? on Glassing foam

[Jacob R. Walker]

I am going to build a front deck for my skiff. I want to build it the same way you build that DIY Duck Boat.

My question is do I glass the foam the same way I would wood? I didn't know if the resin would melt the foam or if it worked just like with wood.

I plan on supporting the foam with wood strips and glassing the bolt heads in.

Any advice would be great.
Thanks,
Ryan Walker

 

[Capt. Jack Passie]

Try it on a smple piece of foam out of the boat first to see the reaction are you using Polyester or Epoxy? If there is no reaction out of the boat glassit as you would a piece of wood.

 

[Dani]

The polyester resin will melt the foam. Epoxy Resin will not...

Glass it the same way you would wood...

Dani

 

[Ray]

Will you, or anyone else, ever stand on the deck?

If anyone will ever stand on the deck, don't use foam unless you plan on making the glass very thick. Like 1/8 of an inch thick glass. The foam works for boats since is it supported by the water under it. Without all that surface area it will not spread out the load and you will punch through it with a standard layup of materials.

By the time you have this much epoxy and cloth put down it would be cheaper and stronger to use plywood over a wooden frame. You can cold mold two layers of thin marine plywood and make it a much stronger curved deck than the foam will ever be.