B28 engine bed replacement

[bertram 20]

Hey guys I have both engines out for winter engine beds are pretty rotted so I have started to remove them, I have starb side out I noticed an older post in regards to replacing them and capt pat said yellow pine was a good wood to use for this.I am not a carpenter by any means so I wanted to know why not use oak? thanks mike

[CaptPatrick]

Mike,

Oak is just fine if you want, epoxy treating, bedding, cross bolting through the stringer and glassing it all over is still requisite... Oak is just more expensive, that's all...

[bertram 20]

ok thanks was just wandering that's all thanks again

[CaptPatrick]

Buddy Boy's engine beads

[wmachovina]

On Seachele I laminated 3/4 marine ply treated with epoxy,shaped and glassed over.

[PaulJ]

On the Paladin, I went to our local wood shop that handles various exotic woods and made a deal to purchase a rough-sawn slab of mahogany that was 2.5" x 14" x 8' for $60. I then took it to a cabinet maker friend who planed it and cut it to my specs for the price of a couple of beers and some fishing stories. I epoxied 3 coats of West System and then Interlux bilge coat. Tabbed in all engine beds and through bolted with stainless.

I figured the last set of beds lasted almost 40 years and I'll be dead and gone before they need to be replaced again.

Paul J
1973 B28 - PALADIN

[JH_B28]

I did something very similar to PaulJ. Bought two 2"x 12" x 8' rough cut mahogany boards from a local wood supplier and ask for one of them to be cut to 1". Bonded the 2" board to the 1" to get the 3" I needed for the mounts to properly fit. Added a layer of matt with epoxy just for protection, thru-bolted , bonded and tabbed to stringers and bulkheads. Solid.


Bonded with thickened epoxy

routered edges and sanded ready for layer of matt w/ epoxy

thru bolted and bonded to stringers and bulkheads with thickened epoxy

tabbed to bulkheads

tabbed to stringers




-G

[Preston Burrows]

Your anecdotes bring back bad memories................when I was replacing the 'sisters' that attach to the stringers and form the engine beds my carpenter's helper decided to cut out the entire stringer on my port engine's in board side...........instead of unbolting and removing only the sister..............

Luckily for me I had been watching from across the road to see what would happen after I had explained the job to the carpenter and got off the boat, only to see him get off the boat soon after....

In the 5 minutes it took me to get back to the boat the carpenter's helper had sawzall'd out the entire stringer, sister still bolted to it...........a few more minutes and he would have had all 4 stringers cut out......

Luckily it was a clean cut and we were able to epoxy the stringer back in place with no problems since.

I used oak for the sisters, tabbed in at both butt ends and treated them with thinned epoxy then painted.

[Rawleigh]

I would use white oak, not red oak.

[PaulJ]

Oh yea, I left out that I had some aluminum cap plates made and topped the stingers at the motor mount points with them for added strength.

JH... Omg, I could have taken those same pictures. Vey familiar. It was an experience and glad I did it, but don't ever want to do it again!

[Preston Burrows]

Neither do I want to do again !

It was the port outboard side stringer that was cut out, I had mis-remembered it as being the inboard stringer!

Not a happy sight that day!

I used white oak for the new 'sisters'

[JH_B28]

I agree! Once in a lifetime thing LOL

Wow Preston... that's a crime scene right there.

[Marlin]

I think engine beds r engine beds, not longitudinal stringers, and don't think they r structural ,I'm not a naval architect so I may be off base. I once was an egg harbor and pacemaker dealer in the Great Lakes wood boats, all of the boats we sold had lots of red/white oak piece and there was a lot of dry rot even in new boats , especially in transom oak framing, oak ain't your friend when it comes to water intrusion, maybe u can encapsulate it with epoxy methods, but to hermetically seal it probably won't happen, it works, grows, twist etc, I like the idea of the mahogany engine beds encapsulated but don't think they should be permanently affixed to the stringer system. I made mine out of clear spruce, 2pieces epoxied together using a vacumn bagging method and thru bolted them to the stringers with carriage bolts in holes that were drilled and a PVC sleeve epoxied to help keep out the moisture, kinda of a tinker toy approach as Bertram had initially done, should I want to re power and need different geometry, in 2hours they could be out, I did cap them with aluminum channel pcs that were epoxied on top of the engine beds and used the same set up that captain Pat shows for risers. Should u encounter a serious underwater occurance and break things , it's nice to be able to replace pieces parts, I don't think anyone would ever consider permanently bonding their struts to the hull