Replies

1. 
   UncleDunc | Jul 09, 2002 07:55am | #1

   Make the customer buy you several hundred board feet of teak to experiment with.

1. 
   PineIslander | Jul 09, 2002 04:55pm | #3

   Great idea! (And a thickness sander as well... all that silica is hell on planer blades!)

2. 
   dhpascoe | Jul 09, 2002 04:24pm | #2

   I have a lot of experience with teak and bonding to it is not as difficult as you might think. Standard contact cement will work well, as does epoxy. It's the water based stuff that you will have problems with. Epoxy is the preferred choice in the marine industry for gluing teak-to-teak.

1. 
   PineIslander | Jul 09, 2002 05:04pm | #4

   But it is a sailboat galley... and although you'd prefer to get the hatchway closed before that huge wave hits you broadside, that doesn't always happen...  wet sails get thrown down there, etc.  The possibility exists that it could get REAL wet ...

   3M and Dap both say that although contact cement will provide a fine initial tack, in this environment it will eventually fail.

   Is this your experience as well?

1. 
   rslatm | Jul 09, 2002 07:13pm | #5

   Try http://www.woodweb.com

   One of the better pro forums I've seen

2. 
   dhpascoe | Jul 09, 2002 11:09pm | #7

   No, contact cement is used in boats routinely and mica usually even stays on after a boat sinks. I'm a marine surveyor so I've seen a lot of sinkers. It's elastic and water resistent. Swelling wood doesn't normally loosen it. It's main weakness is heat like from hot pans set on counter tops. It will often fall off engine room doors! Oil is not a solvent to it, so the oilly teak will not cause it too loosen.

   If you still have doubts why not make up a test piece and then throw it in a bucket of water for a couple days. Then see if you can get it off. I'll bet you can't.

   Edited 7/9/2002 4:18:15 PM ET by none

1. 
   vanderpooch | Jul 10, 2002 03:18am | #8

   i'll second what none said. we used contact cement for counters in the boats we built at my old shop. no failures i ever heard of, and one of our boats had been launched in the fifties.

   good luck.

2. 
   PineIslander | Jul 10, 2002 06:09pm | #10

   Great. Thanks very much for the info. I really appreciate it.

   I'm divin' headlong into this one... wish me luck.

3. 
   ChasStanford | Jul 09, 2002 09:49pm | #6

   One of the most satisfying attributes of working for myself has been the ability to say "no" to a job.  Unless you are starving, I'd try it on this job.

1. 
   PineIslander | Jul 10, 2002 06:03pm | #9

   Yeah CHAS, it sounds like you're smarter than I am...

   ... but actually the boat cabinetry thing is a niche market that I want to expand my business into... so I need (want) it for my portfolio.

   but thanks for the advice. Wish me luck... I'm goin' in!

   Edited 7/10/2002 11:10:33 AM ET by Pine Islander

4. 
   HowardAcheson | Jul 10, 2002 06:21pm | #11

   The shop I used to be involved with built lots of high end custom sailboat interior stuff and never had a problem with solvent based contact cement. We used it over teak occasionally, and never recall a problem.

1. 
   PineIslander | Jul 11, 2002 04:03pm | #12

   Thanks to all for the input... I really appreciate it.

   Howie, at your former shop, what were your impressions of the "high end custom sailboat interior stuff" business? As I mentioned before, I'd really like to begin to steer toward that market...

1. 
   HowardAcheson | Jul 11, 2002 05:21pm | #13

   Our shop started on City Island in NYC which was the home of a number of boat builders and much custom woodworking. Minneford Yachts was one who was the builder of most of the wooden 12 meter Americas Cup winners for a number of years.

   So, we had a good tie-in but the boat business was not our main business thrust. We specialized in custom kitchens and then grew into a shop doing custom cabinetry and semi-custom production furniture for a well known interior designer. The shop had 20-25 employees ranging from woodworkers, finishers and upholsterers. The business was sold to the designer and we operated it as a captive for a couple of years until the designer died.

   I would not want to rely on the yacht business as my prime source of income. Most high end boats are built overseas now and they can get their wood and woodworking much cheaper, and the level of quality is very, very high. Local pickup jobs can still be a good fill-in as many owners remodel just as homeowners do.