Bilge Board Gets a New Core

The hideous bilge board, dried out and getting ready for a shave.

After some scraping, chiseling and 36 grit belt sanding it looks a whole lot better.

Tracing outline onto new ply core.

Ply core cut out and lead weight holes drilled.  I bought a Lenox hole saw to match the size of the lead biscuits.  This is by far the best designed hole saw I have ever used.  Super sharp and coupled with the Bosh arm breaker drill motor it blew through the 3/4" ply in a couple seconds.  The best part is Lenox has cleverly shaped slots in the saw for clearing the cut plug with a screw driver or some-such.  They really, really work.

 I set up the ply core on edge to route a groove around the perimeter.

This groove will help key the epoxy and glass filler that will run the entire perimeter of the board.  The ply core is smaller than the skins so there will be a big fat chunk of epoxy protecting the core.

Core, lead and first skin being epoxied together.  You can see how much smaller the core is than the skin.  This  is the trailing edge so the glass-epoxy band will be deep to allow for shaping down to a relatively thin edge. 

A few hours later the second skin goes on.  It was a little warped so I had to persuade it flat with some weights and extra clamps.  The only advantage of using epoxy in Florida summer is you get things glued together pronto.....or create a huge mess if your'e too slow!  Tomorrow we seal the perimeter.