How to prevent rot in NEW wood

crab bait	Number one ; the only thing that prevents rot is epoxy ..but only if the wood is dry before hand ,,under 12 % moisture,, or it will rot from the inside out if the wood is encapsulated.. epoxy soaks into the wood & prevents water molecues from penetrating.. chaulk may seem good but doesn't penetrate.an can peel away or have a void ..polyester resin is not a glue, does not truely bond to wood & lets water molecues pass rite thru ,, doin' nothing to prevent rot.. for bolt holes or for any hole in wood is a bad thing .. an is a gateway for rot.. especialy because a hole exposes the end/side grain like a sponge.. oneway to solve this is by goin' to a good hardware store an buying some brass tubing made by K & S .. it comes in vast fractional sizes.. say for the motor bolt holes in the transom buy a larger size tubing to the size of a standard spade bit..bore hole in transom cut a piece of tubing the thickness of the transom shy a couple mm's.. mix & apply epoxy in the hole/s then apply it again before set up.. soak it good. then apply epoxy to the cut brass pieces slide them in the hole/s .. that's it sealed hole for life.. then you can put bolts thru after cure & chaulk the play left in the hole/s...TIP... vinger cleans up uncured epoxy like nothing else & it's cheap & safe.. hope this helps	2002-05-17
Saperry	Reat Idea Crab I will do that on my new transom.	2002-05-17
Franki	I'm just gonna go with seacast for mine,, don't want to ever worry about it again. rgsd Frank	2002-05-17
Saperry	I have looked at seacast and I am NOT sold on it It may be a great product and do the job fine but I cannot afford to roll the dice. It woud cost over $350.00 to do my transom alone. Then I still need wood and fiber glass for the floor. I can buy enough wood and glass to do both for about $250.00. If I pour $350.00 worth of seacast and it does not take I will have to dig/chisel/grind all the seacast out and still go buy the wood and glass. Not to mention a trip to Ga. to put my foot in some at Seacasts' A#%. The boat I am doing is already 16 years old. If I build a wood transom and take care of it it will last untill the boat is worth almost nothing in any condition. That is my logic for not using Seacast...for what it is worth. If I could by the stuff locally and not pay annother 40-60 bucks shipping on top of the price, maybe. If I saw a boat that had it done and it worked out great, probably. I KNOW a wooden transom will work and I am conifident that I can build one. **Good Wood Properly Used Has Never Failed*** That was a sign at an old Mom & Pop lumber yard near home when I was a kid. Ofcourse Home Depot put them out of buissness so what does that prove.	2002-05-17
oldboat1	Crab bait has a good idea for through-bolting. I soaked/filled/coated the holes with epoxy when I did my transoms, but it is probably possible for the bolt to wear away the epoxy enough to let some water in. I'm a believer in the epoxy and construction grade plywood method for rebuilding transoms. It's fairly cost effective, and probably as good as original construction. It is also possible to do a new transom with plywood and 5200 adhesive/sealant (or an equivalent). I think it depends on how long you want the boat to last, but I'll bet that using plywood and 5200 provides a solid transom for a lot of years. It's sure safer than trying to get by for another year or so with a transom that is rotting out.	2002-05-17
FlyBoyMark	Pressure treated REAL copper naphthate impregnated wood or some of the new wood substitutes materials.........and never let get wet!	2002-05-17

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