further because it could fill gaps better
than resorcinol and required only contact pressure during
cure. Everything from rowboats to 250-ton commercial
fishing boats are built using strip plank construction.
tom racing craft, such as the formula 40 trimaran Adrenalin, were constructed this way.
Because of its rounded topsides, the hull was
built in halves in female mold frames. It used
unidirectional carbon fiber reinforcing laid at
90 to the 38" thick cedar strips.
Applying unidirectional
carbon fiber to the
inside of Adrenalin's
cedar strip hull.
There are many variations of reinforcing materials, and many choices of strip composites: When
higher density materials such as mahogany, cedar
and pine are joined, they contribute to the structure. They provide tensile and compressive
strength along the grain, as well as shear strength
through their thickness. They are considered an
active core. Such a core may require minimal
reinforcement, depending on grain strength and
how the composite will be used. In contrast, an
inactive core (such as foam strips) is used only
as a base for the reinforcing skins. An inactive
core gives the structure its shape, but doesnt add
to its strength. A hybrid, DuraKore, combines
balsa core with wood veneer skins in a strip
form.
One of the advantages of strip construction is
the ability to build compound shapes quickly.
The strips are typically placed over mold
frames that define the structures shape. Most
shapes can be built in strip construction, although the more spherical shapes are limited
by the strips ability to bend in two directions.
Strip construction opens up a wide range of
building possibilities. We hope the articles
within this issue give you some ideas of how
strip construction can benefit you in your next
project, whether its a clipboard, a canoe or a
sailing ship. n
2
Strip materials
STRIP PROFILES
Rectangular/Square
Illust 2
Illust 3
Ship lap
Illust 4
Density
23 lb./cubic ft
32 lb./cubic ft
40 lb./cubic ft
2 to 6 lb./cubic ft
15 lb./cubic ft
23 to 40 lb/cubic ft
Cut all the strips using the same machine set-up. One setup makes all the dimensions consistent which is very important during assembly and fairing. Make the set-up as
solid and rigid as possible. You do not want vibration or
pressure to move the saw fence or vibrate the saw blade to
Sources
Bead and cove cutters for making " strips
07647-0195, 201-767-1400,
www.baltek.com
Pre-shaped strips
877-392-8880,
www.bearmountainboats.com,
Fine woodstrip kayak and canoe
construction with designs and detailed instructions.
Featherweight Boatbuilding, "Mac"
McCarthy, WoodenBoat Books,
P.O. Box 78, Naskeag Road,
Brooklin, ME 04616Instruction
and patterns for building the Wee
Lassie canoes.
The Gougeon Brothers on Boat
Construction, Gougeon Brothers,
Inc., P.O. Box 908, Bay City, MI
48707, 866-937-8797Working
with epoxy and wood using, strip
plank and other building techniques.
Other book titles
Panel thickness
cedar strip
Fiberglass
schedule
Weight
ounces/sq. ft.
Inches of
deflection
Pounds to
failure
3/16"
1 layer 4 oz
6.5
.85
3/16"
2 layers 4 oz
8.8
.82
162
309
3/16"
1 layer 6 oz
8.0
.73
214
3/16"
2 layers 6oz
10.6
.90
500
1/4"
1 layer 4 oz
9.0
.45
150
1/4"
2 layers 4 oz
10.3
.70
375
1/4"
1 layer 6 oz
9.8
.49
221
1/4"
2 layers 6oz
12.3
.58
450
5/16"
1 layer 4 oz
10.6
.43
188
5/16"
2 layers 4 oz
12.6
.66
499
5/16"
1 layer 6 oz
11.6
.48
300
5/16"
2 layers 6oz
14.1
.44
500
3/8"
1 layer 4 oz
12.7
.42
250
3/8"
2 layers 4 oz
14.1
.66
675
3/8"
1 layer 6 oz
13.1
.32
298
3/8"
2 layers 6oz
15.4
.51
823
5/32"
1 layer 4 oz
8.5
1.47
211
7/32"
1 layer 4 oz
10.9
1.01
325
1/4"
1 layer 4 oz
12.8
.79
429
5/32"
no glass
6.9
1.60
45
7/32"
no glass
9.1
1.20
149
1/4"
no glass
10.7
.63
225
marine plywood
Planking basics
Strip technique
Staff article
Evenly
spaced
mold stations
Plywood or
particle board
mold frames
Strongback
Plywood or particle board are most often used for temporary mold frames. For the difference in cost, " material
makes a stiffer, more accurate mold than ", and gives
you more meat to fasten the strips to.
