Bulkhead foam

Discussion in 'Fiberglass and Composite Boat Building' started by Ralph Aloha, Jan 9, 2020.

  1. wet feet
    Joined: Nov 2004
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    wet feet Senior Member

    I don't think it has been made sufficiently clear that using polystyrene foam will only work if you use epoxy resin in contact with it.Polyester dissolves it quite spectacularly.It gets quite expensive to use epoxy to bond a few bulkheads in place in a polyester hull and the overwhelming majority of production boats are polyester laminates.
     
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  2. fallguy
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    fallguy Senior Member

    oh, excellent point!
     
  3. TeddyDiver
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    TeddyDiver Gollywobbler

    What comes to cost it's not so much difference, anyway there're reasonable priced epoxy suppliers. Besides epoxy is stronger and has better bonding properties compared to polyester on the ply as well as on the old hull laminate so you end up using less materials to get the same strength..
     
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  4. wet feet
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    wet feet Senior Member

    I am aware that epoxy gives a stronger bond than polyester and I am aware that the strength comes from the fibres that will need to be there.I also remember using barrels of resin to bond bulkheads into a hull.How valuable does a hull have to be to justify a couple of hundred kilos of epoxy to revive an old boat?Let us not lose sight of the amount of work to complete a rebuild after replacing the bulkheads.It may just be cheaper to scrap the boat and find another unless there is a compelling reason to do all the work.There are lots of good boats available for ridiculously small amounts of money.The boat being worked on might be a good candidate for dismantling and selling the components rather than rebuilding.
     
  5. fallguy
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    fallguy Senior Member

    For a couple of tapes; he won't be using much epoxy.
     
  6. missinginaction
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    missinginaction Senior Member

    For a lot of people you make a very valid point. I'd argue that there are no good boats available for ridiculously small amounts of money. There are many good boats out there but you'll pay for the good ones. For some of us though, production boats today just don't cut it. Look, you're posting on a boat restoration forum so many of us are going to be fans of older boats.

    Over the years I've seen many boat restorations started by folks that were ill informed, inexperienced, under funded and over excited at the idea of getting themselves a good boat on the cheap. You can't do it. Some of us though like building things. We enjoy solving problems, getting dirty (and a little sticky). Before I fabricated my first part or mixed my first batch of resin I did enough homework to understand what I was getting into. I didn't anticipate every issue but I understood enough of them so that I didn't get overwhelmed. I learned forward thinking. To organize my work. To stick to a budget. Most importantly to stay focused. I remember thinking to myself "failure is not an option".

    For most people wetfeet I think you are absolutely right. There are others who march to a different tune though. For me my boat has been the single best thing that I ever did. It's my sanctuary. Every time I step aboard I feel good, relaxed.

    Want to know how much a restoration might cost you? Read on..... https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/want-to-know-how-much-a-restoration-might-cost-you-read-on.62104/
     
  7. TeddyDiver
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    TeddyDiver Gollywobbler

    Barrels? 30l should be enough IMHO, maybe another canister for a bigger boat >35'
     
  8. BrissoDamo
    Joined: Dec 2019
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    BrissoDamo Junior Member

    have the fluid cash, time and the eyes of a owl, mind of serpent- its like stealing a surfboard off a kid that goes to buy an icecream, leaving the surfboard on the beach.
     

  9. BrissoDamo
    Joined: Dec 2019
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    BrissoDamo Junior Member

    This why I used VE in my latest 'blow some dough" effort, has the secondary bond ability of epoxy and a window for chemical bonding that epoxy doesn't offer, saving money and time.
     
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