Ep 127 - How To Make Your Own Boat Parts With West System Epoxy 

That piece will be the very last part remaining after a few hundred years from now. And whom ever gets that ship and decides to rebuild it, will surely like that that bow piece doesn't have to be made again... Thumbs Up!

I watch a channel called EnglesCoachShop, a guy who rebuilds wooden coaches and buggies, a true craftsman and he does a bit of impressive steam bending and he preaches that you need to have the steam under pressure in order for it to penetrate the wood

Use birds mouth push sticks please for side pressure and feed pressure; keeping hands well clear of blade when using table saw. Standard 10 digit safety procedure. When you bend allow for spring back and use additional curvature in the bending form work and build to the desired bend on the building form. Polythene bags/sheet wrap to build on contains the mess and precludes gluing to the form. Nice result; we expect no less.....

As it says in one of our hymns "I stand all amazed". Sarinda will be better then she was when built. You guys are turning into master boat builders and Sarinda will last a long time. Thank you for your channel, I look forward to your weekly offerings of solutions to problems encountered in the restoration of an old wooden boat.

One of my first lessons in woodworking at school: "Hammers are for nails, mallets are for chisels."

I used to work for Dominion in the late 80’s as an engineer making those wood working machines, brings back so many memories seeing that big old planer, I probably laid my hands on the bed making it flat to within 15 thou of an inch

You need a space between the wood, don’t overfill the steam box

Probably my favorite episode to date. Keep up the good work.

I've been using West System epoxy since the 1980s. The wood is "mummified" at the moisture level at gluing, so you must strive to maintain this moisture level and coat the outside with multiple layers of more epoxy. Otherwise the wood will swell and the bond will fail. An easy way to accomplish a thick barrier coat is to use epoxy saturated fabric (fiberglass, polypropylene, etc.). The fabric should be specific for use with epoxy, and the wood edges should be rounded over to allow the fabric to wrap. Also bear in mind that the epoxy is vulnerable to degradation from sunlight, so it must be protected with a West additive or marine paint if exposed. Finally, ensure all penetrations will not provide a path for water entry.

I love you guys and the work you do, you complement each other so well, it's a joy to follow you on the different projects you perform, good to know that Sarinda will take a long time to renovate 😄, so fun follow your journey towards the finished result of Sarinda. Take Care

This was a great episode! I learned something valuable.

That guy stuck with you guys through the process. How cool of him to do that.

Epoxy tip: put some waxed paper where you want release from - comes right off. The mold etc. Great learning!!! BRW: soaking like for a day makes it pretty flexible…

Brilliant intro and tutorial on epoxy...thanks guys, much appreciated. Keep up the good work and hang on in there.👍

I have really enjoyed your videos, you two are amazing and entertaining, I also love to bring back older things to like new. One small thing if I might add, a crowbar is a much better prying device than a chisel.

You guys constantly amaze me ! Well Done on a very important part !

You too are amazing, how much time and effort you spent on just one piece of Sarinda, the dedication you have is truly outstanding, Can not wait until she's finished, she will look Awesome... Well done Gemma and Simon, and thank you for sharing your journey..

I find wax paper to be the easiest to use on surfaces you don’t want it to stick to. Many others just use plastic sheeting.

Baking parchment paper or plastic cling wrap on the former will make separating the two much easier. Nice Work!

Kudos to "West Systems" for going above and beyond. I know its good media coverage for them but it shows tgey stand behind their product and their customers. Beautiful job on the breast hook. I know its more work and more product but with thinner boards they steam faster and bend easier but the trade of is you get a higher chance of boards cracking due to grain lines. You do get a finer lamination though. Just food for a thought.

Wood is comprised of 2 polymers. Cellulose (resists tension, softens in water) and lignin (resists compression, softens with heat). The wood you purchased was most probably kiln dried, so the steam and heat couldn't properly penetrate. Soaking in the tub was the best answer to the issue. Good job!

That Richard's a good bloke, quite clearly knows his stuff.

you two have become very talented and capable shipwrights.

Ahhh… you broke Uncle Gary’s chisel 😔 (Great episode! Learned a lot, too)

My favorite ship restorers! Thanks for all the great content.

Nicely done! 1/2hr per one inch/25mm of thickness was the rule of thumb I have for steaming “green/fresh” 0ak.( not kiln dried) FYI, You could had made the narrow end from a piece of solid wood to keep the pieces smaller , not the same strength required there. ( or any similar type knees you might make later. Lovely looking piece! Cheers Warren

Brilliant episode, demonstrating how long it takes to make a single piece of ship - properly

Another absolutely brilliant episode, this worked really well and looks like a solid piece to go back in. 👍

Thank you both and Richard. Well done West Epoxy for helping out and educating us. Your enthusiasm continues to shine through.

