grinding

A multi tool can also be handy, especially in the corners. Slice off all but the last veneer and then sand it clean.

 

I only have now have 1 destruction under my belt so take this experience for what it's worth. chisels (cheapo HF 5 pack) worked the best for me on my little OB transom though it still took 1 -1.5 hours of *non stop* chiseling...i mean i really went at it, it wasn't pretty, manned up, grabbed a beer then just went to town..wack wack peel curse wack wack peel curse non stop as fast as i could. Nowhere near the size you have, that was about a 6 sq foot area so maybe that will help you guage timewise. Definently a technique there, peel off a bit at a time chiseling with the grain, bevel down, was slow but sure process. I didn't have much luck with the angle grinder. Par suggested the planer on my thread as well, if i had much larger size i'd would have tried that or an air chisel, though 16grit seems like it would do some work in a hurry, 80grit on an angle grinder did nothing for me but i did use it on the last layer.

 

Yep, you'd make a career out of it with 80 grit . . .

 

With one single 16 grit I could grind a whole jet ski to dust in an hour.

 

grinders

So....please do so often - I'll provide the media and the beer. I'm joking of course. My teenage daughter loves those things but I'd be just as happy if they were all ground to dust.

Thanks again for all of the advise. I made really good progress this past weekend and removed all of the bad wood. There is one 1' by 3' section of good plywood left, and it still has a good bond with the polyester on both sides. I gnawed on it today, but I'll go back with my air chisel and compressor next weekend and see how I do. I literally could swing the hammer no more.

I cut the tank bunks forward a foot or so in order to get to the lowest outboard region of the transom. I found the mother load of dry rot in the starboard section - which I expected from my tapping.

I bought a Makita 3 1/4" planer - but I don't think I'm getting enough level surfaces to really go to town with it. The best new tools were Buck Brothers 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" chisels. For most of the bad wood, I could just scrape with the chisel - no hammer and no grinding. For mediocre wood, Frosty's 16 grit was the tool that killed.

Thanks again all! Every suggestion was pretty much a winner!

-.b

 

I have never tried it but have often seen a small electric chainsaw suggested. You can come in from the top that way.

 

noboby is listening to Frosty...16 grit on an 8" grinder makes mince meat out of anything very fast. I use them to do ozzy jobs, takes off the gelcoat on a 30 footer with one fella in a day, backed up by a soft foam pad to keep it all very smooth.

 

If they did a 12 grit I would buy it. Im sorry you bought a plane, a plane does flat surfaces.

Swop it for a router, Ive never used one for this, but a free hand router can also inflict some serious damage. Entering from the top with depth set it would cut out a transom in minutes.

You could also fit a side guage, accurately cutting a 1/2 inch slice all around say 1 inch from the outside.

 

grinders

The planer's OK - I'll use it elsewhere or if I can't get to flat plywood on this job. The quality of the plywood used in this case was truly interesting. There were open knot holes when the ply was laminated in - so I had "resin knots" throughout.

-.b

 

There's a lot of tools that work. One I haven't mentioned and often used to carve tree stumps, into moose heads is a chainsaw blade looking thing, designed to fit an angle grinder. They eat wood like crazy and you can get them into tight sports fairly well. Another trick I use is a straight cut router bit, say 1/4" in a laminate trimmer. A router is just way too big to do the perimeter, but a laminate trimmer can. Make a cross hatch pattern on the transom core, say 3" wide stripes. The remaining core pieces are now only held by the longitudinal wood fibers under each square, which knock off easily with a chisel. Clean up the last of the inner most veneer and you're done.

 

grinders

Holy cow! I'll be putting the chicken handle back on the angle grinder for this one

 

YES! and hold to it for dear life. Don't lock the switch on! And no baggy clothes! You can chew youself up very quckly with a grinder. You can disembowel yourself. seriously.:!:

 

Yeah, they take some getting use to (little bits folks), but they work quite well, especially once you get a feel for how much you can remove in one swipe.

 

Oooooh,---- interesting --and how much are they?

 

They're about 50 bucks, but a replacement chain is about 30. They have a couple of different sizes and teeth counts too, as if it mattered.

When doing transoms, I don't find bulk material removal difficult. It's the corners and edges that are troublesome. This is where the multi tool and other tools are necessary.