Thread: Best Bond Queston ?

It's always best to try for good fits and tight joints. This produces a lighter structure, which is always desirable. It's nice to know you can slather some thickened goo on a hacked up part, let it cure and mill it down to the shape you need, so that under paint, you'd never know how bad a wood worker you actually are.

Back to the original questions on this thread. If truly concerned about water tightness and strength, fillet the chines and cover with biax tape. This will make a monocoque bottom to topside joint, which is waterproof and stronger then the wood itself. Stringers don't need to be taped, though as Richard said, a small fillet from the ooze out makes cleaning much easier and adds slightly to the strength of the stringer, also eases point loading.

Raw wood to raw wood bonds are always preferred, but often not practical. If raw wood to raw wood is possible then wet them out with unthickened epoxy first. If the contact area has previously been coated with epoxy, then wetting out the area isn't necessary, though it does need to be well roughed up. Leave plenty of limber and weep holes so the accumulated moisture can drain aft or to a low spot in the hull where it can be pumped overboard.