WA sources for custom teak pads?

[Kenneth K]

Teak. Teak? Yes, teak.

Anyone know of a source for 1.25" solid teak board. With an 18" x 12" x 1.25" piece (or 36" x 6" x 1.25), I could make the 3 winch bases and 2 rope clutch bases I need. I'm not against using teak altogether, I'm just against using teak "boards" that are made by gluing narrower planks together. I don't think glued planks would hold up to the stresses and the long-term outside exposure.

Regardless of the material (teak, or plastic, or G-10), it's going to require a great deal of cutting and sanding to get the circular shape and the bevels right (they slope 1" over a 5.5" width). Sort of makes poured epoxy look better and better.

 

[Kenneth K]

These beautiful Starboard projects will provide another perspective .

Hey, nice looking work. Looks like you were able to use 1/4 to 1/2 thick for your winch bases. The 32-3 cabin slopes down both starboard-wise and aft-wise. That requires a compound angle on rectangular bases (rope clutches) and a large angle (about 10 deg) on round bases. Makes the machining a little tough on wide, thick pieces. I only have a 3" belt sander, table saw, and chop saw to work with.

Your's look great though. I especially like the spin pole chocks. That's better than factory issued......

a toe rail scupper which drains directly over my fuel tank vent.

What were they thinking???

 

[GrandpaSteve]

Woodcraft has 2” x 6” https://www.woodcraft.com/products/teak-burmese-2-x-6-x-6

Anyone know of a source for 1.25" solid teak board. With an 18" x 12" x 1.25" piece (or 36" x 6" x 1.25), I could make the 3 winch bases and 2 rope clutch bases I need. I'm not against using teak altogether, I'm just against using teak "boards" that are made by gluing narrower planks together. I don't think glued planks would hold up to the stresses and the long-term outside exposure.

Regardless of the material (teak, or plastic, or G-10), it's going to require a great deal of cutting and sanding to get the circular shape and the bevels right (they slope 1" over a 5.5" width). Sort of makes poured epoxy look better and better.

 

[markvone]

Thanks Ken.

Both my mast and cabintop only required a single direction profile of less than 1/8 inch. My portside winch did not require a base. I used my Dremel with a coarse sanding drum (messy) to grind out the profile by hand. I used a profile template for the black mast cam base and trial and error while continuously test fitting for the winch base. Kevin in post #4 describes how you would "scribe" the profile onto the teak or plastic base.

A source for solid teak in thicker dimensions are "bowl blanks". Solid chunks of wood you would carve a bowl out of on a lathe. Google "teak bowl blank". You will probably need one for each base, they will be be more expensive than Starboard and I'm not sure if they will all match. On the plus side you can get Dried Ambrosia Maple or some other exotic wood so your boat doesn't look like every other Ericson!

Here's one on Ebay (7.2" dia x 3" thick in English units) but it's in the UK. This one could be split with a band saw to get two 1.5 inch bases:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-TE...895447?hash=item3f95301317:g:e5wAAOSwKZtak--m

If you go with teak you will probably need to find a friend or small woodshop/cabinetmaker with a planer to get your initial piece down to the correct thickness. Cutting a square blank into a rough circle can be done with a jig saw up to a certain thickness ( +/- 1.5 inches ?) and then a band saw (woodshop again) works best. I borrowed a scroll saw (mini band saw) to cut my 1.5 inch thick Starboard pedestal base into rough circles and used my jig saw to rough cut the spin pole chock and scupper plug pieces. I used a palm sander to smooth out the finished pieces and a hole saw for the center hole.

Mark

 

[GrandpaSteve]

Is there a problem with the teak winch pads available on Amazon? I'd like to know for future reference.

 

[bgary]

teak winch pads available on Amazon.

GrandpaSteve, you might just be my Hero For The Day (tm)

https://www.amazon.com/Whitecap-Tea...388&sr=8-1&keywords=teak+winch+pad&th=1&psc=1

The 5-3/8" diameter pad is just about perfect for a Barient 18, and for 24 bucks I can afford to see if the angle is right and/or can be trimmed to suit.

Thanks!

 

[Christian Williams]

What problem could there be? The low teak bases have been on our boats for 35 years.

It seems to be the larger winch mounts that raise interesting creative questions.

Personally, I would have no issue with laminating Home Depot teak planks. Wipe surfaces with acetone, glue with epoxy.

I would probably create disks by making a simple compass jig for a router. A router leaves a near-perfect edge on any material from teak to Trex or Star Board.

The deck angle for a teak cylinder can be cut with any hand saw, and further shaped with a sharp chisel if necessary.

I'm surprised a wood shop wouldn't love this job, given dimensions. But I too have found shops just shrugging at specialty jobs. We have here a shop called House of Hardwood, a big floor stocked with exotic woods and 10-foot potential tabletops in a world of huge table saws and a giant band saw and the biggest planer I ever saw, all kept sawdust free by a $50,000 ventilation system.

