steps reduce the ability of a hull full of water to slosh to the extreme stern and pull you under upon acceleration and help keep the water nearer the pump
Thanks, Swiss. I must admit, I'm a lot better with pencil and paper that I am with Paint and mouse. I went with the 45deg rule on the stern. So I guess both options must be OK to use. I prefer the red line because it's easier to mount stuff on a flat surface that a sloping one. If I do the red line option, I should probably add a slight slope so the water will drain to the next step, right? Oh, do you guys have any preferred brand of concrete sealer, or will anything do?
I do believe as it is a flat surface and starts getting more water it will naturally run down the steps to your valley through the center and be sucked out, hopefully not onto any unsuspecting radio operators.
I have some sealer but can't remember what it is offhand. I probably used to much at once. It still feels squishy but it works. All the weight is where I want it. Might need more since it's a tall ship.
That sounds logical. So I think I'll go with the steps. I've heard that if you put too thick of a layer of sealer it doesn't dry well. Hopefully that shouldn't happen, since I'll only have an 1/8" think layer.
Concrete sealer when pored over 1/4" thick does take a while to cure but I have gotten inch thick sealer to cure, it just took a month to finish. And I regularly pour1/2-3/4" with no problem. Just takes time.
Thanks, Hovey, for the info. 55 days left till NATS. Have any of you guys used Speed Plug in the place of concrete sealer? It's like a powder that's for patching concrete. I had some around so I mixed up a little and put in two ribs.
I had a horrible experience with the stuff.... some captains love the sealer.. I wouldn't recommend it for the following reasons.. 1. If the humidity is high in your area, it will take a while to cure.. I do mean a while as in DAYS not hours.. After a week of curing, I still had areas that did not cure, and I only had the stuff 1/4" to 3/8" thick. If you have plenty of time to wait for the curing, it will work for you.. I didn't have the time nor the patience. 2. If you ever plan on gluing and mounting ANYTHING after you place this stuff in, you will have a hard time as it never becomes "Hard". It maintains a softer texture and anything glued to it will not be very secure. You will have remove the stuff from the area to be used before you can glue something down. So if you are completely done with your boat, the it will work, but if you are like most captains, we are never "done" with our boats and we constantly change things.. This sealer can be a issue with that. 3. If you ever decide to remove the stuff from the hull... because of weight changes or other reasons... good luck. You will have to chip, peel, cut, sand, grind, and use explosives to get the stuff out. It was very painful removing that crap!
I haven't had problems with the curing, but I can say that I have cut some of it out of my hull before with very little difficulty. Razor slits it cleanly and then you can just use a chisel or knife to separate the bottom and lift it out in sections. On the topic of curing, the application instructions clearly note "Sealant skins within 24 hours, is functional within 3 days and reaches full cure in about 1 week." - this is consistent with my experience using the product. Expectations of curing in hours are inappropriate for this product. Edit: Thinking about it, since concrete is porous, I am betting that our pouring of layers in a nonporous container would definitely add to the cure time vs the intended application of simply filling cracks in concrete. Next time i open a tube I might play with this concept some and see how cure times are affected by different pour volumes and container material. Speed plug sounds like a miserable idea. One thing I cannot recommend is wax. On the other hand, my Maru is the best smelling ship in all the fleet on a warm day...
What is the structure like after it cures? Is it like tough rubber or hard like a brick? And is it brittle? Yes, speed plug doesn't work. As thin as I have it, just a little bit of pressure cracked it up. Most of that problem is because the foam underneath it compresses, and the plug doesn't have enough strength to stay together. That's why I need to know if concrete sealer is hard or flexible. If it flexes, I'll use it, if not, I won't. McSpuds, thanks for the info. At the most, I'll only be using a 1/8 thick layer, so I hope I won't have the same trouble you had.
I think it depends what type you use. I've seen some concrete sealer that cures hard, and others that cure rubbery.
Every product I have used is rubbery when cured some were harder rubber than others though. Make sure it is self leveling, the non self leveling stuff tends to be very thick. And yes you need a lot of time for it to cure. Once cured forget gluing anything to it, but it is somewhat nonslip, and if not quite cured it will deform to the shape of objects placed on top of it. The forward solenoids in my NC are just laying on top and they seem to stay in place just fine (slight indentation into the sealer) but I should probably mount them better at some point.
Can you drill through it after it's cured? I would like to get sealer in as soon as possible, but there will be some things that I'll need to modify afterwards, which I think I'll need to drill to do.
I have never tried to drill it. I suspect it would be soft and gummy to drill through. But it does cut with a knife so should be doable. probably not a good thing to do a lot of though.
the s10 isn't self leveling, you'd have to compare their data sheets to see about density or hardness differences in the cured product. self-leveling is a handy property though, so hopefully you can find that? Lowes or Home Depot should carry it. (all the ones by me do) - it may be in the older grey tubes instead of the photo posted above
