DIY Guides

DIY Fiberglass Boat Floor Repair

I found this great guide on monsterguide.com that I think all of you should read. Your boat’s floor can root over the years and so it becomes dangerous for you and your crew to move safely around the vessel. At some point you will have to consider repairing or replacing your boat’s floor. It is very important to assess the damage correctly so you don’t start the repair and by the time you are done you realise you forgot to renovate the foundations for the floor. These are usualy made out of wood and are covered with fiberglass. Moisture can start to build up inside the fiberglass cover and just imagine what will come out in a few years. Check out the Fiberglass How-To Guide and Basic Fiberglass Molding Techniques to get a general idea on what you have to do. Also Boat Plans for Boat Builders might shead some light on the topic.

Assessing the Damage

Locate and correctly mark the areas of the fiberglass boat which have been damaged. Keep the required materials ready so that you can start working on the repairs.

The damage often results in delamination, so tap the area with the back of a screwdriver to see the extent of the damage to the laminate. Solid sounds crisp and sharp, while the delaminated part sounds dull. You can always compare by tapping one side that is good, and then the damaged area to notice any differences.

Repairing the Damage

The repair process is devided into eight easy and understandable steps. if you follow them I am sure you will make a fine job restoring your boat’s floor. Read more…

Technorati Tags: damage, diy, fiberglass, floor, guide, repair

Building Your Own Canoe Trailer Plan

Canoeing is simply one of the most pleasant spare time activities these days. Plenty of people like to pack up and head to neighboring cities where kayaking and canoeing are well loved. And there are just too many things to try while canoeing. You can swim; you can fish; or simply take pleasure in boating alongside the wave.

There can be situations that you have got to carry not just one, but multiple canoes, maybe one for each member of the family or friend that likes to go along. In this situation, you wanted to build a canoe trailer to be able to carry all the canoe along with no trouble.

A canoe trailer serves as a device you can attach to your vehicle and could bring as many as 12 canoes at one time. Canoeing is more enjoyable if it is shared with other companies. Canoe trailer might also be necessary to carry along additional equipments like paddles, canoeing equipments, and food perhaps.

If you plan to build a canoe trailer by yourself, here’s what you must perform to build a usable and complete canoe trailer. Read more…

Technorati Tags: canoe trailer, kayak trailer, trailer plan

Daniel Holden’s Plans4Boats Review

Created by Daniel Holden, Plans4Boats is one of the most popular boats plans packages online in these days.
On this Plans4Boats Review we are going to take a look at this product and see what are the pros and cons of this package.

Plans 4 boats Review – What Precisely Is Plans 4 boats?

Created by Daniel Holden, a DIY boat building specialist who has been building different boats for over 20 years, Plans 4 boats is a complete package that contains more than 250 plans and projects of small boats for oar, sail, and motor.

With the assistance of his package, Daniel Holden promises that boat fans will study the fundamentals of making a boat, the equipment needed, the materials required and all other vital elements in creating their very own boat.

However, with so many boat plans and projects packages on the market at the moment is this product any different than all the others?

To answer this question let’s talk about a few of the advantages and disadvantages of the Plans4boats product.

Read more…

Technorati Tags: boat plans, diy boat plans, plans4boats, wooden boat plans

Boat Hull Design to AutoCad in 3 Easy Steps

Hull Designer is a simple, interactive, visual 3-d hull design Windows program for modeling and developing panels for hard chine construction. By using it you are able to find Center of Boyancy, Center of Lateral Area, Length Waterline, and righting moment (pitched or heeled) among other calculations. You can also create patterns for stem, stern, bulkheads, up to 10 chines, and up to 8 frames for construction. Includes a 3, 4, or 5 sheet nesting and hand-plotting capability and output to VRML 1.0, DXF, HPGL, or Carlson plotters. Includes sample designs and Word 6.0 manual.

This tutorial is very usefull for designing your own boat and even for redesigning other boats according to their boat plans which you can find in the DIY Boat Plans for Boat Building guide.

1. Hulls is a great hull design shareware program by Gregg Carlson. First you have to build your hulls drawing. The best way to do this is by using  HulWiz HulWiz Link to get started and then modify your design in Hulls by pulling and stretching each station.  Save your hull and then click the “vrml” button on the Hulls main screen.  It’s important to “save” the file first prior to clicking the vrml button.  When you click the vrml button the software will save a file in your default directory with a .wrl extension.

Read more…

Technorati Tags: 3d, boat, boat design, boat plans, design, hull, hull design, hulls

Fiberglass DIY Step-By-Step Guide

Working with fiberglass is not so difficult as many people think and it if usually very fun to do. A lot of people has asked me how to do it and where I have learned all the stuff I do with fiberglass and where an individual can find these information in order to learn to work with it. Every time someone asks me about my work I take some time to explain to them how the whole process looks like.

Usually I get asked where I have learned all this stuff but there is no simple answer to that. I can tell you about many online tutorials that I have used to learn how to work with fiberglass but at the end you must try it on your own skin to learn how to master the technique. I read a simple fiberglass guide written by Drew Wilson at Explorer Forum. It gives you all the basics that you need to know when you decide to work with fiberglass.

After I read this great fiberglass tutorial I bought a very cheap fiberglass kit which included some fiberglass resin and mat. It was enough to try to start building a inflatable boat steering console for my first boat Lean I. I had no knowledge on the topic despite reading an article about it.

Since the fiberglass kit was cheap I decided that I can waste some money to try something new and so I read the instructions on the fiberglass kit box and started working. I build a wooden mold for my console which I then coated with one layer of fiberglass mat. The kit I bought was just enough to cover my console with one layer.

After my first layer dried I went back to the supply shop and bought some more materials, that is about 5 kg of fiberglass resin and about 3 kg of mat. I then applied another 5 layers over the first layer and let it to dry. When it dried I removed my wooden mold and what was left was my custom made fiberglass mold for inflatable boat steering console.

I then used some molding wax to wax my console mold form the inside and when it dried I applied white boat epoxy paint. I then fiberglassed the inside of the mold with fiberglass. You should apply about five layers of fiberglass to get a strong steering console. I also fiberglassed in a piece of plywood that was later used as a mounting for steering mechanism and steering wheel. And that was it. I had a brand new custom made inflatable boat steering console and it was a lot cheaper than if I had bought it. Read more…

Technorati Tags: boat, boat manual, boat renovation, boatbuilding, diy, diy boat, epoxy resin, fiberglass, fiberglass mat, fiberglass resin, inflatable boat, marterials, poliester resin, roving

Bimini boat top covers guide

I quickly covered bimini tops in one of my last posts where I was writing about 10 Thing You Should Have On Your Boat. If you have time I suggest you red it and post a feedback if you think I missed something important.

Bimini tops can make a real difference in your boating comfort. They can very well protect you from direct sun and rain. Putting a bimini on your boat means you won’t have to be exposed to the direct sun while you are sailing around. You can build a bimini on your boat if you’re willing to invest in some fabric, aluminum or stainless steel tubing and a few fittings. All the needed materials can be bought online.

How to Select Your Bimini Top

Read more…

Technorati Tags: bimini boat tops, bimini parts, Boat Accessories, boat bimini, boat tips, boat tops, build a bimini, diy boat