Yet Another Transom Job in the Works - ?ions

[other tom]

I did it the way Hermco and the Labatts beer boat did it, just made sure to overlay 3 layers of 1808 after adding some fillets to all sides of the 'ducer sticking up in the bilge. My boat was one the lift though, and the looks I got when I took a hole saw and cut a perfectly good hole in the bottom of a boat sitting over water were priceless....did it that way on the Bertram for 2 'ducers, but it took a stronger saw to cut through that beast....Warthog's solution is well engineered, fo sure.

[Bigshrimpin]

The previous owner of my project boat did this with his transducer . . . he had the ducer recessed into a block of wood that was glassed to the hull.

[Capt Chuck]

I do not however see the nut fastened

I really didn't see any need for the nut, but as usual I leave my nuts off all the time... [img]/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
Yeah buddy! 3 beers and then some.
Tom: There is plenty of 1808 up the sides and over the top. During the transom redo the bilge was gelcoated clean..That TX ain't going anywhere !

[hermco]

Believe it or not I once met a guy when I was over at Bimini who had his tx ducer sucked out the bottom and the boat allmost sank because he had no nut!

[Fishjack]

OK - after some debate and good information about transducer installation I have ordered a 20 degree B-60.
This will work well in my application and will be easy to install (I hope).

FWIW - I see Furuno has 2 new units out- the FCV-585 (replacement for the 582L) AND the FCV-620 (replacement for the 600L). THAT FIGURES!!!!! And to top that off they have a $100 mail in rebate on the old units.

Now a few more pics -

I have decided that a good tool to use in the bottom of the transom, especially if the original wood is in good shape is a die grinder with a straight carbide tip router bit.

A lot of this original wood is so hard that the carbide tip blade sits and smokes (brand new tip) trying to cut it out. Whew!!! I also fab'd a homemade adze that works good in the softer spots. As mentioned many times before this has gotta be the worst part of the project.




Finally seeing some red. I feel like King Kong’s dentist.
Even thought there is good (hard/dry) wood up 2-3 inches from the bottom (as mentioned earlier) there are voids and soft spots at the very bottom of the transom.

This pic is looking straight down into the cut out transom -




AND - Santa (I mean UPS) made a delivery today. My RAKA shipment -



I might have to stay up late and mix up some test batches..

[warthog5]

jack, I'd suggest you do some testing on the pump's too. use measured container's to see if they are pumping correctly. Pump's are known to be off and therefore I don't use them. I measure everything.

Alway's remember to short stroke the pump's to get them primed first without letting any epoxy come out of the discharge. Then make full stroke's when your ready to mix.

[oldbluesplayer]

FishJack - you might be all done digging out the trench by now, but, from doing mine, a) it's the worst part of the job, and b) I had pretty good success, using a grinder like you showed, getting down to the bottom in one spot, and then, using a wide bladed wood chisel, knocking slices off, working my way out from the grinder digout, kind of like taking slices off the end of a stick of butter - even still, that part alone was about three nights of arm busting chisel work.

I'm sure you already know this, but before glassing anything back in, -surface prep, surface prep, surface prep-sanding and acetone wipes - critical to good adhesion.

keep the pix coming !!!

Bill

[GradySailfish]

Nice progress your making. Did you give any thought to recoring the transom from the inside, or maybe closing the transom in and adding a bracket?

Your doing a good job, if your worried about drilling a hole in your hull for the transducer, you may want to look towards a shoot through hull transducer.

What Epoxy are you using?

[Fishjack]

Another question - What to do about the HIN?? It (as of now) is going to end up in the bevel area for the fiberglass lay-up on the outside of the transom..

Warthog - I will check the pumps and plan on using a scale as well.. Thanks.

oldbluesplayer - That is what I am using my homemade adze for. Cut loose with a wood chisel then pull the chunk out with the adze. This process became possible (as you mentioned) after I finally got to the bottom of the transom and could get some tools in there to work with..
Thanks for the prep reminder - It seems like it would be easy to get in a hurry and skimp on the prep steps..

Gradysailfish - I guess my transom is now an inside/outside job now that I have access to the inside.

My choice for epoxy was RAKA - www.raka.com
Using 1708 Biax cloth.

[warthog5]

Warthog - I will check the pumps and plan on using a scale as well.. Thanks.

Check the Raka instruction's.

Raka
mix ratios are by volume and not by weight.

I use measured cup's of diffrent size's.