It is my opinion (and that of Bob Oram) that Tom over-engineers everything that goes into this boat. His method for the preparation of the deck for cleat installation is an example. I guess I will appreciate the super strong cleat holding if we find ourselves riding out a severe tropical cyclone in a mangrove creek.
Here’s how he did it:
Below – firstly, recapping an earlier post, he turned the deck panel upside-down and routed out a section of the bottom layer of laminate with the balsa core, leaving behind the top laminate. Into this cavity he bonded a similar size piece of good quality ply, and sanded it smooth and level.
Below – whilst still in the upside-down position he bonded a ply doubler.
Below – still recapping an earlier post, into a piece of Duflex (cut to match the ply doubler) he routed out a section of one laminate with the balsa core. This cavity was to hold the aluminium backing plate, which replaces the typical nut and washer fastener system.
Below – next, Tom (temporarily) turned the panel back over the right way, and drilled 25mm holes into the deck/ply doubler section. These will be later filled with an epoxy mixture, which once cured, will be drilled and tapped to match the bolt thread.
Next two photos – Tom wet sanded the aluminium with epoxy (to facilitate a chemical bond), before dropping it into the glue smeared cavity.
Next four photos – With the deck panel turned upside-down again, the two surfaces to be bonded (Duflex/aluminium and ply doubler) were smeared with plenty of epoxy thickened with silica and microspheres, and then joined.
Below – Later we turned the panels over, so Tom could fill the 25mm holes with epoxy.
The next four photos show the final steps before the deck panels could be fitted to the boat, ie. sanding the edges smooth, routing a round-over edge, filleting, glassing and peel-plying the exposed edge of the entire blocking section.
