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laminated denim knife handle

Readers’ Projects, Issue 30

Laminated Denim Knife Handle Material

Knife makers Cliff Fendley and Mike Carter decided to try their hand at making laminated denim knife handle material. After some research, they chose to use WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin with 206 Slow Hardener to laminate pieces of denim fabric into blocks from which they could machine knife handles. Mike first made a 5″ x 7″ piece about 1/2″ thick with alternating front and back layers of blue jean denim. Cliff made a 1″ thick 5″ x 5″ Piece from faded blue jean and 1″ thick 5″ x 5″ piece from faded blue jean and a 1″ thick 1″ x 7″ piece from alternating layers of tan and black denim which he twisted before pressing.

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Golden Day 1976

Looking Back on Epoxy Technology

How WEST SYSTEM® Products Got Their Start

By Meade Gougeon — GBI Founder
Epoxyworks 28

Cover Photo: Top image – First GBI crew building GOLDEN DAZY in the early ’70s. Bottom image – The Gougeon Brothers, Inc. team in 2008.

 

2009 was the 40th Anniversary of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. 1969 marked a point in the Gougeon brothers’ careers when they applied all they had learned about wooden structures and epoxy technology to manufacture, for the first time, a product utilizing wood/epoxy composite construction. The full story of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. begins long before that date and is sure to continue well into the next 40 years.

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A graphite composite fly rod with all of the guides attached with G/flex to maximize the rod’s flexibility.

Attaching Guide Lines to Fly Rods with G/flex

By Tim Veale

Above: A graphite composite fly rod with all of the guides attached with G/flex to maximize the rod’s flexibility.

Fly fishing, particularly for Atlantic Salmon, has been my lifelong hobby. The fly rod itself has an ancient past but its technical prowess as an instrument to launch line and fly to a designated spot on the river was epitomized by the arrival of handcrafted split bamboo rods in the late nineteenth century. Continue reading

2-story deck repair

Saving the Deck

A 2-Story Deck Repair

by Jeff Blackmon
Above: Blackmon’s two-story deck is supported by 6×6 redwood posts resting on concrete footings.

I needed to make a deck repair because there was wood rot at the bases of the support posts for my large, two-story patio deck. This bi-level deck has patio furniture on the top level and a built-in hot tub on the lower level. The deck is constructed of 6×6 support posts, 2×12 flooring supports and 2×4s for the finished floor. All of this is redwood. Continue reading

The varnished interior has 10 to 12 coats of Captain's Spar Varnish™ over the 105/207 epoxy coated surfaces

Building the Arch Davis Sand Dollar

By Nelson Niederer

Above: The varnished interior of my Arch Davis Sand Dollar has 10 to 12 coats of Captain’s
Spar Varnish™ over the 105/207 epoxy coated surfaces.

The Arch Davids Sand Dollar is designed as a row-able sailboat but, since my father, brother, and I have about a dozen sail and powerboats between us, mine would be a rowboat only. This meant I didn’t need to build a centerboard and trunk, a rudder, or a mast. The seats, bow deck, and gunwales are made of mahogany with Sitka accents. The lightweight Sand Dollar and its trailer tow easily behind a motorcycle. The interior wood was left natural—seats, bow deck and gunwales are mahogany with Sitka accents. The hull is painted with House of Color™ Midnight Blue Pearl.

We’ve had various types of boats in my family since the ’60s, beginning with a painted canvas and flat-bottom wooden canoe my father built which we used for bow fishing. My grandfather bought a 1959 Lonestar fiberglass ski boat with a 35 hp Evinrude outboard for his kids and grandkids, among the first seen on Sand Lake in northern Michigan. Grandpa never set foot in it though. He preferred his little 14′ aluminum rowboat powered by his trusty old outboard to take us fishing for largemouth bass and pike.

I have been using WEST SYSTEM® epoxy since about 1973 when my brother Randy and I bought a plywood hydroplane-style boat with a 90 hp outboard. As teenagers, we beat the hell out of it. We broke it on a regular basis and we’d glue it back together with epoxy filled with reinforcing fibers. We finally broke it beyond repair in ’76—it made a great bonfire.

Gluing the keel to the transom and aft bulkhead of the Arch Davis Sand Dollar.

Gluing the keel to the transom and aft bulkhead of the Arch Davis Sand Dollar.

Sanding begins on the coated hull to get it ready for varnish.

Sanding begins on the coated hull to get it ready for varnish.

I cut my boat-building teeth, so to speak, building a modified Optimist pram. I borrowed the patterns our local community sailing association (SBCSA) used to build their fleet and laid out the hull sides, bow, and stern with 3″ more freeboard. Rather than a sailboat, I intended to use it as a rowboat tender for my 30′ Sea Ray. With this project under my belt, I was ready to widen my boat-building skills.

