Glue inside glue solves a sticky problem
Issue 39 : Nov/Dec 2004
Not since I had to attach a bag of clean shingles to finish my daughter’s new dollhouse have I appreciated the merits of hot-melt glue. It’s not particularly strong, but it’s quick. And it solved a problem we had on our 1969 Cal 29, Pentaquod.
We wanted to mount curtains inside the cabin over our newly replaced portlights with horizontal strings top and bottom to hold them in place. The problem: how to mount the strings securely to the cabin sides. Like many boats of similar vintage, the sides of the coachroof have no core; it’s just a single thickness of laid-up fiberglass. So the only way to mount hardware is to bolt through it. But having recently fought and won the Battle of the Hidden Drips, we were disinclined to go poking more holes in the cabin.
Wooden blocks glued to the cabin walls with epoxy would work nicely, but the question is how to clamp them?
Hindsight no help
Had we thought to do it before we put in the new portlights, it would have been fairly simple to rig something to squeeze the blocks against the inside by pulling from the outside. But hindsight was of no help. A Rube Goldberg arrangement of cross-braces and jacks trying to negotiate the slopes and angles seemed like a prescription for spiking blood pressure. Then the hot-melt glue inspiration struck.
Make your mounting blocks and figure out their intended locations. (Taking the pilot drill bit out of a hole saw and then cutting circular blocks with a drill press makes it easy to create round mounting pads with no dangerous corners.) Remove any paint from the area, and sand with coarse sandpaper so the cabin wall has some “tooth” for the epoxy to grab. Next, apply the epoxy around the edge of the block, leaving an open spot in the center about the size of a penny. Finally, apply a small dollop of hot-melt glue in the center of the block and press the block against the cabin wall at the prepared spot.
In a matter of seconds, the hot-melt glue will cool and hold the block tight to the cabin wall while the epoxy sets. It took me a few minutes to mount a dozen blocks this way, and they have held securely ever since.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
