[Rhodes22-list] Sacrificial Toothpicks

Michael Hellyar michaelhellyar at icloud.com
Thu Jun 20 21:56:11 EDT 2013


Yes, I noted in my email that theory. I can repair a cabin top. Have insurance for that. But in dismasting situation the last thing I want to dodge is the end of a mast flying off the cabin top. It would seem it would take a lot more force force to rip out the through bolts with load spread through the epoxy and the core material. The advantage of the West System epoxy in this case is that it wicked out to fill voids in the core that resulted from water infiltration. When the epoxy spreads like this it spreads the grip of the threaded bolts. 

Thanks for your suggestion. The best way to avoid any of this is to sail conservatively and safely.
 

Mike Hellyar
sent from my iPad

On Jun 20, 2013, at 9:30 AM, "Wickman, William E" <WEWickman at spectraenergy.com> wrote:

> Mike,
> I would strongly advise to NOT through bolt the mast step fitting.  It is really only there to assist in mast raising and lowering.  Once up, it is the shrouds that keep the mast in place.  If through bolted, you will tear a big hole in your cabin top if the mast ever comes down (in an uncontrolled fashion); and the forces if that were to occur would tear out even a through bolt.
> 
> That said, I too had a couple of the screws that hold the mast step get a bit stripped out.  What I did was to fill the hole with MarineTex; re-drill a pilot hole; and re-screwed the screw.  MarineTex seems to be a bit softer epoxy and is easily drilled.
> 
> Bill W.
> s/v Fina Lee
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Mike Hellyar
> Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 9:06 AM
> To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
> Cc: Steve Congdon; mdh007 at wowway.com
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Sacrificial Toothpicks
> 
> We are re-attaching the mast step fitting. The holes were left uncovered for years. We are going to through bolt. Yes, we know Stan's theory. We used a simple process described in West System Boat Maintenance. Cured epoxy can be hard on drill bits so Steve came up with the idea to slobber match sticks with some paste wax use clear tape over the filled holed and stick the match sticks into the epoxy to create a pilot small starter pilot. Tape hold the matchsticks vertical. And it worked like a charm. And the epoxy wicked quite a bit to repair any core damage in the area. By taping the hole opening in the cabin we prevented in leakage. Given the strength of epoxy we could just as well have re-drilled and screwed into the epoxy. 
> 
> Mike Hellyar
> Steve Congdon, Rhodesmaster I
> sent from my iPad
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: sjcclu <sjcclu at msn.com>
>> Date: June 19, 2013, 7:49:17 AM EDT
>> To: Mike Hellyar <mdh007 at wowway.com>, Mike Hellyar <mhellyar22 at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: <No Subject>
>> Reply-To: sjcclu <sjcclu at msn.com>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone
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