I was making a bed and needed the ends of the 7' walnut planks notched a certain way to rest on 4x4s.

"We can't do that," the owner said. "We dont have the tools."

 

[GrandpaSteve]

Happy to help Bruce! I wish I could rent shoptime somewhere when I need it. Woodshop, machineshop, autoshop. It seems like the shopspace in our schools goes unused for a good portion of the year.

What problem could there be? The low teak bases have been on our boats for 35 years.

It seems to be the larger winch mounts that raise interesting creative questions.

Personally, I would have no issue with laminating Home Depot teak planks. Wipe surfaces with acetone, glue with epoxy.

I would probably create disks by making a simple compass jig for a router. A router leaves a near-perfect edge on any material from teak to Trex or Star Board.

The deck angle for a teak cylinder can be cut with any hand saw, and further shaped with a sharp chisel if necessary.

I'm surprised a wood shop wouldn't love this job, given dimensions. But I too have found shops just shrugging at specialty jobs. We have here a shop called House of Hardwood, a big floor stocked with exotic woods and 10-foot potential tabletops in a world of huge table saws and a giant band saw and the biggest planer I ever saw, all kept sawdust free by a $50,000 ventilation system.

I was making a bed and needed the ends of the 7' walnut planks notched a certain way to rest on 4x4s.

"We can't do that," the owner said. "We dont have the tools."

 

[Kenneth K]

Is there a problem with the teak winch pads available on Amazon? I'd like to know for future reference.

My assumption was that a base made of glued-together teak strips (as all the pre-made bases seem to be) won't hold up well outdoors (with sun/moisture/temp changes). Maybe I am wrong about that.

All the old, solid-piece bases I've removed have several cracks/splits in them. Is a laminated base likely to hold up better or worse?

 

[bgary]

Just adding a random tidbit to the thread...

Last weekend I filled a bunch of holes from the underside with a thickened batch of WEST epoxy (105 resin, 206 slow hardener, 406 filler). Thickened to about the consistency of mayonnaise, splooged into place with a throw-away syringe and captured with a bit of preservation tape to keep it from sagging/dripping while it set. Worked great.

When done, I had a fair amount of material left over and I just let it go off in the pot....

...and the next day, I had a nice hard/rigid/smooth disk that popped easily out of the pot.

If it had been the right diameter, it would have been perfect as the starting point for a winch pad.

So I called WEST and asked if there was any reason not to build a winch pad that way. Would it be strong enough? Would it handle compression and sheer loads?

They said yes. They recommended using both 404 and 406 fillers in a 50:50 mix (the 404 handles compression better), and they said I'd need to paint the resulting disk because the bare epoxy is not UV-stable, but... no, no reason not to do. They said they'd see no need to add anything else structural to the mix (e.g, a layer of fabric, whatever...)

So... I'm adding that option to my list of possibilities. It occurs to me that if I mixed up a batch in the right-size mold, and then set the mold in the right place on deck before it went off... not only would it produce a pad of the right diameter, it might even be the right angles (since the top surface would level, and the bottom surface would be the true 3D angle of the deck.) Flipped over and sanded, might work.

Yeah, my mind seems to have lots of time to wander while filling holes.

Bruce

 

[Christian Williams]

You should watch the movie "Holes" while you're at it.

To my mind one of the best kids pictures ever made. (The book is often required reading for seventh graders).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holes_(film)

 

[Loren Beach]

If casting thickened epoxy, I would lay in some 'rounds' of glass cloth, every quarter inch or so, as the resin mixture is poured into the mold.

It just seems like some internal fabric strength in the part would be a good precaution.

 

[bgary]

I would lay in some 'rounds' of glass cloth, every quarter inch or so, as the resin mixture is poured into the mold.

I thought that, too, so I asked them if I should add anything to deal with loads (compression or shear).

They said that with the 404 ("high density filler"), the load tolerance is "at least" 800 PSI. They said that adding chopped-glass fiber wouldn't improve that much.

I haven't thought all the way through it, but my current thinking is that it would be hard to add much cloth to the mix. If I've done my math right, my halyard-winch pads will be about 1/4" thick at the low end, and a little over 1" thick at the high end, with the low end in compression. getting a round into the right place with 1/8" of resin above and below it seems... dauntingly complicated.

I'll ponder some more.

 

[tenders]

Don Casey has discussed this, suggesting using a Cool Whip container or similar...and further suggested tilting the container at an angle while the epoxy cures by resting a container edge on a pencil, if an angled base is desired.

I thought that was pure genius. These cruising sailors have devoted a LOT of time to thinking about this stuff!

 

[bgary]

Pads are done. It's drilling-holes-in-the-new-deck day.

Want to get the new halyard winches mounted before leaving for the Rendezvous, otherwise I'll be (gasp) just a motorboat.

Wish me luck!