Epoxy your boat time!😆 Today's episode demonstrates how a project of this scale requires patience (lots!) experimentation, and some well-timed advice/assistance from friends. That is going to be a smashing breasthook when it's done and fixed in place on Sarinda.

Richard was great. I leaned a few things that will help me. Great episode. Thx.

I have been continually Impressed & Awestruck by your fastidiousness ,attention to detail along with the outstanding work ethics you both display ! 👍

a brilliant demonstration on how to laminate wood alot easier than making it out of 1 piece.

Finally caught up to episode 127 after watching all episodes in 2 weeks. Love your enthusiasm - from the Far North of New Zealand.

Good Job!

“Cut the tip off your wood.” …..Easy for you to say! Cheers from across the pond!

My god. That thing will be 10x stronger then the old one and last 100 years.

You 2 make a wonderful team She barks , You listen ! lol. No seriously you are a good team and i can't believe how much you both have grown in artistic talent and comfortable in front of the camera !

One of the best episodes so far, Hugh in China

That was really interesting and another fantastic episode. That piece of wood will be the hardest piece on the boat. You could ram an oil tanker with that. (not literally)😂😂

Quit playing with your wood .. LOL .. Gemma & Simon you guys are the best!! Sarinda is a lucky ship to have you two working on her.

Have you"s thought about a router jig? Seen a dude make an epoxy table out of plank wood and he used one with an epoxy pour with good results.

My first thought was that steam bent wood is going to have a high moisture content, the epoxy glue wont adhere to damp timber. How long did you leave it before gluing? I think you two are performing a service to your country restoring this WW2 vessel, so much love and care is going into it. Well done.

Those compound angles will be fun to cut

Im 2 weeks away from building a curved laminated tiller. Learnt a lot from this episode thanks. I think I would have had several problems if i hadn't watched this. Cheers MartyNZ

When I was involved in a restoration on an admirals skiff 40 ft we used a polly pipe 300 mm gas pipe drilled holes in opposite sides to fit round bar to carry the strips we loaded in for steaming it worked really good, the local gas board depo helped with the pipe the water poly pipe will work to 👍

That is mind blowing work BIG WELL DONE all you and a ROUND OF APPLAUSE XX

Well done !!

If someone had said to you, two and a half years ago, 'in June 2023 you will be laminating a breasthook made of steamed Iroko on a home built former' what would you have said? Brilliant job of work!

Thank you for your joyful and creative channel !

Absolutely brilliant never seen anybody benday roadkill with 10 ml I normally use green Oak or green Ash when making a form use cling film on form it releases easier fantastic video been watching you from day one I thought you were mad at first

Great job on the epoxy job that looks super sturdy

I Love that you search out how to do things right,we all learn this way. Love Ya!

Just realized that if you turn on closed captions, the translation program is quite entertaining. Great job. Please don't pry with a chisel, the steel is hard and brittle. Use either a pry bar, or screw driver, both are better at handling bending stresses.

Great episode this week!

It's nice to see you working and learning from others.

Clingfilm on your former baseboard and anything else you don't want your epoxy to stick to

Amazing! It looks like I piece of art!

Thanks for sharing this lesson in using epoxy for laminations.

When we were giving a wooden launch a big birthday a few years ago we wlays used plastic bags under whatever we were gluing with the west system. We never had an issue removing the plastic from the work piece

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this - Iroko is a very hard wood full of a natural oil and this would repel moisture and make it harder to steam bend than the obvious pine wood. I found trying to apply varnish to this wood difficult and needed many coats before it soaked in and looked good.

Been really interesting as all the episodes have been, admire you enthusiasm to keep this project on course, lovin it!

Good video, hope I'm there when it gets refitted!

Congratulations on your tournament results on your fishing, the boat worked out great.

West Systems epoxy is awesome stuff. Used it in all sorts of applications without any problems. Good release agent is a must though 😉

Making furniture out of slabs is all the rage here in the States, don't know about the UK. I could find several candidates with the correct grain at my local sawyer. A half hour with jigsaw and a jack plane and that piece would be made. Drilling that long hole would be the hardest part.

Your hand power plane would also be a great help getting all that extra epoxy off.

2:52 Simon learns (or gets a lil reminder) about about the issues present when ripping thin strips against the fence 😆 Stay safe folks!

