> Grant

> I am using the same design. But how do you actually make the pre bending ?
> Do you us some kind of stations on the outside of the deck or? And how do
> you temporarily fit the deck. So that you can glass the inside with less
> problems

> Hans

Hans, What I actually do is this:

1. I use the jig that I clamp up the deck beams on as a gauge.

2. I do each half of the deck (bow and stern) as separate pieces

3. After the deck pieces are roughly cut out (I rough cut them about an inch larger than the finished deck) and scarfed for length, if needed, I lay them out and cut the glass so it is just a bit (1/2 inch or so) smaller than the deck pieces.

4. I take pieces of 16 ga. wire and bend hooks in the ends of them to fit across the deck pieces and start bending the camber into the deck pieces and adjusting the bent wires (using my deck beam jig as a gauge) until the camber is a bit more than the final shape needed. This is usually a 1/2 to 1" gap at the center of the deck between the curve of the gauge and the curve of the bent deck pieces (the more camber in the deck, the more you need to allow for rebound). I space the cross wires about 12" to 16" apart. There will be some waves in the edges, but it doesn't matter.

5. I roll out the glass under the wires and epoxy as usual. let the epoxy set up really good before you remove the wires. The deck will stay cambered to an almost perfect fit. If you are going to cut hatches and use the cutouts as hatch covers, it helps to add a second layer of glass somewhat larger the than the hatch cutouts to ensure that the hatch cutouts don't rebound to not enough camber. This also reinforces the edges of the hatch opening.

I use 4 oz glass, but 6 oz would make a really stiff deck.

Hope this makes sense. I will take some photos of my next deck and post them. Will be a lot easier to understand than words.

Grant