Epoxy potting hardware - problem

[Sefuller]

Our O'day 34 has a hull liner in the cabin and in the course of rebedding the hardware by drilling out and potting the holes with epoxy, I have run into a problem while working on the handrails. The cabintop handrails bolt through the deck and through the interior cabin handrails, the problem is that there is a hull liner inside, and there is a gap between the actual deck and the hull liner, so when I try to fill the hole in the deck with epoxy, it runs out between the underside of the deck and the hull liner. The holes in the hull liner are only 3/16" so I can't get anything in there to plug the underside of the hole in the deck. While I would never advocate the use of any substantial quantity of window foam on a boat, I am wondering if I could shoot enough urethane foam into the void to fill just the area around the hole and then re-drill it and use the dremel to create my void for the epoxy in the core area as I have already done - the foam would act as a sort of dam to keep the epoxy from escaping into the area between the liner and deck. Any thoughts or other suggestions?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Squidd]

BTDT...

 

[Maine Sail]

I am wondering if I could shoot enough urethane foam into the void to fill just the area around the hole and then re-drill it and use the dremel to create my void for the epoxy in the core area as I have already done - the foam would act as a sort of dam to keep the epoxy from escaping into the area between the liner and deck. Any thoughts or other suggestions?

Thanks,
Scott

yes that can be done but be sure to use "minimal expanding foam" otherwise you'll get a nice bulge in your cabin liner..

 

[Sefuller]

Thanks - I think I'll try it tomorrow barring an epiphany overnight.

 

[Bill Roosa]

I once took a small piece of glass cloth wetted out and stuck it into the hole and unrolled it using tooth picks. Stick a piece of dowel covered with saran wrap into the hole to keep the cloth from sagging while it set up.
FWIW

 

[Bill Roosa]

That hole was overhead BTW. don't think it would be a solution for a hole underfoot.

 

[kenn]

Some other ideas: I think I would slightly enlarge the holes in the headliner, just enough that I could either put a piece of masking tape over the deck underside hole, or put some plastic wrap on the end of some dowel scrap and jam that into the headliner hole so the dowel end is against the deck underside.

I'd also thicken the epoxy with cotton fiber, just enough to make it less runny.

Be sure to use butyl seal when remounting the cabin-top railing.

 

[walmsleyc]

- Enlarge the hole as necessary from the top, and maybe do not enlarge the hole in the liner. You can make the enlarged hole fairly big, but it should be covered by your cabin top handrail when re-installed.
- tape/plug the hold in the liner from the inside. Make sure it is well sealed.
- Mix thickened epoxy that wont run, but no thicker!
- Fill syringe with thickened epoxy, and place a clear bit of tubing on the tip of the synringe that "just fits" into the hole, doesn't have to be very long.
- From the outside, push the syringe in until it bottoms out on the tape,
- start squeezing the syringe and slowly extracting it. Filling it from the bottom like this prevents bubbles, and voids.
- pause your extraction when the end of the tubing is at the gap between the cabin top and liner (make note of this depth before you begin this process, and maybe mark a line on the tube, and continue squeezing. You want a good amount of thickened epoxy to go in there to fill that gap.
- Continue extracting once you are confident you have squeezed enough in to get between the liner and cabin top.
- let set, drill out if appropriate sized hole.

This should leave you with a solid epoxy potting job, that will not compress when you re-assemble, it will also keep any future leaks from getting between your liner and cabin top.

Chris