Hang in there!

I need to fix a transom and do caps but haven't yet. I have been picking off little things one at a time, so the result on my 20 MA is an ugly patchwork quilt. Yours should be great when you are done

Good luck!

Well I'm my 3rd ryobi grinder .....fiberglass seems to kill power tools I was grinding the bottom of the cap when it got really hot started sputtering and started smoking. Well no more Ryobi grinders it's off to Harbour Freight for the $15 grinder. So the project stalls for the moment

Burned up 2 of those in the last month.
They love me. They used to include extra brushes which were much beefier.

Hope I don't jinx it but I have a Milwaukee angle grinder that has survived so far - I do try to remember to blow it off/out with compressed air at the end of each day.

My Porter Cable angle grinder is my favorite and most useful tool, and seems to be bulletproof. It gets used a LOT turning my sloppiness and mistakes into dust! I wear a full body hooded tyvek suit, gloves taped at the cuffs with blue tape, a full face mask, goggle safety glasses, and a serious respirator. My wife calls it my moon suit and my buddies call me a wimp, but no more itching makes it well worth the ridicule.

So I'm about 1/2 way in replacing the wet wood from my top cap. I went with nida core. 1st went with thickened epoxy and 2 layers of glass to seal it in.

My question is what could I use in the areas of the rod holders and other high stress areas?

I do plan to thru bolt the various rod holder etc.... in place and would like some strong no wood backing

Easy way would be wood but I'm not going with that

I don't need a whole lot of material to get it finished so buying a sheet is over kill

I would use a high density foam like coosa blue water 26 or something similar or heaver. I like to take aluminum plates and place them on the bottom of the foam and glass them in place or just bed them against the glass and use them as backing plates. They will spread the load nicely and the high density foam will not crush like the lower density stuff will. Far as grinders I have burnt up both. The better brand name units last much longer it seem tho. The trick is to stop and let them cool while using if they get warm / hot and blow them out well. My Milwaukie has done the best so far. Looking good, keep up the work!

So does anyone have some Coosa bluewater 26 laying around they want to get rid of?

Hi Jorge,

You may want to check with Shine. He was advertising some composite material at pretty good prices and I am sure he could hook you up with Coosa.

Just about done with the top cap. I just need to glass the high stress area but the rain and work has slowed the progress. I'm driving to Gainesville this weekend to visit my son and plan a stop in ft pierce to visit marine liquidators with a shopping list . Only problem is that my wife already saw the list and gave me the "look" well I'll buy something small