bulkheads 1 + 2
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:53 pmI'm looking at bulkhead 1 and especially 2 and wondering if I should epoxy or fiberglass? I'm about to paint and bulkhead 2 in particular looks like it could be more robust/rigid.
I'm not sure if I'm understanding the "epoxy" part of your question correctly, but all the bulkheads and floors (in fact, all of the wood in PocketShip, except for the cabin sole planks) should be coated with epoxy to seal them.
As for 'glassing the bulkheads, the manual says not...just fillet. Of course when you 'glass the bilge, you carry the 'glass up an on to the bulkhead a few inches.
That being said, there was a post quite a long time ago from chaertl about applying fiberglass tape to the bulkheads. I believe that he applied tape to both sides of this bulkheads. Sam Devlin also recommends doing this in his book on Stitch and glue boatbuilding. After Chris' post and reading Sam's book, I decided to apply tape all the way up on the forward sides of builkheads 1 and 2, and up the transom (Sean did that one his boat, and it seemed like a great idea if you are planning on hanging an outboard). I feel as though the tape I added was overkill, particularly as I've added the cockpit decking, topsides and cabin deck framing....the boat woudl be plenty strong and rigid without the tape. But it didn't take long to put it in, and though it meant extra sanding, it wasn't THAT much extra sanding....