: Excellent news Randy, it is good to hear that you got the little
: beggars out.

: If you try the tube/rope technique, this is what worked for me.

: The tubing you need is just the cheap vinyl stuff with no
: reinforcement in it. I got mine at Canadian Tire, but it should
: be available in lots of plumbing and hardware stores. The rope I
: used is from an outdoor shop, and is for miscellaneous climbing
: purposes, fairly round, smooth and stiff. It is pricier than
: other options, but you don't need much, and the firm round cross
: section is helpful. Buy some tubing first, then go looking for
: rope to fit.

: To get the rope into the tube, cut lengths of rope a couple inches

: longer than your tube pieces, melt and taper at least one end
: (two if you want to keep re-using the ropes), and use a heavy
: sewing needle to thread a 1 foot piece of string or thread
: though the rope just behind the melted end. Suck the thread ends
: through the tube with good old lung power, and pull the rope
: into position. If the rope is at all snug in the tube, pushing
: it through can be a bit frustrating but pulling it is easy.

: When I made my fittings, I filled under the tube "loop"
: with epoxy, microballoons, and colloidal silica, and shaped the
: result into a nice roundish hump which smoothly graded flush
: with the top of the tube. You need to cut your glass pieces on
: the 45 degree bias to make it shape better. This approach adds a
: bit of weight, but the resulting structure is not going to get
: damaged easily by gear being stuffed and banged around it when
: loading or paddling. When the humps set up firmly enough, I
: epoxied several pre-cut pieces of glass over it, let it cure
: hard, and pulled out the tubes. I used a vacuum clamping to hold
: down the glass, but in your test, you will figure out what you
: can make work. If the glass doesn't want to behave, more taper
: to your hump around the tube loopmay help. Alternately, I expect
: that you could also use plastic bags of sand to pin the glass
: down, but I haven't tried this.

: To remove the tubes, I first pulled out the rope, then trimmed one
: end of the tube more or less flush with the deck, then pulled
: and twisted the other end of the tube with a pair of vise grips
: Worked like a charm. If you carefully place one end of the tube
: close to the deck in the first place, trimming isn't needed.

: This all resulted in very strong fittings with glass smooth
: interior surfaces.

: Good luck,

: Allan Edie

Thanks Al, good instructions, looks like a good place to start testing for a fool proof method:)
Randy