Plywood bottom attachment

[Tim Dykes]

I'm building a 15' plywood over frame jon boat and have a question on how to attach the bottom to the frames as there seems to be a disagreement in the various books and articles on this subject. Do I use screws or ring-shank nails along the chine strip and one ever so many inches apart all the way across the frame or is it better just to let the epoxy hold the bottom on across the frames? The latter school of thought says that any screws or nails through the bottom will work loose and eventually start working through the fiberglass coating.

[gonzo]

It is OK to hold the panel with screws while the epoxy sets and then leave them in. I have never seen screws working loose in a glued panel. If they did, it would mean the glue joint failed. Nails are not as good a system with epoxy because the hammering forces most of the adhesive out of the joint. Also, sometimes the pane springs back leaving a gap.

[Tim Dykes]

Thanks for the input, Gonzo. That's what I was thinking that even if the glue should fail a few screws would provide a little comfort to the mind. I am tired of aluminum jon boats that are laid out for some idiot to fish out of so I'm making my own. Maybe soon I'll be able to run gill nets without having such a mess in the boat. And the thought of not having a net hang on every darned aluminum rivet that was ever set really pleases me. But then I guess that it won't be set up right for bass fishing or something.

[flame]

Hi Tim,

I took Epoxy - thickened with small phenole resin spheres - for glueing and fixed the plywood sheets using the tacker(?) gun.

As I applied 2x 4mm layers I could leave the clamps in at layer-1. For layer-2 I used a lot of ropes and pieces of wood and knotted a nice parcel :-)

Kind regards
Mike

www.messwerk.at/flame-sailing