85 2001 LVL Stringer Project

8122pbrainard wrote: Kris, Looking good!! The coating on the LVL is a water repellent just there for when they're out in the weather on the contruction site. Just take the belt sander to them. I wouldn't worry too much about the voids in the plys. I'd CPES first and then inject some regular epoxy with a glue syringe. You don't need to fill them up completely.

Awesome, thanks for the input!!   

why the layer of mat before putting it in?

Kris,
I like it. Very nice!!! The LVL will be great for those not wanting to go composite and have a hard time finding Doug Fir in their area. I'm glad we now have someone who's using it. Even if the Fir is available, I really think it's a great product for the application.

Hey everyone it had been a while since I last gave an update. Things are still moving forward enven though rather slowly!! After loosing 50 pounds in 2009 I decided that I wanted to help others do the same so I studied and got my personal trainer certification. I now am an online personal trainer with the site I used to loose the weight. So that combined with my normal job has kept me very busy. I also competed in a 10K mud run, an 8k run and an adventure race last year so training for those has kept me away.

The final thing is my Dad had a heart attack last year and passed away so that was a big hit on me as well. This has made me even more health conscious than ever, seeing as I made the weight change to improve my health in the first place.

I have started back to work now, the second main stringer is out and I have cleaned up the hull of all the old fiberglass from the old stringer. The new LVL stringer is cut out, shaped, coated with CPES, then a layer of mat and the drain installed. All that is left is to install it, then lay up some mat on it. After that all the stringers will be in. Woo Hoo, it only took like 3 years. LOL

I am shooting to really get at it and have the boat ready for water in June or July. It will be nice to finally have a boat to take out on the water again!!

Kris

Big Pappa wrote: The first stringer is out!!! I leveled, and braced the boat back up. Taking BFN's advice I put the cradle and pylon back in to level the boat and for future stringer locating. After all that I pulled the Drivers Side Secondary. It was in good shape for the most part but there is rot there. Once I got it out and looked at the there was hardly any glass past half way up the stringer on the starboard side. Here is the floor with the stringer out. [IMG]uploads/7.12.08_001sm.jpg"> Here is a shot of the stringer out of the boat. I broke it in the process of getting it out. I used the foot hammer a little too hard. :-) [IMG]uploads/7.12.08_005sm.jpg"> Here is the measurements of the stringer pieces. I am going to clean it up and create one on the computer for future people to have as a reference. [IMG]uploads/7.12.08_008sm.jpg">

Hey big papa,
Wondering if you were ever able to convert all the measurements to the computer. I also need to start a stringer job on my 2001 and would like to have some good numbers to work off cause I think my stringers are going to be worhless for getting good measurements from. If I can get those measurements I would like to get them into one of my computer programs where I can run full-size patterns from. If that works out good I was thinking of starting a post so if other people would like a full-size pattern to do their stringers from I could run the pattern and mail it out to them. My way of giving back to fellow nautique owners.
Thanks

I agree these patterns would definitely be for a starting point only.
Mainly I would like to make them for having a good starting reference.

OK, Boys and girls after three years from starting this post all 4 of my stringers are in!!! Woo Hoo!!! Lots of working on the boat then it will sit for a month then work on it again and it would sit. They are all 4 in and fiberglassed down, now time to get all the rest completed so I can get it wet again this year and free up the space in my garage from boat parts laying everywhere!!

I got in there today and poped a chalk like where the floor was originally on each side wall and checked my secondaries and they are both just right on height. So I am good on that part I just have a little work on the mains to have everything level and set for the caps to go on. I am going to run a few 8" or 12" (I have not decided yet) strips across all 4 stringers in 4 or 5 places just to tie everything together and build in a little more strength. Then I am going to put my caps on all 4 of the stringers then they will be totally water tight and completed. I am shooting to get that completed this week, then hop on replacing the blocking at the back of the boat.

Here are all the stringers installed Finally!! Mains are LVL and secondaries are 1X Douglas Fir.

Nice Belt sander. Do you like it? I was on the design team for that sander, did a lot of the 3D modeling and drawings for it. It was my favorite project.

I will be starting this process once it warms up and will be referencing several post on the site (including this one).

Looking good!

TimSpangler wrote: Nice Belt sander. Do you like it? I was on the design team for that sander, did a lot of the 3D modeling and drawings for it. It was my favorite project. I will be starting this process once it warms up and will be referencing several post on the site (including this one). Looking good!

I love the sander, there are some times when I wish the left hand side were a little slimmer so I can get it in tight places but it is not that big of a deal. It has all the power that I want, I just have to remember to stop a little more often and let the belt cool down so I quit breaking them. :-) Or find some better belts one.

