# Tin Boat Build Out



## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Good looking drawings. Here is what I would be concerned with. The gas tank needs ventilation and is very close to the batteries/charger and I would not run the electrical down the same place as the fuel line.


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

DuckNut-

I won't be taking the forward bench seat supports out. The battery and charger will be separated from the compartment with the fuel tank by an aluminum bulk head. The only wiring that will go foward from the battery compartment is the line for the troling motor and the nav. light these will be run well wide of the fuel tank.

The gas tank will be vented like any other fix mounted tank, through a fuel filler vent.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Very nice clarification. As long as you are aware of the potential problem.

Why are you teaching your mate to use manual tools? Give her a battery powered screw gun and the job will be done in no time.


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## Baily (Mar 29, 2010)

The boss lady sure is cute.


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

Progress has been exceptionally slow. The young portion of my family has been requiring my time. It is hard to justify working on the boat, even if it is her boat, when there is crying and other assorted drama going on.

My goal with this project is to add as little weight as possible and allow easy removal of the deck I'm installing. Additionally, I don't want to poke any holes in the aluminum skin. So, this "floating" deck will have to be stiff where it isn't fastened to the hull or parts that are welded to the hull.

My solution is to add ribs to the underside of the deck:



















What you are looking at is 7/16 base shoe opposed to make a half round with the long sides perpandicular to the undreside of the deck. The bit between the underside of the deck and the rib will get a fillet of thickened epoxy before I apply 2 layers of 17 oz. biaxial glass. Stiffness is commng from the glass. The base shoe is there just to make the glass take that shape. 

We haven't seen 60 degrees for over a week now and it looks like the highs this weekend are only going to be in the mid 50's. It is beginning to look like I'm going to have to come up with a way to heat my garage if I'm going to get to laying glass and epoxy this month...


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

I've got some progress to report. It is a pittiful amount based on the time elapsed since my last post, but, it is progress. 

I had a bit of a false start in laying out the ribs for the bow/casting deck section. I neglected to design in provisions for a hatch. After tearing up the base moulding I had stuck down with Gorilla Glue and monel staples (not very fun) I layed the ribs out so there is a space to cut out for a 13" x 30" hatch.

The dotted red lines show approximately where the underside of the deck will make contact with structural portions of the hull. The bow section will be screwed to the bulkheads that currently support the forward bench seat and a cross brace that is forward of the hatch cut-out. The mid section will simply rest on the chines and the aft section will rest on the chines and get screwed to a low bulk head near the aft of the boat (the dotted rectangle section)









I was able to get a coat of epoxy on the ply wood. The next steps will be to coat the ribs with epoxy, lay in fillets and then overlay the ribs with 4" wide 17 oz biaxial tape. The bottom of the deck will be finished with a top sheet of 17 oz. biaxial cloth.

I'm going to watch the space shuttle launch this weekend so it's going to be a while before I get a chance to work on this again...hopefully I'll be abelt to get it done before the end of the season


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

I managed to squeeze in a bit of work last night because the girls went to bed early. The couple of hours available allowed me to get the fillets layed in on all of the ribs.

I used a pretty neat trick that I picked up from another poster on this site that essentially adapted a cake decorating technique to the application of thickened epoxy. I can't remember who initially posted the tip, but it is a good one and I don't want to claim credit for this bit of brilliance.

After thickening up some epoxy with a good bit of colloidal silica I scooped it into a plastic bag, squeezed it all to one corner and clipped the tip off of the bag:










The thickened epoxy was squeezed out of the bag like a bead of caulk right into the corner between the underside of the deck and the ribs. It worked great! I was able to dispense all of a batch in a neat little bead right where it needed to be in a short amount of time. Getting the batch dispersed slowed down the "kick" of the epoxy and gave me plenty of time to smooth it into a nice fillet using the back side of a plastic soup spoon:



















After I knock down all of the high spots with the grinder it'll get roughened up with some 150 grit sand paper and I'll start laying the biaxial glass over the ribs.

Go back up in this post and take a look at the "reference image" and think about this: I'm trying to come up with a good way to store 4 rigged 9 foot fly rods on the gunnels in the space between the top of the bench seats and the rail. My guess is it is going to involve some sort of custom fab and PVC tubes...but if one of you folks has a slick solution I would love to hear about it.


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

Well...my fillets turned out pretty nice but I was questioning wether or not the 1700 biaxial fabric would take the bend. I did a quick test with a bit of wetted out scrap cloth and came to the conclusion that there was no way the fabric was going to stay in contact with the ribs and fillets while the epoxy cured. The fabric was stiff enough to beat the surface tension of the epoxy and pulled up at the bottom of the fillet curve.

Solution: build up the fillets. I spent a bunch of time laying in thickened epoxy with a 1.5" disc of plastic that I cut from a broken windshield with a hole saw. Additionally I put a bunch of extra material in the corners of the ribs so that the fabric would see a gentle slope when it was applied.

I cut all of my pieces and proceeded to wet them out:










They were laid in with care to be sure to get all of the bubbles out:



















It worked well...and I learned a few things:


1700 is more flexible than 1708 (the material I have most the most experience with) but it still needs serious working to get it to take compound curves.
A small plastic scraper is the balls for spreading epoxy while wetting fabric.
65 degrees F is the perfect temp to be doing epoxy work.

I've got to order some more epoxy but when it shows up I will cover the old work and the rest of the underdeck with another layer of 1700. The next step will be to start working on the topside.


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

There wasn't much interest in this thread but I thought I should finish it out:










I'll share details if anyone is interested.


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## Swamp (Jul 12, 2010)

That looks great! Yes, please do share I have a tinny that i need to redo as well.

Swamp


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## SClay115 (May 18, 2009)

In for details. That thing looks great! Not sure how I missed this before.

Steve


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Great job. Looks very clean! How do you like the rubberized coating?


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## cslascro (Feb 12, 2011)

Very nice build! I'll bet it's perfect for the lake, and you'll probably have the best looking aluminum v-hull at the ramp!


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## tguasjr (Mar 9, 2009)

I like the way you matched the paint. Congrats! It looks awesome.


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## kwhite108 (Apr 12, 2011)

> Great job. Looks very clean! How do you like the rubberized coating?


The product I chose for the non-skid coating was largely directed by un-spent Cabela's points accumulate by paying for business trips with a Cabela's Visa:










After working with this stuff and seeing the finished product all I can do is give it two huge thumbs up. It was tough to stir due to the high concentration of rubber non-slip grit in it...but that is a good thing.




























I raked on it with fingernails after it was cured and I could not get the little rubber nubbies to come up. Walking on it with bare feet was not painful. If it lasts a few years it will be well worth the cashed in points.


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