Exterior Wood Finishes

[Bill]

". . . thump thump, splash." Ah yes, the sound of things hitting the water. The area around my slip includes numerous screwdrivers, fasteners, winch handles, eye-glasses and even two mobile phones! Yes, two.

[Mike Goodwin]

Willie,
The epifanes I use does not require sanding if recoated within 72 hrs.
I lightly sand the next to last coat to take out the inevitable "booger" and kamikaze bugs , but that is all. Never had a problem with this technique in 15 years of use.

[CupOTea]

Don Casey's book - This Old Boat - has a relatively thorough section on brightwork. He talks mainly about teak and CupOTea IV has the original mahogany coamings (getting ready to start varnishing them with Epiphanes in two weeks) but he says wait until the last coat or two to bother sanding between coats. Also, has some interesting techniques for keeping air and particles out of the varnish (filtering through panty hose etc)

I'm mostly concerned about finding replacement screws for some of the ones I took out which were shot. Also about applying hole filling techniques seen on other threads to the holes for the screws that hold the coamings on which are horizontal.

Lastly, when I took the coamings off there was what I believe to be an original transluscent rubbery substance of some kind between the wood and the fiberglass. It was on pretty thick in some spots. Wondering what people are using in its place these days when reattaching the coamings.

P.S. This is my first post on this amazing site. Ready to launch Cup O Tea IV this spring. This Commander (#290) is my first boat. The information gleaned here has been immensely helpful.

[Theis]

A Lot of questions: See how I do with the answers.

1. Replacement Screws. With the exception of the vary largest bolts, everything is available in stainless from WEST, except that they will have Phillips heads. The largest bolts, like the ones that hold the coaming to the cockpit, are available from Jamestown Distributors, as I recall. Only use either stainless, or chrome plated brass (No cadmium or zinc plated steel because of eventual rust).

2. What I have used successfully for filling the holes, when the wood screws don't hold, are slivers of wood forced into the empty screw hole. The best choice, in my opinion, are slivers shaved from hardwood furniture pegs. Mahogany slivers are OK, as are wooden match sticks, but the mahogany is softer. Just shove them down there until the hole is full of the sticks, break off the slivers flush with the surface and then put the screw in. If the screw is load bearing, then fill the hold with some sort of water repellant glue, like Franklin Hide Glue, before pushing the slivers in and . Then pur the screws in and let it dry.

3. The clear substance might have been a silicone sealer. However, rather than using that, I would recommend, and have used a sulfite, like 3M 101 for the purpose. Do NOT use a polyurethane adhesive (like 3M 5200). You need a sealer, not an adhesive so that you can get them off if you need to at some time in the future. Don't use the silicone again because if any of it slops over on the fiberglass, paint will not stick, even if you wipe the goo off.

Best wishes on your endeavor. You have a super boat.

[willie]

Welcome aboard!
I was thinking you were referring to covering the bolt heads with a plug or bung. Me too. I bought a bag of 100 if you need 75 or so!
Now this may sound a little dumb on my part (not unusual), but now i'm wondering how to get the bungs from their 1/2'' thickness down to, oh, maybe 1/8 or so to fit flush over the heads of the bolts holding the coamings on. Also the coaming have a great finish right now, bungs don't. So now what? Hold them on a belt sander until they're about right, glue in with elmers? then spot varnish? The bolt heads don't look THAT bad, but would be nice to have the bungs over them. Any wood shop teachers in the group? Gotta be a trick to all these little details!

[Mike Goodwin]

1st the grain of the bung must run with the grain of the board .
You glue the bungs in place as they are (use varnish as the glue) not Elmers , the correct tool for trimming is called a "slick" , a very large and heavy chisel . I have a slick that is 40" long and the blade is 3-3/4" wide . Place the blade flat on the surface and slide forward slicing off the bung excess. It can be done without f***ng the varnish .
Not having a slick , and I bet a beer you don't , you can use an orbital sander and sand the bung down flat to the surface ( of course that f**s the finish ) and you get a nice fit and finish.
Sanding the bungs with a belt sander before install is asking for a spot on Americas Funniest Videos.
Last year I made over 4,000 bungs and installed them on the Schooner Virginia , you might call me the expert , I also trained a helper in bung cutting and making and taught several volunteers to install bungs.

[ebb]

Most carpenters will have a set of Fuller's countersink drills for 4 or 5 screw sizes and corresponding plug cutters. The drills are used in hand-held tools while the plug cutters are used in the press. These plugs are slightly truncated - unlike the bagged ones - so that when tapped in the hole they usually fit tight. Store bought plugs may not fit well because they are parallel sided. Make-yer-owns also have a nice rounded edge what makes it easy to start them.

Tight fitting plugs are needed for first class varnish work. There's no way to avoid the tell tale ring the plug makes. That's why the tighter they are the better they disappear. Any glue you use will feature the ring. Like Mike sez, on bright-work you have to line up the grain of the plug and plank, and you must use varnish when you put them in. You are 'sealing' the wood and the screw.

Thus in new work a screw that is driven home tight in a 'properly countersinked' hole (the Fuller's have removable collars that show the optimum depth for the plug) the plug will mate exactly in the hole and set tight.

Old work, where the plug has been dug out - you could not do this if the plug had been glued in!!! - there is the problemish. One way is to ignore the countersink and go with a larger screw size. Leaving the flat head exposed, flat with the surface, imco doesn't look all that bad on the coamings. Another solution MAY be to use donut washers to cover the hole and feature the round head screws as expensive jewelry. If done right it doesn't protrude much, 1/16"(?)

In absence of a slick, a couple of commoner-garden Stanley chisels will do. Mike's method uses chisel width to keep you from gouging the plank as you very well can do with a narrow blade. A no slick method might be to use your widest chisel, chamfer side down on the plank but canted UP a bit off the surface so that when you knock the plug excess off you leave some still there.

With the chisel resting on the work - you hit the plug slightly UP, not level. This is because the grain on the plug may not be parallel and some of the plug in the hole might get knocked out with the waste from below the surface. Then you carefully pare down the remainder very carefully with a sharp narrow blade. Paring from the LOW side to the high side you can get it very flat and true. Sanding is counterproductive on wood you have already gone thru the numbers or varnished. Fix the no flats when sanding the first layers of arnish.

If you are stuck with a larger hole than the plug you have, and haven't got any more time to fiddle, you might put a dot of 5minute epoxy on the bottom of the plug and hope that holds it. The assumption here is that the regular 5minit stuff is very brittle and next time an awl would be used to pry the glue out of the screw head slot, good luck. Don't glue the whole plug in, remember the next guy may be you!