Plank layout
When you have completed this, you are ready to install the
first strip.
With a very full or rounded hull, there are two ways to reduce the severe edgewise bending of the strips. Which
method you choose depends on how fat the hull is and on
the aesthetics of the strip layout in a clear finished hull.
6
Thickened epoxy
fills the gap
between the top of
the strips and the
top of the stand
sides
Protect the
stand with
polyethylene
sheeting
Office pin
20 ga. common brad nail
18 ga. common brad
#4 finish nail
18 ga. office push pin
18 ga. pneumatic brad nail
Fine wire narrow crown staple
Common wide crown staple
18 ga.
16
#6 drywall screw
A variety of wooden, plastic and metal washers or spacer pads. When used
with nails or staples, they can easily be removed with pliers. They prevent
damage to soft wood strips, and they can be reused.
Edge fastening
Rectangular or square edge strips tend to get out of alignment between
mold stations, especially where the bend is tight and the planks have to be
forced into position. You can build intermediate mold stations in these areas to support the planks in more places.
Tom Pawlak of our Technical Staff maintains plank alignment another
way. When he had problems aligning thin planks, he drilled a small diameter hole vertically through the strip. Then he broke one end of a toothpick (the round, tapered kind) off and stuck the pointed end into the
hole. He forced the plank into position and tapped the toothpick into the
plank below, like a wooden nail. Tom suggests that you over-align the
planks because there is some slop in the system from the taper on the
toothpick.
On thicker planks, use dowel rods glued in pre-drilled holes. It is a good
idea to use a drill bit a few thousandths of an inch smaller than the dowel.
The friction helps to draw the planks together.
A toothpick
used as a
dowel to keep
planks aligned
You can also fasten edges with metal fasteners, but inevitably a couple of
fasteners will break through one of the planks. Metal fasteners are hard to
remove and equally difficult to fair smooth. On the other hand, wooden
dowels that break through the surface are easy to fair. Brian Knight
10
Strip project
Step 1: Plan
Choose your materials and methods. Before
starting your project, select your building materials, then research and decide exactly how
you will accomplish each of the steps.
To make a clipboard, your materials include:
o
Before building your canoe, reading Canoecraft by Ted Moores and Marilyn Mohr is a
good place to begin. Gil Gilpatricks book,
Building a Strip Canoe is another good choice.
Both are easy for first-time builders to understand, yet thorough enough that many experienced builders use them for reference. I used
both books in researching and building my
first canoe.
You may have an idea of how youd like the
canoe to look, but are not sure what woods
will create that look. You could experiment by
making several clipboards using a variety of
wood species. Once theyre edge glued and
coated with epoxy, the panels color and tone
will be evident. At this point, you can set aside
any panels you dont like. Only panels that
have the desired look need to be fiberglassed
and finished.
11
1. Plan
4. Create a mold
6. Prepare to fiberglass
12
13
Panel warping
CAUTION: Strip planked projects can warp to the point
of being unusable if one side of the wood core is
fiberglassed and the other side is left unsealed. Changes in
wood moisture content on the unsealed side will cause the
project to change shape. The potential for warping is
greatest on thin wood-strip projects like canoes and kayaks. The thinner the planking, the greater the risk.
This happened to me while building my first stripper canoe. I decided to take a break from the project after
fiberglassing the outside of the hull. Two months went by
before I pulled the canoe off of the mold. The bottom had
inverted slightly because the unsealed side inside of the
hull had taken up moisture and expanded. I caught the
problem early enough and was able to correct it. I put the
canoe back on the mold, dried the unsealed wood side
with electric space heaters and quickly fiberglassed the inside before further change could take place. A friend of
mine was not so lucky. Over a period of a year, his rowing
shell tuned inside out like a dried out pea pod. He was
not able to salvage his project.
This photo demonstrates problem caused by a change in
wood moisture content during the building process. Both
panels were cut from the same strip planked laminate.
The western red cedar laminate had a moisture content of
8% to 10% when fiberglassed on one (top) side only.
The panel was perfectly flat at the time it was cut into two
pieces. One piece was exposed to a very dry environment,
___
___
___
___
___
Dry
14
A portable, easy to
build, cedar strip
reflecting telescope.
holding the scope steady and allowing adjustments. I chose a Newtonian type of reflecting
telescope, named for its inventor, English
physicist Sir Isaac Newton.