Hello Guys. I watched Car SOS where they used Iroko wood on a fire engine and they soaked a piece in water and it didn't swell AT ALL! The net says it is water resistant but not waterproof which may explain the trouble you had with bending it! However it's water resistance makes it ideal for Sarinda so worth the effort. Well done and good luck with the next phase! 😊

Some very good tips. Really generous providing real time example along with difficulties that were overcome.

Brilliant to watch as usual. Fascinating how you laminated that wood.

Hi Guys. I love your channel. Always instructive, always amusing and always showing progress. Production quality gets more and more professional as time goes on. Just a thought. Did you say in an earlier episode that many of the in the deck beams were sound except for the ends where they rest on the beam shelf? If so, is the deck camber uniform along Sarinda’s bow? If it is, and you start replacing beams under the wheelhouse, could you cut off the rotten ends of those you take out and and use them in narrower positions further forward? This would save you a lot of timber, epoxy, laminating and sanding and keep more of the original structure. Keep up the good work! John

Learned a lot and thanks for bringing us all along on the journey.

Lovely piece of woodwork, well done, see that Iroko dust. The man from West’s was a great help, we used to use cascomite glue in our joiners shop mainly, then we started using epoxy glues as well.

Hi guys, nothing like lying down and having a go I think it might work a bit better. Keep up the good work. Love your videos Cliff from Logan city Queensland Australia 🇦🇺 from the big island 🏝️

It looks amazing, well done, those guys are awesome for helping you out.❤🍻

I used pvc sheet to keep the laminated beams from my boat from sticking to the forms. I believe you folks may call it visqueen in the UK. My boat was built of laminated west epoxy thruouit (34 foot sailboat) and raced hard for over 30 years without incident. No metal fasteners were used thruout the hull construction except for the staples- which were removed after a veneer was cured. I greatly enjoy your channel and am seriously impressed by your ability to work thru some dauntless problems!

nice one well done to Richard and Ben for helping out will look good when trimmed to size

Great job good change up

Should have used cling wrap on the black baseboard, it would have been easy to lift and not stuck to it. Cling wrap will just pull off away from the glued timber

That turned out great, you guys should be happy with your work.

06/23/2023 Hello Ship. I am impressed. I may never need to make such a piece of wood for any project I could ever imagine ... I now think I could almost do it. Or not! Don usa

Brilliant!!!! Very well done team!!!!

Nice, actually make them, I thought they had a tree, that was cut in half, and was shaped on the outside. Learn somethin everyday, even at nearly 67 Eh! This bloke Richard, was bludy good value with his advice. Good thing you got access to these specialists. Like Sam. Used to make windows for caravans years ago, with a planner similar to Sam's. Although bein real short at 5ft, I was moved on. Thanks m8s, good one.

have you got packing cling film that you can place on the board first that can be planed off lovely job great

Awesome work! Cant wait to see it get installed!

I am in Liverpool and thinking about you guys. What a beautiful city and country. You are very lucky.

非常敬佩✌️😀，精工細作，非常棒的技術！✌️🙏😀，祝福！！！🎉🎉🎉 I really admire ✌️😀, fine workmanship, great technology! ✌️🙏😀, blessings！！！

It's the heat that makes the lignin in the wood soft and plyable. Not the water. You can actually heat them with "dry" heat and get the effect. Thd stea is just a convient carrier oc the heat.

A great video once again well done. Allan from Lameroo

Gem, Si, great video. I make guitars and ukuleles and have to bend the sides of the instruments. The very thin sides, about 2.5 - 3.0mm which get spayed wet and sometimes soaked wet, then wrapped in baking parchment and sandwiched between two thin sheets of metal with a silicone heating mat in the sandwich. The mat is heated to about 180 degrees centigrade to heat the water in the wood which then relaxes the fibres in the wood sufficient to bend it to the half guitar shape. Well done with your 10mm iroko and probably less than 100 degrees in the pipe. Great job!

Great video , quite instructional and good to watch and learn from👍.

The finished piece looks beautiful

I haven't Worked with Iroko since about 1960 but I seem to remember it was a hard brittle timber. I was surprised to see you bending it. Still maybe I remember it wrong, it was a long time ago.😁😁😁😁✔✔👍👍

How beautiful that turned out! Wow

Y'all did a great job!!

Always great to see you figure out solutions. Seems like laying the steamer oven down will give you even temperature. Also, every time I've seen steaming done, they space the pieces out with scrap wood to allow for better steam penetration. Lots of video to still go!

Outstanding job both, really interesting.

Very interesting and informative, thank you

Proper job as always, well worth the time....