: What do you use for a vacuum pump, and how did you make the mold? It seems an
: expensive proposition...

Don, I had an old SpeedAire/Dayton diaphram vacuum pump sitting around. It will pull 21" of vacuum and is rated for continuous duty. It sucks the deck bag up to full vacuum in about 10 minutes.

Our decks are normally cambered plywood glued to shear clamps, so the shape is not complex. I didn't change the shape much except to build in some upward curve at the bow, which is hard to do with plywood. For a mold, I built forms and stripped it up with i 1/2" wide by 3/8" thick strips - female mold. Faired it out, mostly with a 4" angle grinder with a sanding disk, and gave it a coat of glass and mostly filled the weave. Sanded it fairly smooth and gave it about 4 coats of paste wax. The bag is nylon film from FibreGlast attatched around the edges with their tape.

Materials cost about $20 to $25 more than our plywood decks, mostly extra glass and epoxy. Their are a few consumables (peel ply and bleeder/breather fabric) but I am trying to minimize this. If I buy the veneer in quantity enough for the 30% discount, it is pretty reasonable. (of course, if one wants $7/square foot ebony it can get a bit pricey).

The first one was a real pain, mostly fitting the face veneer edges since they are not straight lines. The second deck was for an 18' 2" Cormorant and I had face veneer about 11 feet long and 8" wide (from Certainly Wood). I used 4 pieces. Once all the pieces are cut it goes together pretty fast. I started cuttting the pieces for the second deck right after lunch yesterday, and did the layup starting sometime after 5:00. I plugged the pump in at about 6:30. A bit more labor than plywood, but I think the results and the possibilities are worth it.

Grant