Strip replacement technique

edmontonian · Post by **edmontonian** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:34 am

Hi All,

I had finished stripping and final sanding a Prospector only to find a couple of bad marks showing wear on the outside of four strips from over sanding.
In an attempt to make repair, I tried to fill the sanded out voids with an epoxy/wood flour combo. That only made the areas look worse.
I have since removed this repair and I now have damaged/coloured strip areas that are about 12 inches long, glued together, and located at the center of the canoe just above the accent strips on opposite sides. I would now like to remove these strips as they are touching the accent strips and detract from the beauty of the project as a whole.

Is there a method I can use to remove and replace these strips (or sections of strips) with new wood?

Any help offered would be wonderful.

Sincerely,

edmontonian

:shocked

Rick · Post by **Rick** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:32 am

Edmonton,

Are you sure that the flaw will be noticable after you use the canoe for a while? Often flaws seem large during construction, but aftewards they aren't all that obvious.

Maybe some kind of stencil design could be used to cover over the flaw, after construction, eg...

Others here:

http://www.naturalexpressions.org/AirBr ... ncils.html

There might be a way to get the design onto the wood and under the glass, IIRC, it's done with cutout tissue paper and epoxy, I'm not familiar with it. Some tests on wood strips beforehand should help.

edmontonian · Post by **edmontonian** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:45 am

Hi Rick,

I really over-sanded the outside of the hull on both port and starboard just below the accent strips. Doh! If I went any deeper, I would have gone through the hull and created handle holds as found in plastic shopping bags. Since removing the failed attempt at filling these areas (using East epoxy, 410 microlight and wood flour) the patch areas are now discoloured grey.

Can epoxy be coloured to ensure the filled areas blend in with the other strips surrounding them? Or does a strip "patch" sound like the better solution?

I like the tissue stencil idea and may still consider this on another area of the canoe.

edmontonian
:frightened

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:55 am

On a recent kayak project, I "overworked" a few areas and had some obvious dips. I took some very thin cutoffs of the same wood and glued them over the dips with the same wood glue I had used to assemble the boat. Then I planed down these patch strips and sanded them. Now, I can't even find the repaired areas.

When attempting do this type of repair with thickened, colored epoxy, you usually end up with something that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Logos are also a good way of camouflageing some repairs.

edmontonian · Post by **edmontonian** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:10 pm

Hi Glen,

I read your post about using thin strips glued over the areas you had over-worked.
I think I will give this overlay patch a good, old college try. Having attempted to fill these areas a third time has left me with 2 sore thumbs, one sticking out on each side of the boat. The colour is just wrong...If your method does not do it, then I will cut out and replace these strips completely.
Question: Did you first have to remove a little thickness from the original strips to make room for the glued in overlays? Perhaps with a chisel? Any details you can offer would be great.

I could put matching Bolivian flags on the hull at the repaired areas. This boat is based on that country's population.

edmontonian

Davesbuild · Post by **Davesbuild** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:21 pm

Hi All,

I agree. It is near imposs to get epoxy / glue patch to look like the rest of the surrounding area. The glue / epoxy flows into the micro-pours of the wood cell structure and will change the way the wood appears with subsequent finishes because it absorbs at a different rate than the "natural" material.

If you can try to cut out and re-cover the same area with "solid shavings" of the same wood, you may get a closer match, but if the shavings are wet through with glue, it won't work. Again, the cell voids will fill with the glue material and be unable to absorb subsequent coatings - and will look different.

I have used shelac in the past to fill the voids in "blochy" wood prior to staining - that does work. The shelac fills the voids and provides a homogeneous surface for the next subsequent finish. As a suggestion, you may want to try to shelac the one strip in question???(maybe same strip on both sides of the canoe) Not sure how it would react with the epoxy/glass though??(ask others) DO A TEST first before you do an attempt on the near finished product!!!!

Good Luck,
Davesbuild

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:27 pm

I would try to scrape down the thickened epoxy already applied so that the patch isn't just 1/64" thick which would all get sanded away later. A well controlled chisel should work well. If you can work the "damaged" areas down to about 1/8" deep and sloping up at the healthy ends, it will be easier to obtain a good match. If that doesn't work well enough for you, you can always cut out the offending areas and replace with some matching wood strips or some contrasting wood strips to acheive a decorative design.

edmontonian · Post by **edmontonian** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:13 pm

Hello All,

I have decided to use thin overlay strips for this repair. Thanks for the tip Glen.

Having chiseled away one of the offending epoxy-filled areas on the port side, I have now wood glued in two thin pieces from a similar coloured strip. Things are held in position with clamps and softwood wedges. Time: 2 hours/side.

Drying time and then planing away the extra material comes next. Hoping this fix does the trick. If so, I will proceed to starboard. Will advise on results later.

May the force continue to be with you!

edmontonian

edmontonian · Post by **edmontonian** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:54 am

Hi Guys,

Well, the repair patches are in place and glassed over already.
On 3 of the 5 overlay patch strips it is difficult to see the transition to the original planks. I really have to remind myself to look in order to see them. Excellent!
The other 2 pieces show a small amount of glue has soaked through the wood pores. This prevented the epoxy from darkening the strips, but better this than a complete colour mis-match. Overall, the replacement patches are much better than the original epoxy/wood flour repairs I attempted.
Thought you all would like to know how things worked out.

And thanks again for this insight/instruction on canoe building 101.

edmontonian

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:26 pm

I am happy to hear that it worked out to your satisfaction.