While reading my favorite magazine, WoodenBoat, I came across an ad selling plans for the Sand Dollar from Arch Davis. I took a chance and ordered a set online. I studied the plans for a few days and decided this was a project I could build by myself in my garage, which is set up as a woodworking shop. I’ve built a lot of furniture—bed frames, tables, and clocks—which are in essence big square boxes with fancy trim. This boat would be anything but that. I found the plans, instructions, and video to be excellent and very helpful.

I started by building the stem. I laid out the pattern (which comes full size on Mylar™ film) over a 1″ mahogany board, then used a nail to poke holes defining the shape. It was easy to simply connect the dots and cut out the part. The rough shape was sawn from 2″×1″ thick boards laminated together. Next I built the transom from two layers of ¼” okoume plywood, also laminated together. I used the two-step bonding technique as recommended in the WEST SYSTEM User Manual for each of these parts. I coated each mating surface with unthickened epoxy, allowed it to penetrate, then mixed resin and hardener and thickened it to a catsup consistency with 406 Colloidal Silica filler. I applied the mixture to one of the surfaces and secured the parts together until cured. This does take more time but provides a more reliable bond by preventing glue-starved joints. gain, I laid out the Mylar film pattern and used a nail and hand pressure to create the shape. I’m apparently not as hard as nails because this really hurt my hands.

With both ends made, I started building the strongback from 1″×10″ clear pine. It is basically a long skinny box on sawhorses. After making sure it was level and square, I attached the frames to it. Next, I spray painted around the legs of the sawhorses so I could move the whole assembly and put it back exactly where I’d started if for some reason I had to move it.

 The first parts mounted to the strongback are the temporary frames, which help define the hull shape but will not be a part of the boat. I cut these frames from ¾” particle board, but this time I tried using carbon paper under the Mylar pattern to trace the lines instead of using nails. This was much easier and faster. I defined and drew a centerline and starting point onto the top surface of the strongback so I could position and layout the frames accordingly. I took care to mount them square to the centerline and perpendicular to the horizontal plane. I mounted the transom next, forming the last “frame.” Then I mounted the stem to the front of the strongback and extended it into the first frame. There are two bulkheads, one each fore and aft, both cut from ¼” okoume and framed with Sitka spruce. These were secured to the appropriate temporary frame and remain a structural part of the hull.

The lightweight Arch Davis Sand Dollar and its trailer tow easily behind a motorcycle.

The lightweight Arch Davis Sand Dollar and its trailer tow easily behind a motorcycle.

 At this point the basic shape of the hull was defined and it was time to mount the keel. I attached ¾”×5″ mahogany plank to the transom with epoxy and clamps, bending the plank across the frames and securing it to the stem, again with epoxy and clamps. Next came the Sitka spruce stringers—one on each side of the keel and three on each side, glued into notches in the frames.   With the “skeleton” ready, I installed the bottom and side planks which I made from ¼” okoume. The overall length of the stock needed to be 11’6″, so I needed to scarf the plywood to get there. The problem was I’d never made a scarf joint before. So I approached the tech guys at Gougeon Brothers, Inc. My brother Bruce, who is a tech advisor there, showed me a technique using a hand plane and belt sander. My first scarf joint turned out perfect, the last one—not so much. I pre-coated each plank with three coats of 105 Resin®/207 Special Clear Hardener ™, prepped them for installation and glued them in place. I used deck screws as temporary clamps until the epoxy cured.

Now came the character-building portion of the project—fairing the hull. My plan was for the outside hull to be dark blue, so it had to be perfect because any little divot or imperfection would stick out like a sore thumb. Fill and sand, fill and sand, fill and sand. Eventually, it was done to my satisfaction and the hull was ready to be flipped right side up. Now, I would never pretend to know anything about the experience of childbirth, but as soon as I saw the hull upright and it looked like a boat, all the pain of sanding and fairing was immediately forgotten. I had a new baby boat.

The interior wood was left natural. Seats, bow deck, and gunwales are mahogany with Sitka accent. The hull is painted with House of Color Midnight Blue Pearl.

The interior wood was left natural. Seats, bow deck, and gunwales are mahogany with Sitka accent. The hull is painted with House of Color Midnight Blue Pearl.

 The bow has lines of graphite-filled epoxy between the strips for that classic look. But when sanding the graphite mixture I learned dust would get in the wood grain and cast a gray shadow that took some doing to get clean. I asked my brother how I could avoid the issue and he suggested using a black paint pigment instead of the graphite. (see Epoxyworks 21) This worked much better for me and sanded out clean. It’s handy having family on the Gougeon tech staff.