Big Pappa wrote: I then laid down 2" strips fiber cloth on a 45, then 4" strips fiber cloth on the opposite 45, then 8" strips fiber cloth straight up and down. Each strip was longer than the one before going farther up the srtinger and down the hull with the 8" strip going all the way to the top of the stringer. Once each sides main and secondary were in I went back and laid 8" strips from the top of one down across then to the top of the other. to connect the two with one piece of glass.

If Im following you correctly, then you have 4 layers of cloth going from the sides of the stringers to the hull, only 2 of which are going in the longitudinal direction?

If so, thats significantly less glass than Ive used in the past. Ill let someone better informed on the strength of your schedule to comment whether youre ok or not. Personally, I would probably opt to add a few more layers in the longitudinal direction, and probably at least one layer with significant thickness (mat or biax).

I did the same as yours and followed ski bums when I did mine. I did one layer of 45 degree 2" strips, 1 layer of 4" at the other 45 degree and then 8" straight up and down. But then I also did a layer of mat over the cloth and then laid biaxial over the tops running down the sides over the mat.

2 seasons in and it is still as solid as it was when I did it.

This is what it looked like before the floor went down:

Oh and the drivers side stringers are light colored because I went back today and sanded down the vertical places on the main and put another lay on because it did not stick well in those places. So it is Fiberglass dust you are seeing there.

was able to get some work on the boat this weekend. I started by pulling the boat out of the garage for a bit on saturday and giving it a spray off with the pressure washer to knock about 1/2" of fiberglass dust off of it. I gave the inside a wash off as well getting a lot of the dust out from up under the bow and the under the lip all the way around the boat. Then let it sit in the sun and bake for the day and soak up some rays since it has not seen the light of day for a while.   

But I also got to work on cutting up some 3/4" Marine ply for replacing the blocking that is going back in the boat. I got these parts cut out and ready to be CPESed.
Front Bulkhead
Brace between mains in the front
Block off between Mains and secondaries
The blocks for the Swim Deck
The blocks for the Exhaust
the blocks that mount high on each side (What are these for anyway?)
the Lift ring blocks
and the ply under the front seats

I still have the bracing that goes under the floor and the rear brace between the mains to cut out. I thought I was going to be able to reuse the rear floor, because it looked great on the bottom but after pulling the carpet Sunday and seeing the top it is going to have to be replaced as well. It is still solid but not 100% so it is getting tossed and replaced while I am doing all this work.

I also started working on my planning for the routing of the vents and cable routing for up front. I am going to run 3" pvc for the 3 vents and the 1 cable tube.
For the Battery drain I am using a through hull on the battery side that will connect to a Brass one way drain that I will have in the Bulkhead. That way I can plug up that drain and none of the bilge water can go back up the tube to the battery. I am then going to connect the 2 with a 1" flexible tube with clamps and 5200. When I pulled this area out the tube was broken and lots of water was in the foam under the battery box. I am doing all I can to keep this from happening again.

Here are a few pictures.

This is all of the wood and fiberglass that has come out of the boat.


Here is the boat rubbing it's eyes freshly in the sunlight for the first time in a while.


A pile of wood ready to be CPESed and put into the boat


The old rear floor and the new front floor in the boat along with the PVC I am running for the vents.

TRBenj wrote: Im guessing you now know that marine ply isnt really needed... but Im sure it will work just fine. Regarding the vents, do you have a plan to connect them to the flexible vent hoses at the bow? 3" PVC is 3.5" OD, so getting the hoses over it might be tough. In the past, Ive used 2" (2-3/8" OD) and 2.5" (2-7/8" OD) instead. I couldnt find the 2.5" PVC locally though. On the conduit, 3" is probably OK, but if you have the room to fit 4" in there, you'll thank yourself later when it comes time to run everything through there! Do lay out how everything will be routed early on though- fitting all the vents and conduit past the battery box gets extremely tight. Id be curious to see what your solution for the battery box drain looks like- Ive yet to find a solution that I felt 100% comfortable with. I sealed the batt box up entirely on the last boat.

Yea I figured I would use Marine in the areas that would be covered with Glass. The rear floor is going to be a regular plywood since it is a lot easier to get to if need be.

I will not have room for a 4", the 3" just barely fits in there. I did not think about the hose from the vent down to my vents. Worse case I can get a 3" to 2.5" reducer and put on there. Do you think that would work?

I will put what I have planned for the batter box together in a mock up out of the boat and take a picture to post up so you can see and get a better idea.

TRBenj wrote: Yes, that will work- but it essentially makes the larger 3" vents a waste of space. If you hadnt already purchased the PVC, then I would have suggested you go with 2.5" or 2" instead, which would have made room for a larger conduit.

That is true. I have not cut into the 3" that I have bought so I will have to look into taking it back and getting some 2.5" and 4" PVC. Thanks for the heads up!!