The optical components; the primary mirror,
secondary mirror and focusing mount are attached to the optical tube. Light enters the
hollow, open-ended optical tube and is reflected off a large, curved primary mirror at
the tubes base up to a smaller flat secondary
mirror near the front end of the tube. Its reflected again out of the tube into the eyepiece
in the focuser. The tubes interior is baffled to
reduce stray light.
Finding scope
Focuser/eyepiece
Optical tube
Secondary mirror
Altitude pivot
Dobsonian mount
Primary mirror
Laying it out
I laid out the telescope, full-size, on a piece of
plywood (boatbuilders call this lofting). For
the optical component, I wanted the biggest
aperture practical for a portable scope, to
gather more light and allow me to view fainter
objects in the night sky. I decided on an 8" diameter, f6 primary mirror. This choice drove
all of the telescope dimensions. I began with
the primary mirror, and its 48" focal length.
The focuser and secondary mirror I had chosen, determined the distance from the face of
the primary mirror to the center of the secondary mirror. I added a few extra inches and
made the optical tube 56" overall. The extra
length helps reduce stray light and prevent
dew on the secondary mirror. The added
length does make the scope more cumbersome, but I feel its worth the tradeoff.
At the location of the secondary mirror, I
drew a cross section of the tube. A mirror this
size requires an optical tube with a 10" inside
diameter. I determined the number of wooden
strips required to build the tube and the bevel
angle for the strip edges. Adding the thickness
of the strips to the inside diameter gave me the
mold frame dimensions.
halves then glued together. I made three female mold stations of "-thick plywood to
support a half of the optical tube. The tubes
wall thickness is 38" so the inside mold surface
diameter is 10". I made the stations identical
by screwing them together and making all the
cuts at the same time. I made the mold frames
2" larger than the optical tube on the sides and
bottom. Then I separated and glued the three
stations to a piece of "-thick plywood that
would become the bottom of the storage case.
I placed one in the middle (see illustration)
and the others about 6" from each end of the
optical tube. To keep the form flat, I temporarily screwed it to my flat workbench. I used
this form for many alignment steps and as the
foundation for the telescopes storage and
transport cabinet.
16
bered them and flipped every other strip end for end to
limit dimensional change and counter the grain runout.
I beveled the strip edges to the angle I'd established by lofting. You can rip the strips at an angle on the table saw or
shape them with a plane as I had done. An easy method is
to attach a bevel guide block to the planes base. Building
one half at a time, I dry-laid all of the strips for the first
half into the mold frames. I trimmed the two end strips
flush with the top of the mold frames, then numbered and
removed the strips.
Test strips in the mold, showing the bevel angle on each strip.
The bevel angle was established by lofting and the strips were
ripped the proper angle on a table saw.
9 oz fiberglass tape
8" from end of tube. Tube to
be trimmed to edge of glass
Baffling
Wooden strips across the top of the mold frames, forced the end
strips down and all the strips together against the frames, like an
upside-down arch.
17
Optical components
I marked the location of the secondary mirror and focuser using my full-sized layout. The crayford focuser is heavy, so I located it on the side in line with the altitude pivot to maintain
balance as elevation is increased. I tend to favor my right eye,
so I mounted the focuser on the left side of the optical tube to
move me away from the base. The focuser mount came with
a template that I used to layout the hole.
Bungee cords
After Id cut and shaped the focus mount hole, I wet its perimeter with epoxy to seal the exposed end grain. Next, I
reamed the hole so the fasteners could pass through them
without cutting threads in the hole walls.
Use the mold to support
the tube for fairing and
finishing
Spring clamps keep
joints aligned at ends
I installed the mirrors in a specific order. To begin, I secured the holder for the secondary mirror. This holder
consists of four thin vanes with bolts attached to the ends.
The bolts pass through holes in the optical tube. I used my
hole finder tool (Epoxyworks 9) to locate the holes for the
bolts. I wrapped a wide piece of heavy paper around the
optical tube to mark the holes so they were all square to
each other and perpendicular to the centerline of the optical tube. I then mounted the secondary mirror.
For the primary mirror, I selected an aluminum mirror
support made by University Optics, Inc. It allows air to circulate around the mirror, so it can quickly reach the ambient temperature. It is fully adjustable and lightweight.
To temporarily locate the primary mirror support, I
backed the mounting bolts against the inside of the optical
tube walls. This held the mirror in place until Id completed the basic collimating or aligning of the mirrors. To
make this alignment, I focused on a distant object with the
tube stabilized in the mold stations. I used a diagnostic collimating eyepiece in the focuser to align the primary mirror with the secondary mirror. Once the primary mirror
was in position, I used my handy hole finder to transfer
the exact location of the support arms to the outside of the
optical tube. Then I drilled the mounting bolt holes and
mounted the mirror.
