hey if you have a blains farm and fleet they have a porter cable osolating cutter for black friday for 59.00 top of page..

http://www.farmandfleet.com/promotio...4#.UpbUVNK9vTo

As the the first picture depicts; A MESS! As work proceeds, a quality of workmanship and time WELL spent. When you get the fillets glassed in, post the steps of progress.

We have done some transom and stringer replacements on a 35 flat deck years in the past. I have a Fountain 10 meter # 12 built, we stripped every piece of wood out of it all the stringers, bulkheads, transom, cut the dash out. Used Okumie plywood, 3/4 deckalite panels, hat sections between bulkheads and hull for hard spots used all epoxy glass. Cloth and bidirectional cloth came from Composites One.
Built it off of Fountains layup schedule for the race hulls. 5 forward bulkheads, ballast tank, hat sections glassed in at 45 degree angles, installed new tanks. Floor is raised for a sit down version, like the poker run dash. Cored the engine room bottom with foam coring, installed thru hull water pick-ups from Stainless Marine. We cored the hull in the engine room to eliminate all those intermediate small stringers. Now it sits, waiting to be completed. We also gel coated the hull, all of this was a great expense. We did in a separate section of the business, I had a full time fiberglass at that time, that did all the work under my direction through out the project. I hated the mess made in the area for the project.
I will have to get some pictures posted, I only have the completed pictures now. This was done back in early 2004.

If it's not too late I'd like to suggest that you don't take the wood all the way down to the drain plug. Stop about 2"-3" above the drain plug. cut a nice angle on the bottom of the board for the glass. The drain plug is where all this water "Wicked" Up from. If there no wood around the drain plug hole it can't wick up water :) No loss of structural integrity since there's so many glass overlaps at the keel/transom anyway. Try it, you'll like it... (now I'm like the fiberglass pusher guy :) )

Just wanted to update this with what I decided direction wise on the transom repair:

I haven't been able to do much of anything on the boat lately, so I woke up at 5:45am this morning and started removing the rest of the transom. All of this work has been done with zero help from anyone(besides you guys giving me much needed advice!). Dad bought me a porter cable ocilating saw for christmas(thing is awesome!) and I am also using a circular ZIPSAW. Worked until 10am today, and almost have the entire transom done. Signing on a new home today, so finishing this up later this evening. Stringers are next.....

5:45am
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psg95uzrjn.jpg



10:00am
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3tfcvgqn.jpg
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psidgs9fzw.jpg
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psurxeedqa.jpg
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psu8vdph44.jpg
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psjqbva0vf.jpg
http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psymuqrijc.jpg

Also spoke too soon on stringers. After doing some exploratory cutting with the ZIPSAW, it's obvious the stringers got the majority of the water that leaked in as the lower rails are pretty rotted. The transom was only moist at the bottom, so that makes sense the water would get sucked up by the rear stringers. The layup on your stringers is about 3/8+ thickness which was good to see. Plan to duplicate this after cutting it all out next week.

Glassdave- should I cut out the plywood caps where the batteries sit, just forward of the transom, or just butt up the new transom as is?

Just ordered a 7 inch Daredevil blade to use on my rotozip when removing the engine stringers. The rotozip blades are pretty weak and expensive. I love the saw, hate the blades. Same thing with the oscilating saw. I also ordered some Japanese blades for that, so hopefully these work better as the stringers will be more intense vs the transom removal. As always, more pics to follow.

I tell ya what, i have purchased blades for my Sonicrafter from just about everywhere (brand name stuff from big box stores, specialty saw and blade shops, etc) and by far the longest lasting are the semi round ones from Harbor Freight). I typically get three or four transoms out of a single blade, make sure you are always using bimetal blades. I have a rotozip as well but never had any luck with that thing. Got it years ago and blades seemed to be toast after just a few minutes so i gave up on it. Are there different blades for it that I'm not aware of? o be honest though i can get through stripping a transom and stringers pretty quick with just the sonicrafter, I can typically have everything out and ground in a day or so.


What is the Daredevil blade?

I'm guessing its a moot point with the discovery of the bad stringers. Just for reference its generally not a great idea to butt joint but it can be done if you absolutely had to and the remaining wood and stringers was absolutely bone dry. If you butt joint like that it has to be right where the stringer or box meets the transom to give some other support to the joint. Again, its not ideal, but can be done on smaller boats where the loads are not as great.

Bosch actually make the daredevil blades. They are 7 1/4 inch blades (the ones I bought) and really last a long time. Only negative is you can use a guard and have to be careful, but the typical rotozip kickback is practically non existant because of the blade design and they stay sharp for a LONG time! Other downside is the larger blades limit the space you can operate the saw in. I purchased some Japanese blades for the porter cable saw, so we will see, but I like the idea of using the larger harbor freight cheap ones. Hey if it works I'm good with it. The roto zip and porter cable blades are an absolute joke! Honestly I should have consulted you first before deciding on these, although the oscilating saw seemed like a requirement.

As for the transom, I decided that cutting out the side floor sections is the proper and only way to do it (as you suggested prior) so why do a half assed replacement at this point in the game. When I cut out the old stringers can I leave about a half inch or so of existing glass to relocate and bond the new wood to, and in order to have a point of reference?

Also, is it ok to remove all of the engine stringers with the boat sitting on a bunk trailer?

I'll hafta check 'em out all i ever had for the rotozip was these small 1/8th inch or so two inch long drill lookin things that lasted all of five seconds before they turned blue and started to glow lol. I did get a tile bit that seemed to work but when i got the oscillating Sonicrafer i havnt used much else, maybe a sawzall from time to time but i got pretty surgically quick with the Sonicrafter. I actually have a Rockwell Sonicrafer and a Porter Cable Multi with the quick release blade (great tool but the quick release thing is crap). I just keep a plunge blade on one and a half round on the other so i dont hafta change anything out, being in the biz it makes sense.






(note) Ahh i see, i looked up the Daredevil blades on Amazon and see there for a standard sawzall. I was thinking rotozip drill cutter type thingy (they suck)