I worked slowly and carefully to fit and install the trim because I wanted it to look like a piece of fine furniture. Once the trim was done it was time to paint the hull. I enlisted >the help and expertise of my nephew Alex, who worked at Psycho Custom Cycle, a motorcycle shop, prepping and painting custom frames and tanks. He arranged for the use of the shop’s facilities to spray paint the hull. We decided on House of Color™ Midnight Blue Pearl, which requires a four-step process: primer, black base coat, midnight blue, and four coats of clear. The paint is popular these days on cars—a “flip-flop” color that looks blue or black depending on the conditions at any given moment. The hull looks awesome and draws lots of oohs and aahs from many an admirer. Thanks, Alex. I took the boat home to varnish the interior woodwork, applying 10 to 12 coats of Captain’s Spar Varnish™ over the epoxy-encapsulated surfaces. You know what that meant more endless hours sanding between coats. I asked my pal J. R. Watson at Gougeon Brothers how many coats of varnish I should apply. He said three coats would be adequate, but just keep going until I couldn’t take it anymore.

After addressing a few minor details I was finally ready to launch my Sand Dollar. It rows great—easy and fast. In the end, with all my complaining about sanding aside, the boat was no work at all to build, just pure fun. I don’t know what I’ll do with it now that the building is complete. I’ll probably sell it (as of this writing it is for sale) and start another project. I’ve been eyeing plans for an electric launch. You know the story of the boatbuilder who won the lottery? When asked what he’d do with the winnings he replied “I guess I’ll keep building boats until I run out of money.” Smart man.

A final thought from Arch Davis for the amateur builder: “Don’t point out your mistakes and nobody will ever know.”

The bow has lines of black pigment-filled epoxy between mahogany and spruce accent stripes for that classic look.

The bow has lines of black pigment-filled epoxy between mahogany and spruce accent stripes for that classic look.

Nelson's completed Sand Dollar

Nelson’s completed Sand Dollar.

Test blocks glued to the underside of the cover.

Plastic Engine Cover Repair

By Jeff Wright — Vice President of Technical Services

My wife’s 2000 Audi TT has a very sleek shape, and these smooth lines are carried under the hood with molded plastic engine covers that provide a very clean-looking engine. Unfortunately, when I was servicing a burned-out bulb, I attempted to remove the engine covers in the wrong sequence which caused a tab to snap off.   Continue reading

Marquetry Made Easy

By Al Witham

There is a simple way for those of us who may be “artistically challenged” to produce easy marquetry inlaid furniture, jewelry boxes, canoe decks, trays, etc. with a modest investment in equipment and materials, in a reasonable period of time, and with eye-pleasing results. I have no formal training in making marquetry inlays but have found a method that works for me. I showed this method to a friend who is a shop teacher; he now has students as young as ten incorporating it into their school projects with excellent results. My method is adaptable, user-friendly within limits, and forgiving of minor cutting errors. Even novices can produce great-looking marquetry. Continue reading

Julie examines a 3" × 6" coupons after a long exposure in the QUV test machine. In a matter of days, the accelerated test subjects the samples to the equivalent of months of normal weather.

Weather Forecast: Destruction

QUV Accellarating Weather Test Machine

By Julie Jezowski

Above: Julie examines a 3″ × 6″ coupons after long exposure in the QUV weather test machine. In a matter of days, the accelerated test subjects the samples to the equivalent of months of normal weather.

I’ve been with Gougeon Brothers, Inc. since 1996, and 13 of those years were in the Order Entry Department where I talked to many interesting customers working on all sorts of projects. In 2007 I became a member of the Technical Department. Now, rather than giving product pricing to customers or advising them on the quantity they may need, I’m able to see how those products evolve from just a mere gleam in someone’s eye to a product we are proud to call our own. For me, being a part of this process means among many other things, handling our testing data. My role ranges from filing it all the way to building databases for the many tests we perform in-house. Continue reading

The repaired panel is back in place on the camper. A coat of Krylon Fusion™ textured, plastic- compatible paint completed the repair.

Camper Panel Repair

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: The repaired camper panel is back in place on the camper. A coat of Krylon Fusion® textured, plastic-compatible paint completed the camper repair.

Todd Lynch, one of our valued employees, brought in a damaged plastic panel from the back end of an 11-year-old pop-up camper and asked if it was worth fixing. It came from his hunting camper which had been rear-ended. He just wanted it to be functional. The impact had made cracks at nearly every screw hole for holding the panel in place, making it doubtful it would last another trip down the highway. Continue reading

Both wood/epoxy and traditionally built canoes and kayaks were on display.

Small Craft Builders Rendezvous

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: At the Small Craft Builders Rendezvous, both wood/epoxy and traditionally built canoes and kayaks were on display.

In July 2008 I attended the Small Craft Builders’ Rendezvous in Peterborough, Ontario at the invitation of Ted Moores and Joan Barrett. Their company, Bear Mountain Boats, was one of the sponsors of the gathering which included modern wood and epoxy constructed boats as well as traditionally built wooden canoes. Those attending ranged from professional builders to serious amateurs. Continue reading