A telescope this size deserves a larger aperture finding
scope, which rides piggy back on the primary telescope. I
purchased an Orion 8 50 achromatic (two-element
finder telescope). I located the scopes base on center on
top of the optical tube. The finding scope slips into a
dovetail on the base and is easily detachable for storage.
18
LeftThe altitude
pivot spacers
fashioned from cedar
strips.
RightThe finished
altitude pivots with a
mahogany bearing
surface.
Altitude pivots
The altitude pivots are short, 6" diameter cylinders, glued
to the tube at the fore and aft balance point. They protrude from the sides of the optical tube and rest in a yoke
in the Dosonian mount.
I used scrap cedar strips from the optical tube to fabricate
two altitude pivots. I scribed the pieces to the outside of
the finished tube, sawed and laminated them together. After they cured, I cut them into 6"-diameter circles. Next, I
cut 6"-diameter disks from 1"-thick mahogany and bonded
them to the spacers to extend the pivots. The mahogany
portion of the pivot would rest on the mount's bearings.
With all of the optical components installed, I hung the
optical tube by a rope to locate the balance point. The center of the pivots was located precisely at this balance point,
in line with each other on opposite sides of the optical
tube. I used the top edges of the mold stations as a reference to align the pins, then bonded them to the sides of
the tube.
Dobsonian mount
The mount holds the telescope steady and allows for
smooth vertical and lateral movements. The mount has
two parts, the rocker box and the ground board. The optical tube's pivots rest on Teflon bearing pads in the yoke
of the rocker box. The low-friction pads permit smooth,
precise tilting, or rocking of the optical tube. The precise
balance of the telescope lets you freeze the location, or adjust it with a slight nudge. This lets you easily follow an
object as the Earth rotates. A pin on the bottom of the
rocker box passes through an Oil-lite bushing in the center of the ground board. The weight of the rocker box and
optical tube rests on low-friction bearing pads between it
and the ground board.
The mount is constructed of "-thick marine plywood glued
and screwed together. Bonding will result in a more rigid and
stable base. I attached a tray for eyepieces and filters to the
EPOXYWORKS Number 10, Winter 1998
Transport/storage case
I fabricated the telescopes storage and transport cabinet
around the mold Id used to build the optical tube. The
sides attach to sides of the three mold frames and the edge
of the " plywood bottom. I set wooden fillets on the inside corners between the stations. I built a 6" tall lid and
attached it with brass hinges. I glued felt padding to the
three mold surfaces (now bunks) to protect the optical
tube. Inside, I fashioned separate compartments for eyepieces, finder scope, sky charts and accessories, then varnished the interior.
Conclusion
Im not an astronomer, but this instrument makes me feel
like one. I look into the sky and see more than what I
thought were just stars. What I thought were stars are
whole galaxies, greater than the Milky Way. What I
19
Sources
Optics
$1,025 n
20
By Jim Derck
If you are using the strip planking method to build a canoe, kayak or even a telescope, you already appreciate the
beauty of wood. The following tips will help you achieve
the clearest possible fiberglass coating to protect and reinforce the wood and show off your handiwork.
Avoid outgassing
When temperatures rise or when high barometric pressure
gives way to low barometric pressure, air within the cells
of the wood expands and is forced out. This occurrence is
called outgassing. If the surface is coated with fresh epoxy,
the outgoing air can leave bubbles or pinholes in the coating. Not only do the bubbles show in the cured coating,
they can lift the fiberglass from the surface, creating unsightly voids.
You can get the best results coating indoors where you
have control over the temperature. Raise your shop temperature for a few hours, then reduce it before you begin
coating. As the wood temperature drops to equal the room
temperature, it tends to draw air, or epoxy, into its pores
(the opposite of outgassing). If you must coat outdoors,
wait until after the air temperature and wood temperature
have peaked, and will be cooling as air temperature drops
through the afternoon or evening.
Brush on epoxy
For a uniform fiberglass wet out and the clearest finish,
Ted Moores of the Bear Mountain Boat Shop, suggests applying the epoxy with a paintbrush. Youll aerate the epoxy
if you use a roller or pour a puddle of epoxy on the fabric
and spread it around with a squeegee. While the initial results will look uniform, the aerated epoxy will lighten after
exposure to sunlight, obscuring the beauty of the wood
grain.
21
Information
EPOXYWORKS
Epoxyworks
P.O. Box 908
Bay City, MI
48707-0908