DIY Wooden Grommets Plan
Recently I was searchin for some good boat plans and found this great plan for these wooden grommets. A dinghy I was building needed a simple means to attach a line to the bow for towing and mooring. I really didn’t want a metal ring bolt sticking out of the transom, but simply drilling a hole through it wasn’t the answer either. These wooden grommets fit the task perfectly.
Wooden Grommets Step-by-step Guide
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1. step - Cut three wood discs with a hole in the center. Hole saws are an excellent choice for this operation. The center disc should be thicker than material it will be placed through by slightly more than the thickness of the saw blade you’ll be using the split ti later. |
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2. step - Glue together with a dowel for alignment. |
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3. step - Trim dowel flush with the disc faces. |
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4. step - Bore center hole with hole saw or Forstner bit. |
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5. step - Shape the edges and sand the center bore to your satisfaction. On large grommets, a roundover bit and a router will do this job. More delicate grommets will require less aggressive methods. |
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6. step - Split into two rings. |
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7. step - Bore opening for grommet. Dry fit, trimming and sanding center of grommet to fit. |
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8. step - Finished assembly. |
You can download a full DIY Wooden Grommets Plan in PDF format here.
Also be sure to visit our other great tutorials like Making Accent Stripes On Your Wooden Boat or visit Free Boat Building Plans Category on Free Woodworking Plans Archive.
Categories: Boat Plans, Boatbuilding Tags: boat, bore, center, fit, grommets, hole, plan, plans, wooden
Step by Step Fiberglass Boat Repair Guide
See how to patch a small hole in your boat’s hull using West System epoxy kit. (Video Rating: 3 / 5)
Fiberglass Boat Repair Step by Step Guide
Step 1.
Examine the pattern and location of cracks in your boat’s hull to determine their cause. If the pattern or location indicates flexing, examine the interior side of the panel to determine the best location for additional reinforcing. If the cracks are a result of impact, examine the interior side of the panel to determine whether damage extends through the entire laminate.
Step 2.
Remove any surface contaminants such as wax, oil or mold release. Wipe an area at least twice as large as the damaged area with a wax and silicone remover (Dupont Prep-Sol® #3919S), acetone or other appropriate solvent. Dry the area with clean paper towels before the solvent evaporate.
Step 3.
Open the cracks for repair. Use a sharpened “V” shaped tool to scrape down to the bottom of the cracks. A puncture-type can opener with the tip sharpened to about 90° works well. Beveling the sides of the crack provides more bonding area for the repair. It may be more effective to grind out an entire area of many, closely spaced or deep cracks. Scrape or grind as deep as necessary to reach solid, undamaged material. The depth of the crack will determine which course of repair to follow:
- Shallow cracks or scrapes that affect only the gelcoat layer may be repaired with the gelcoat repair techniqe. If necessary, reinforce the laminate to reduce flexing as described in Section 2.3. Some small cracks or chips can be filled with a gelcoat touch-up kit.
- Minor cracks or scrapes that run through the gelcoat into the first chopped strand mat layers of the laminate should be repaired with epoxy using the procedures described below. Finish with the gelcoat repair technique. If necessary, reinforce the laminate to reduce flexing.
- Deep cracks extending into woven fabric of the laminate require a structural repair before beginning the cosmetic gelcoat repair. If the crack extends into or through the woven fabric of the skin, follow the procedures. If a core has delaminated or is damaged from moisture penetration or impact, follow the appropriate procedure.
For better and more detailed explanation of the fiberglass boat repair procedures described above you should look into the official West Systems Epoxy Guide which can be found at http://www.westsystem.com.au/files/fibreglass_boat_repair__maintenance/rm_fiberglass_boat_repair_and_maintenance.pdf.
Categories: Boatbuilding, DIY Guides Tags: boat, boat repair, cracks, fiberglass, fiberglass boat, gelcoat repair, repair
Build A Custom Boat Fuel Tank
Building fuel tanks is a delicate matter, especially for boats, where safety must be your very first concern. Usually boat fuel tanks are built out of stainless steel and/or diferent plastic materials. You can find all sorts of fuel tanks on the market, from special fuel resistant PVC to a fiberglass and epoxy build fuel tanks and steel tanks. For a small boat, the best and cheapest thing to go with is a simple plastic fuel tank. They come in variety of sizes and shapes so you can find one that fits your boat best.
