Shopsmith Forums

I have been searching for a thread that had pictures of a fish cleaning station that was somehow placed at the back of the boat. The way I remember the description it was made of some kind of plastic sheet goods.

I have just purchased an old boat that has some rotted panels and thought plastic replacement panels would be something to look into. The Problem is I can't remember what the plastic panels were called.

Any help would be appreciated.

Try searching for UHMW.

Mike

You can also buy sheets of PVC at most profesional lumber yards. 4x8 in standard plywood thicknesses.

Is the boat aluminum or fiberglass? Does it have decks like a bass boat or more open like a jon? Do you have an idea of what dimensions/features you want in the fish station? I work for a large boat manufacturer so I can give you a lot of direction here. None of which would involve plastic sheet goods...too many better and easier methods.

frank81 wrote:Is the boat aluminum or fiberglass? Does it have decks like a bass boat or more open like a jon? Do you have an idea of what dimensions/features you want in the fish station? I work for a large boat manufacturer so I can give you a lot of direction here. None of which would involve plastic sheet goods...too many better and easier methods.

Thank you very much for the response.
Many apologies for not responding sooner. But one of life's little misery's got in the way.
The boat is a 1983 Lund aluminum boat that come from an estate auction. The boat was definitely rode hard and put away wet. I think I will replace the indoor outdoor carpet on the floor with marine vinyl flooring. As you can see from the pictures the other plywood panels need some help.I think the originals are either 1/2 in MDO or HDO with a wood grain pattern of some sort.
My thought was to replace with plastic panels of some sort after a quick search I did not find anything that looked promising for use as replacement panels. The plastic sheet goods I found at our local lumber yard were not UV rated.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[ATTACH]22689[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]22690[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]22691[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]22692[/ATTACH]

I'd use marine plywood. There's a plastic kind of material called starboard that is easy to work with but it is too flexible for things like seats. It is good for smaller panels that don't support much weight. I used it for a replacement dashboard/instrument panel on my 19' runabout.

I have a boat just like that one. Mine is a 16 foot and had the side consol. I got it cheap and it was a mess. The aluminum part on the bottom was water stained bad and the whole interior was shot. I removed all the wood and I also removed the steering wheel and consol as the motor I was going to use was a tiller steer. I replaced all the wood with 3/4 cedar this was one of the benfits of owning a sawmill and put indoor outdoor carpet over it. On the seat tops I used marine plywood and put carpet over them. I added all new wiring and set it up for an elec trolling motor. Whatever you do don't use treated plywood as it will eat the aluminum up. If you have a place thatsells plastics for industrial use you can get whatever kind of plastic you need and most places will tell you what would work best for you. Star board is an excellent product and I have used a lot of it for other projects with some being fish cleaning boards

The PVC panels I was talking about from lumber yards should be fine for exterior exposure. They use them as trim on houses and don't need to be painted. Azek is one such brand here's a link to their website.

http://www.azek.com/azek-sheet/

stumpbuster wrote:Thank you very much for the response.
Many apologies for not responding sooner. But one of life's little misery's got in the way.
The boat is a 1983 Lund aluminum boat that come from an estate auction. The boat was definitely rode hard and put away wet. I think I will replace the indoor outdoor carpet on the floor with marine vinyl flooring. As you can see from the pictures the other plywood panels need some help.I think the originals are either 1/2 in MDO or HDO with a wood grain pattern of some sort.
My thought was to replace with plastic panels of some sort after a quick search I did not find anything that looked promising for use as replacement panels. The plastic sheet goods I found at our local lumber yard were not UV rated.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[ATTACH]22689[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]22690[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]22691[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]22692[/ATTACH]

Vinyl is a good choice. Google SCA 571, that's the adhesive we use for both carpet and vinyl and its good enough we have lifetime warranty on it.

Replace your wood with marine grade plywood. You will still need to seal it and you have two choices here. You can put a veneer on top of the plywood and seal the daylights out of it (that's actually what the interiors on luxury yachts are made of). Or you can use fiberglass (2 or 3 layers of thin mat) and resin. Either way, the the plywood has to be completely encased so no water gets in. This will last forever and have no structural issues. Trust me, if plastic was a good idea we would be using it in the factories by now..so far its limited to consoles that you don't sit on.

For your fish cleaning station...the basic setup consists of a sink basin, drain tube, and a light duty pump and spray nozzle. The beauty of fiberglass is you can use anything as the core, especially when it isn't structural, and it requires woodworking rather than welding. So barebones quick and dirty fish cleaning station I would build a box with no bottom and a sunken lid/top, maybe 4 inches, creating a basin. Reinforce from underneath. Drill holes in the basin for a drain and inlet, leaving room to accomodate a layer of glass. Glass the entire structure, inside and out, and you can go a little thicker in the edges of the basin to drain better. Let it cure until the next weekend, then install your drain and inlet. PVC pipe is fine (we use it in the factory), the drain tube should be flush and the inlet should extend above what will be the water. Glass around both to seal and secure, from above and below. All that is left is the plumbing..hose attaches to the drain but runs through the inlet like conduit. Then hook up the sprayer nozzle and pump.

Obviously you can add features and get as complicated as you want, like storage underneath, glassing in a cutting board for the bottom of the basin, etc. Also think about where you want to install it in the boat (it can be movable) and if you are going to bolt it down glass in large washers on either side of the hole. I realize most freshwater fish cleaning stations at a dealer are molded plastic or aluminum but for one-off DIY fiberglass is the way to go. And the hard part of FG is the woodworking which isn't a problem here.

Also to add, best practice for using fasteners on a fiberglass part. Screw all your wood pieces together as normal, but once you glass over the part you want to pre-drill any new holes oversized and fill with resin (no glass). Then drill a pilot hole and run your fastener through. Otherwise, screwing through the glass and into the wood introduces a failure point for moisture to get in the wood. Especially important on transoms, even on aluminum boats.

And by the way, I have a 1972 Ranger and you ALMOST took the title of ugliest console from me. You didn't come close on the seat box though, mine literally looks like they used a 5 gallon bucket as the mold.