Toerail repair
Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 8:23 amThe grey weathered toerail on Windchaser had been calling out to me for some TLC since I bought her. Unfortunately, I could see it would not be a simple sand and oil. Various places were cracked. On each side in the middle were joins which seemed ready to fall apart.
And then there was the damage from a mad pro fisherman. Several years ago when Windchaser was anchored down around the corner hiding from a small flood, pro barra fishermen set up nets everywhere. One was set, so I was told by 'eyes' on the river, close to Windchaser who tends to sail around at times at anchor. Appears she ended up in the net and the fisherman rammed Windchaser with his large dinghy. Broke two safety lines and damaged the toerail. Not everyone on the river is polite like me.
The problem of how to fix the toerail had me going around in circles. If I sanded and oiled the wood then the cracks would not be fixed. Once oiled I would not be able to use epoxy. If I epoxied the cracks I could also coat the wood with clear saturating epoxy and protect with clear Aquacote. Tough shiny finish but take ages.
Some repairs had been done on the toerail in epoxy and the sun had broken the epoxy down. Epoxy is not UV proof. Can't just use epoxy.
Finally, I wondered if I could epoxy the cracks and use decking oil to coat everything. The decking oil I use at home seems to stick very well to hard surfaces so I reckoned any epoxy on the toerail surface which was sanded would hold the decking oil.
Once the toerails were off Windchaser - she was on the slip - I experimented with several clamps to see if I could get the fisherman's damage to sit flat. When that looked possible, I massaged epoxy, I use Botecote, into the cracks. I wear disposable gloves. However, I need to be careful because pushing the epoxy into the cracks can easily wear a hole in the thin gloves and epoxy ends up on fingers. Wrapped the repair in a plastic bag as epoxy does not stick to plastic and clamped. The plastic kept epoxy off my clamps.
Once the glue had set, I sanded with an orbital sander. Some big gaps needed filling. Epoxy with filler powder was the answer. To get filler powder, I put the dust collector on my sander and ran it along the lengths of toerail I had already sanded the grey wood from. Mixed the fresh dust into the epoxy mix so it was a little stiffer and put in the gaps. Not the exact colour match as epoxy makes it dark but it was okay. Looks messy to start with as epoxy goes everywhere not just in the exact gaps. However, once dry, the repair is sanded and most of the extra epoxy comes off.
Took a while to go over all the toerail fixing various cracks and sanding.
The damage caused by being rammed came up nicely. I could have filled the remaining small indentations but I thought not a big enough problem to spend more time on.
More in next post . . .
- Cracks easily seen once the rail was off.
- s 2016 slip_80.jpg (361.65 KiB) Viewed 2522 times
And then there was the damage from a mad pro fisherman. Several years ago when Windchaser was anchored down around the corner hiding from a small flood, pro barra fishermen set up nets everywhere. One was set, so I was told by 'eyes' on the river, close to Windchaser who tends to sail around at times at anchor. Appears she ended up in the net and the fisherman rammed Windchaser with his large dinghy. Broke two safety lines and damaged the toerail. Not everyone on the river is polite like me.
- Damage from being rammed
- s 2016 slip_76.jpg (367.14 KiB) Viewed 2522 times
The problem of how to fix the toerail had me going around in circles. If I sanded and oiled the wood then the cracks would not be fixed. Once oiled I would not be able to use epoxy. If I epoxied the cracks I could also coat the wood with clear saturating epoxy and protect with clear Aquacote. Tough shiny finish but take ages.
Some repairs had been done on the toerail in epoxy and the sun had broken the epoxy down. Epoxy is not UV proof. Can't just use epoxy.
Finally, I wondered if I could epoxy the cracks and use decking oil to coat everything. The decking oil I use at home seems to stick very well to hard surfaces so I reckoned any epoxy on the toerail surface which was sanded would hold the decking oil.
Once the toerails were off Windchaser - she was on the slip - I experimented with several clamps to see if I could get the fisherman's damage to sit flat. When that looked possible, I massaged epoxy, I use Botecote, into the cracks. I wear disposable gloves. However, I need to be careful because pushing the epoxy into the cracks can easily wear a hole in the thin gloves and epoxy ends up on fingers. Wrapped the repair in a plastic bag as epoxy does not stick to plastic and clamped. The plastic kept epoxy off my clamps.
- Epoxy gluing with plastic to avoid my clamps getting stuck.
- s 2016 slip_87.jpg (417.54 KiB) Viewed 2522 times
Once the glue had set, I sanded with an orbital sander. Some big gaps needed filling. Epoxy with filler powder was the answer. To get filler powder, I put the dust collector on my sander and ran it along the lengths of toerail I had already sanded the grey wood from. Mixed the fresh dust into the epoxy mix so it was a little stiffer and put in the gaps. Not the exact colour match as epoxy makes it dark but it was okay. Looks messy to start with as epoxy goes everywhere not just in the exact gaps. However, once dry, the repair is sanded and most of the extra epoxy comes off.
- Filled remaining gaps with wood dust and epoxy.
- s 2016 slip_95.jpg (359.38 KiB) Viewed 2522 times
Took a while to go over all the toerail fixing various cracks and sanding.
- Bottom right: fixed damage from being rammed. Top two pieces yet to be worked on.
- s 2016 slip_107.jpg (553.05 KiB) Viewed 2522 times
The damage caused by being rammed came up nicely. I could have filled the remaining small indentations but I thought not a big enough problem to spend more time on.
More in next post . . .