Have simple question

Im wanting to build a sports Bass boat kind of like what triton sells which i seen some examples of there plant but i want to know what is the difference between a plug and a mold and can anyone and i what should the boat be made out of should i use all fiberglass on the hull are do they use wood and what kind of fiberglass does boating companies use everyone please respond need help.

 

Commenting on your post

Hi SGray,

A little policing
No offense but I can hardly understand a word of the above post...
To me it's very hard to read a text without punctuations and so on.

I think more people reads and responds to posts that are easy to read and makes sense. You could also consider that not all visitors to the forums have english as their native language.

I hope that you don't take my criticism tthe "wrong" way.

My personal experience about bass boats are zero and "zip" so I'm afraid I can't help you there.

Erik

 

It sounds like you've never had any hands on experience building a boat or with fiberglass, so the first thing I would suggest would be to get a feel for the materials by building something very small and simple. Or even just buy a gallon of epoxy and some different weights of cloth and some roving and construction something simple. If you might have use for a small dinghy or rowboat, I would also suggest taking a month or two and building a very small boat to get your feet wet. Better to make a mistake on something which can be fixed more cheaply and then tackle a big project when you've had some hands on experience.

 

As far as the difference between a plug and a mold, a plug is the male part and the mold is the female part. The conventional means of construction if you're going to be building more than one hull or part is to build a wooden plug. A lot of time goes into sanding and fairing the plug. Then wax and a release agent is applied, and a mold is constructed over the plug. The mold is build very strong, and often with a harder mold resin and steel and other backup materials to prevent flexing. Then the mold and plug are separated, the mold is cleaned and polished. To then produce a boat wax and release agent (e.g. PVA) is applied to the mold. Then gel coat is sprayed on, then a backup cloth/mat to prevent print-thru, and then the main laminate is applied.

 

If you would only be building one boat, the other option is to build it using a one-off method. To do this you cut bulkheads, battens between them, and then typically apply a core material over this. You fiberglass the outside, then flip it, remove the temporary plug, and fiberglass the inside. The advantage is saving the step and cost of the mold; the disadvantage is that you have to do a lot of sanding and finishing since you don't have the mold to produce a perfectly shiny and fair finished part.

 

< Moving to the boatbuilding forum since we're really talking about building here not design >

 

Laminates are getting quite sophisticated, and many many pro boatbuilders use vacuum bagging, core materials, etc. to get a more consistent and lighter laminate (more even resin distribution and preventing too much resin building up).

 

Buy a set of plans from a reputabledesigner and all the specs for materials and scantligs will be included.