Bunged up screws

DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,690
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
I have leaks along my toe rail. There is a very active owner's group for Islander Freeport 36s and it seems this is a common thing in these boats. There is very good information on how to open up the hull to deck joint, clean it out, and seal it back up. The first step is to remove the teak toe rail.
20201010_124008.jpg

The problem is the bungs appear to have been glued in, could be epoxy. Does anyone have any advice removing bonded in bungs and then slot head screws filled with epoxy?
There are a LOT of them and at this rate I will be in for over 1000 hours just removing screws.
 
Aug 12, 2020
53
Lancer 36 Pago Pago
Someone with better knowledge will hopefully come along soon; when i had to deal with a different but similar issue, i used a Forstner bit sized for the bung in a portable drill to drill them out to get to the screws.
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,994
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
I removed the bungs in my hand rails using a sheet rock screw. Then I worked on the screws beneath. 9 out of 10 came out with out too much work. That last one caused my hair to turn grey.
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,323
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Sheet rock screws into the bung will remove them.

If the head is messed up, take a look at this video.

 
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DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,690
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
A former poster here "Old School Neil" described his method in post #3, driving a screw into center of plug and using it to extract the screw.
How to remove counter edge?
Thanks for the link. I tried the #6 screw trick but it was only moderately successful. In that link there was also someone saying they hammered a screw driver in to break the bungs. I hammered a flat head screw driver into the bungs and gently twisted. Half twisted right out, the other half broke up enough I could chip them out easily.
There are 5 sections of cap rail on each side. The aft section, where I started, must have been removed by a previous owner since it had different screws and the bungs were epoxied in. The other 4 sections the bungs and screws came out easily.
 
Jan 11, 2014
11,323
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Jumping ahead to when it is time to put it all back together...

Use varnish to glue the bungs in. Dip the bung in a bit of varnish, align the grain, and stick it back into the cap rail. For this application varnish is a strong enough glue. Alternatively use some plain yellow wood glue.
 
Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
I was crewing on a T3700 earlier this summer and the skipper kinda smacked a dock pole while docking. Kinda is being kind. The teak rail was pretty beat up. Splinters, maybe some meat, and some hardware displaced. So I'm thinking a boat buck or two, since the broken section would need to be removed, including removing lots of bunged in screws. The wood would probably need to be replaced, maybe steam bent. And the other side had damage from the pole on that side. It wasn't the best docking I've witnessed.
I really liked my flexible rub rails on my H356. They would have bent and then sprung back to normal shape. Called Hunters what you will but I think they were one up on the venerable Tartan for at least that.