Cost of materials

This enquiry is really aimed at my friends over on the East Coast of Australia.
Perth in the West, is not a place where you would find a lot of timber boats.

I would like to build a timber boat one day but the main obsticle I have is the cost of the sealers, glues and fillers that are available.

I would like to know if they are cheaper in the East and if it would be worth my while purchasing it from the East and shipping it over.

I purchased some this morning from BCF, International Epiglue 175gms $32.99
this works out to $188.50 per kilo.

Could you please advise me what price you are paying on the East coast.

Thanks

Poida

 

It's likely BoteCoat is the product you want, in regard to sealing, sheathing and gluing the wooden elements of your project. I have a buddy in Adelaide that hasn't much trouble finding what he needs. Log onto www.woodworkforums.com/f29/ and see what's available from your fellow countrymen.

It would also be a wise decision for you to educate yourself about the products we use on wooden boats, as well as the techniques and methods to employ them properly. A good primer for this is the "user's guides" from westsystem.com and systemthree.com. Their free downloads will get you started in the coating, sealing, sheathing and gluing processes modern boat building uses.

 

Same product can be bought over here (Brisbane/Gold Coast) for $32.95, so a saving of 4c ,

I second PAR's suggestion of BoteCote, I have used it many time and am very happy

 

Thanks Guys.
The International brand of sealers, glues and fillers is all I have ever seen in the West, as I said, there are very few timber boats here, so for boat shops to stock too many brands would probably not be viable.

I've been to Queensland several times, only just returned, you would not see anywhere near as many timber boats here in Perth, so I assumed due to the larger turn over in timber boat materials that it would be cheaper in the East.

Par I'm an expert on timber boats, I've read all you posts. In fact I've printed them all out, copied them and my first book on timber boat building comes out soon.

I am currently rejuvinating a 6m boat and the amount of stuff I'm using on that brings me to the conclusion, when I build a new boat, the gunk to stick it together is going to be a major cost.

Thanks for the links Par

 

Send me a copy when you've got it in print.

 

The wood fades to insignificance - it becomes les than 25% of the total hull cost after paint, epoxy, glass, fittings - and dont forget the consumables, so much acetone, glasspaper, etc etc

 

Poida, try FGI, apparently they have a distribution in Canning Vale? WA http://www.fgi.com.au/ or other Fiberglass material suppliers, -yellow pages, Regards from Jeff.

 

Wow, FGI is in Australia?

 

since the sixties, maybe longer, I wasn't around!

WOW do they have FGI in America too?

 

I don't understand the "m" and "mm" stuff.

 

Greg "m" means it tastes pretty good, but "mm" means it tastes really, really good . . .

 

Thanks for the info regarding fgi.
I have downloaded their product listing.
Now for the dumb question.
These appear to be polyester products, how do they differ from acrylic products. For example Par do they taste better?

Acrylic always seems to be recommended for timber boats are polyesters OK?

 

R180 epoxy

Poida, their R180 epoxy is what you want for timber, seems pretty good, I've used in the hundreds of kilos with no probs for sheathing & glueing of timber etc, here's a linky http://www.fgicomposites.com/nz/files/pdfs/howto/Epoxy R180 book volume 2.pdf

All the best from Jeff.

 

Thats good to hear, I just got a quote, and it is a lot less expensive than West Systems - just for a couple of kayaks and a plain vanilla houseboat.

$12 per litre instead of ~ $19 per litre

 

You'll still need to sprinkle some hundred$ & thousand$