I usually preform some modifications on my boat before summer and this year I decided that I will try to gain some extra space under the back seat of my boat, and decided to modify the double bottom of my boat and install a custom made boat fuel tank inside the double floor. Of course my boat wasn’t designed for this kind of fuel tank so I will naturally have to modify everything. By this I mean, that I will need a little extra strength to be added to the original bottom and make some kind of fuel tank brackets that will hold the tank in place. I will also need a custom made fuel tank.
Design your own plans for a wooden boat
By now you know that to achieve anything in life you need to put a lot of effort in it. It doesn’t matter what it is, but if you want to succed you need effort and a great desire to learn new things. If you have enough will to learn new stuff you surely will rise to the top instantly.
How It All Begins
This is the basic guide line for designing your own plans for a wooden boat and eventually build one. Wooden boat are very flexible and nobody said that wooden boats should have the same shape and size as all other boats you are seeing at harbours, marinas and yacht clubs? When you are thinking about desigining your own boat, let me just tell you to be sure to include you tase in the proscess. This will bring a lot of satisfaction into the process and the final product – your brand new wooden boat. Noah made his own boat; did God design it for him? The answer is no. So don’t be afraid!
Tools Needed
To start creating your wooden boat blueprint you will need some material like wood, ply, glue, nails, mechanical pencils and erasers, a ruler, a T-shaped square and some cartridge paper. Beside that, your skills and your effort to work on the project will play a major part in this stage of the proces. You can make your job a lot easier by using a professional 3D Boat Design Software which will do a lot of the work for you.
You may think why a pencil has been chosen instead of a normal pen. When you are a beginner at boat building you surely would have to make many attempts at drawing the shape and the curves before you come up with the right one. Every begginner goes trough this and you are no exception. So if you use a pencil to draw your boat blueprint it can be easialy erased and drawn once again accurately without making too many markings that would confuse you when you start cutting and building parts.
How To Build A Wooden Canoe
Building a boat is not an easy task and you must master all the necessary skills such as woodworking, boat building, fiberglassing, etc. I started building boats as a real amateur and had no knowledge about the proces. I rented some books and surfed on google and slowly learned some basic knowledge. But I made some serous progress when I decoded that I will build my self a boat. I started by looking for free boat plans and discovered some really good wooden boat plans for beginners. I decided that the easiest one to start with is a simple wooden canoe plan. To build this wooden canoe, you must have some basic woodworking tools, some boat building knowledge and some free space at home. You can find a couple of really great and easy to build canoe plans bellow and if you are thinking about building your self a boat, that is the way to start doing it. You must first learn the basics if you want to start building some serious wooden boats. So if you are a rookie in boat building start with these free wooden canoe blueprints, or you can go directly to some bigger boats by following this link to find Best Wooden Boat Plans.
Free Wooden Canoe Plans:
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Free boat plans for a 14′ canoeThe plans include a complete tutorial about transferring dimensions from blueprints to the plywood. More tutorials about stitch and glue and fiberglass are available at our web site bateau.com There are two versions of the plans: US units or metric. Click on the links above to download or see the plans. Be patient: there are 25 pages, 1 MB plus! |
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Wacky Lassie Canoe PlansThis boat is designed to be quickly built by kids using modified Bolger/Payson “tack & tape” construction methods, with techniques that minimize the use of hazardous materials, and maximize suitable children’s skills. Kids love these boats, and I’ve found they learn to control double-paddles much more quickly than a single canoe paddle. |
Categories: Boat Plans, Boatbuilding Tags: boat, building, canoe, plans, wooden
Fiberglass Boat Molding Tutorial
Most of today’s boats are built using fiberglass as the main material and molding as the method of building. Usualy there is a huge negative mold for every boat part that used when the boat is put together and this negative mold is used to make positive molds. Boat is then assembled form a bunch of parts that are made from molds. Molds are also made from fiberglass and are covered with a perfect layer of molding gelcoat. Boat builder than applies some molding wax over the glecoat and polishes it so it will later on be easier to remove the part form the mold. Molds are usualy build on a large scale part that is sanded and polished to perfection. Parts are usualy made out of foam or wood. Boat hulls are typically made from plywood or some other wood.
You may also want to read the Fiberglass Guide before you start working on your mold or find an appropriate boat plan to build mold form.
Be sure to check the Boat Building Supply Shop for all you need for boatbuilding.
Categories: Boatbuilding Tags: boat mold, build a mold, fiberglass mold, gelcoat, mold for boat, mold making
