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Battery Tray
Hey,
Thanks to the group for advice on my last post about my propane sniffer meltdown. Sniffer is now replaced, remounted, rewired (with fuse.) On to the next project: My 1978 Catalina 30 has a painted wood battery tray which is basically crumbling with wet rot. The way I figure it, I can either: 1) Use the drill and fill method to saturate it with epoxy and maybe glass over it. Pros: pretty easy Cons: I'll never get the "wood" (more like wood-chowder at this point) dry, it will eventually just rot again 2) Build a new battery tray out of Starboard Pros: easy to build, rot/corrosion/proof Cons: old wood is bonded to raised fiberglass area on the bottom of the hull. would need to rip that out and figure out a way to fasten the Starboard to the fiberglass (maybe SS bolts epoxied in place?) Plus Starboard is expensive. (But I've already got a big sheet of it laying around, so not a big deal. 3) Build a new battery tray out of epoxy coated marine ply Pros: Will bond nicely to the fiberglass. With proper care, I can make it rotproof. Cons: Bigger pain in the butt to assemble, coat, etc. What do y'all think? Any other options? - Ari |
aroostifer wrote:
Hey, Thanks to the group for advice on my last post about my propane sniffer meltdown. Sniffer is now replaced, remounted, rewired (with fuse.) On to the next project: My 1978 Catalina 30 has a painted wood battery tray which is basically crumbling with wet rot. The way I figure it, I can either: 1) Use the drill and fill method to saturate it with epoxy and maybe glass over it. Pros: pretty easy Cons: I'll never get the "wood" (more like wood-chowder at this point) dry, it will eventually just rot again 2) Build a new battery tray out of Starboard Pros: easy to build, rot/corrosion/proof Cons: old wood is bonded to raised fiberglass area on the bottom of the hull. would need to rip that out and figure out a way to fasten the Starboard to the fiberglass (maybe SS bolts epoxied in place?) Plus Starboard is expensive. (But I've already got a big sheet of it laying around, so not a big deal. 3) Build a new battery tray out of epoxy coated marine ply Pros: Will bond nicely to the fiberglass. With proper care, I can make it rotproof. Cons: Bigger pain in the butt to assemble, coat, etc. What do y'all think? Any other options? - Ari Buy a battery tray made of plastic. -- frosty |
Yep.
See http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...;battery%20box Roger http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm "frosty" wrote in message ... aroostifer wrote: On to the next project: My 1978 Catalina 30 has a painted wood battery tray which is basically crumbling with wet rot. The way I figure it, I can either: 1) Use the drill and fill method to saturate it with epoxy and maybe glass over it. 2) Build a new battery tray out of Starboard 3) Build a new battery tray out of epoxy coated marine ply What do y'all think? Any other options? Buy a battery tray made of plastic. |
Good evening, Ari,
Are you speaking of a "tray", as intended to hold one battery, or a "shelf" on which the tray (or trays if you have multiple batteries) would sit? I have a '79 Chris Craft Catalina 280 and your description of the problem sounds like mine. My boat has what I call a "shelf" that is about 20 inches wide by about 4 feet long that is also of painted plywood, resting on one of the longitudinal stringers and fastened to the inside of the hull with FG roving. The years of water dribbling through the engine hatch, plus the boiled-over battery acid have made much of the plywood shelf disintegrate as you described. So what do I plan to do about the problem? When the weather cools a bit (90-97 deg. F. here every day; not fun working under the cockpit sole in the bilge!) I plan to cut out whats left of my shelf, grind off the roving that attaches it to the hull side, grind off the underside ply if it is glued to the stringer, then replace the shelf with a piece of 3/4 inch FIR (not pine!) plywood which I will have totally encased with epoxy laminated FG before installation. I will secure the new shelf to the hull side with roving, or four or five plies of wide FG tape, as the original shelf was. I will probably also use a piece of FG tape and epoxy to secure the shelf to the stringer regardless of whether the original was glued to the stringer or not. This may sound to some like overkill, but it's the only way I see to cure the problem permanently since the engine hatch DOES leak, and the batteries DO have a way of dribbling acid down themselves. Can't afford those fancy, sealed and/or gelled batts! Ed Greeley aroostifer wrote: Hey, Thanks to the group for advice on my last post about my propane sniffer meltdown. Sniffer is now replaced, remounted, rewired (with fuse.) On to the next project: My 1978 Catalina 30 has a painted wood battery tray which is basically crumbling with wet rot. The way I figure it, I can either: 1) Use the drill and fill method to saturate it with epoxy and maybe glass over it. Pros: pretty easy Cons: I'll never get the "wood" (more like wood-chowder at this point) dry, it will eventually just rot again 2) Build a new battery tray out of Starboard Pros: easy to build, rot/corrosion/proof Cons: old wood is bonded to raised fiberglass area on the bottom of the hull. would need to rip that out and figure out a way to fasten the Starboard to the fiberglass (maybe SS bolts epoxied in place?) Plus Starboard is expensive. (But I've already got a big sheet of it laying around, so not a big deal. 3) Build a new battery tray out of epoxy coated marine ply Pros: Will bond nicely to the fiberglass. With proper care, I can make it rotproof. Cons: Bigger pain in the butt to assemble, coat, etc. What do y'all think? Any other options? - Ari |
Just a couple of cautions for your plan.
As someone pointed out recently, roving is not for use with epoxy. Wouldn't one of those $12 polyethylene boxes contain the boiled over acid and protect the boats' structure? Roger http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm "Edward Greeley" wrote in message ... snip So what do I plan to do about the problem? snip I will secure the new shelf to the hull side with roving, or four or five plies of wide FG tape, as the original shelf was. I will probably also use a piece of FG tape and epoxy to secure the shelf to the stringer regardless of whether the original was glued to the stringer or not. |
Please expand on the comment that roving is not for use with epoxy.
I've not heard this before. Mat, on the other hand, should not be used with epoxy. |
Maybe I'm confused, or maybe I'm using dated information. Checking
http://www.clarkcraft.com/fiberglasscovering.php3 they say that their roving may be used for either, although it's designed for polyester. Then again, they mention "Epoxy-Plus" resin which may not be the same stuff as West or System Three's product. From Wikipedia: "In the continuous filament process, after the fiber is drawn, a size is applied. This size helps protect the fiber as is wound onto a bobbin. The particular size applied relates to end-use. While some sizes are processing aids, others make the fiber have an affinity for a certain resin, if the fiber is to be used in a composite (Lubin, 100). Size is usually added at 0.5 -2.0% by weight. Winding then takes place at around 1000 m/min (Gupta, 544)." It's the "size" (or sizing") that makes the difference I would make sure the roving vendor states that it is OK for use with epoxy. Roger (Don't you find it uses a lot of that expensive glop?) http://home.earthlink.net/~derbyrm "mickey" wrote in message oups.com... Please expand on the comment that roving is not for use with epoxy. I've not heard this before. Mat, on the other hand, should not be used with epoxy. |
mickey wrote:
Please expand on the comment that roving is not for use with epoxy. I've not heard this before. Mat, on the other hand, should not be used with epoxy. I think he means mat, not roving. Roving is simply heavy woven cloth. Mat is random oriented strands wich are most often held in place with a binder that is not compatible with epoxy. If you're going to the expense of using epoxy, I don't see the point in using materials like mat anyway, the main advantage of mat is to build up thickness for as little as possible cost. Also, the folks who are planning to encase plywood in epoxy should be aware that it will still rot, eventually. If you're going to the trouble of encasing it in roving, and the expense of using epoxy, why not just mold a tray out of solid fiberglass? Fair Skies Doug King |
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