Honeycomb how to video

Can anyone recommend a how to video for replacing a deck/floor with honeycomb or a product like Air cell t60? I can’t find any on YouTube

 

I can tell you a bit about how to proceed.

You will need to determine whether the core will curve enough for any cambers.

The bottom of a walked on deck needs more strength than the top, so prelaminating might be problematic or difficult, aka moulds required..

Tell us more about the size of the area and the structure underneath.

Maybe honeycomb is not ideal and the question is will it work.

 

Thank you, it’s a flat floor and then casting deck in the bow. A non wood core has been recommended to me over and over but if I need molds I think I will go back to my original game plan of marine plywood and 1708

 

How big is the area and support?

 

You can use a honeycomb core.

I would recommend plascore with a veil. You won't need any special surface that way. You just laminate over it. It does require some prewetting and I prefer to wetout away from it.

Basically, you wetout glass and roll it on then off. You need quite a bit of glass to get to the strength of ply. But personally I am not a fan of ply decks.

Need an idea about your spans.

 

Thank you,
The casting deck is 5ft 11 inches width by 4 ft.

The floor is 3ft 11 in by 12ft 8 inches
2ft from Center stringer to the side
No bulkheads

 

The casting deck span is too large.

I would recommend 1" thick plascore with veil. It spans 2 feet fairly well.

You would glass each side with something like 1700. I am using it in my build and applying 22 and 24 oz triax. There are some important considerations.

1. The bond to the veil is poor if you fail to prewet the veil. At least this was our experience with triax. You could try wetting out 12 oz glass perhaps right on the part, but you would need two layers and overlap them 2". And you need to test.

2. For our work, we wetted the glass in a homemade manual impregnator [sic]. Then we wetted the veil quickly and unrolled the wetted glass. The results were quite good, but it is pretty hard work. Wetting out lighter glass on the plascore might work better for you. You will want a minimum of 22 oz glass up to 48 oz glass on the bottom, so 2 layers of 12 oz or two layers of 17 oz. The topside does less work; so you only need 12 oz if you epoxy.

3. I don't recall the wetout rate of the veil, but it was quite high. 4-6 oz per yard iirc

4. Peelply can be used to get a nicer final product, but avoid applying it anywhere close to gel time. We did NOT use it for that reason.

5. Casting deck span is too large. You can build some ijoists or find some way to put a tophat under.

6. The joint to the deck would be ?

Screws will require you overbore and fill the honeycomb at all screw locations.

Bedding in thickened resin is easy, and very permanent.

You can test your part easily.

After applying the glass and it curing; set it up and see if it is stiff enough for you. If not add another piece of glass to the bottom. You gain a wee bit of stiffness in glue bonding, but the unbonded part is fairly representative of the final product.

Ask away for more details.

 

You could also buy a more rigid core...it would cost more...

 

Thank you for all of the great info, I will try to find plascore. Just to clarify, you are saying that will work for the casting deck as well as the floor or just the floor and the casting deck is to big for a synthetic

 

No, the casting deck will need xtra support.

This is a 2" tall i joist. Something like this can be built....if you find the casting deck a bit bouncy, or you can add more glass.

 

Say you build the casting deck and go dryfit it and you don't like the bounciness. Add another layer of glass to the bottom side or a support like the one I show or a tophat. You can laminate a 2x2 wood to the bottom and glass it on. If it rots; it wouldn't matter with two layers of say 1708 wrapping it onto the cast deck

 

Thanks fallguy, you are the man!

 

Plascore