23 center console Cap recore

[pelican]

Originally Posted by Bigshrimpin

Coosa will work well . . . those bluewater panels are sold in 20- and 26-pounds lbs densities and will hold a screw just fine.

coosa/Penske board will not hold a screw - there's a specific technique required,when using fasteners with composites.i've described that technique,in detail quite a few times...

composites,require thru bolting and sleeving...

when blind,or self tapping fasteners are needed :

determine thickness - use a small piece of hosing over the drill bit - this will prevent drilling thru.drill the hole - avoid drilling through ! chuck up a sharpened allen bit,slide it in and remove some of the coring - fill the area with a thickened epoxy - I like west system,mixed with 403 adhesive additive.after the area kicks,locate where the fastener needs to be - use it this way: you want to use a 1/4-20 machine screw ? drill the hole 3/16" - put a dab of 3m 5200 over the hole and run the screw in with a screw gun - this will actually tap the epoxy.need to remove the screw ? back it out with a screw gun...


using self tapping fasteners with composites,without following that technique,the fastener will fail and become loose - the composite is brittle,vibration will cause it to fracture,making the screw hole loose - inexperienced individuals will use a larger screw - only to make the hole bigger ! you see this occurring on a bunch of foam cored boats - one manufacture used those stainless steel "toggle" style bolts to hold their T-tops onto the divinycell cored deck - I've repaired those failed fasteners,on more than 3 occasions.toggle style bolts will fail !

[FLexpat]

I have used solid plugs of fiberglass in the layup when I knew where I was going to be putting a threaded attachment or if I was going to have a lot of compressive load like a through bolt. I used solid round fiberglass rod from these guys: http://www.mgs4u.com/fiberglass-tube-rod.htm , cut it to the same length as my core material thickness, bored a hole with a hole saw to the right diameter (I used 1" but they have up to 1.5") and epoxied it into the core. Then did the whole layup. Seems to work well - FG plugs can even be tapped/threaded (but not as strong as threading into good metal).

[Bigshrimpin]

In my experience there's a big difference b/w 26lb coosa and 5lb divinycell in holding fasteners. I've never had an issue with skinned coosa and screws backing out or not holding, but pelican's the professional. You will probably never put any screws into the cap's core to hold anything except maybe a bow light . . . which may or may not even touch the core.