Cutting Holes in Fibreglass

[Argle]

G'day all, I was hoping to get some advice regarding cutting holes in the back deck area of my boat in order to install some flushmount rodholders to put a bait board on. I was thinking along the lines of taping the area and then using a holesaw on the drill? Is there a special type to use? What if anything do I look out for? Is there anything to do to seal the 'glass once the hole has been cut? Any and all advice would be appreciated!

Cheers and Beers
Scott

[tropicrows]

A hole saw is the best bet, you will get a few holes out of it before it just starts to go blunt, fibreglass is fairly a abrasive. Trade tools have there yellow brand which are cheap and a lot better than the Bunnings chinese stuff.

[Outsider1]

Just make sure the rod holder is going to fit before you drill the hole. Seems obvious but many have made the mistake of not checking what is below/behind where they are cutting the hole e.g. side pockets, cabling, depth of the gunnel etc

Cheers

Dave

[tropicrows]

Scott,

If you are only going through fibreglass just smooth of the edges with some emery paper.
If you go through any timber it will need to be sealed with poly or epoxy resin to stop any rot. If that is case stick some 2"masking tape on the under side, nice and tight. Then pour in the resin thinned with 10% acetone. Let is soak in for a while, then remove the excess. Once hard remove tape and file out the hole.

[kizza1]

check for clearence issues first, tape around the edge.
drill the pilot hole, then just before the holesaw touches the glass run the drill in reverse.
this will gut through the gelcoat first with out chipping it
once your through the gelcoat put the drill in forward and continue throu the glass.
also helps if you tilt the drill slightly and work it in a circular motion so it is only cutting a little bit at a time.
trust me ive done thousands of holes in glass boats

also make sure you counter sink the holes for the screws or you will chip the gelcoat.

[polky]

Kizza1 is spot on, just fitted bait board holders to my mates 625cc. We did seal inside holes with sicaflex. Polky.

[Argle]

Kizza, thanks for that, so you are saying we mark out the hole and then put tape around the edge? Thats a good tip too re putting the drill in reverse! Thanks heaps again! Hey Polky, hows that 493F going mate - great boats hey! Any specific sikaflex type that you used?

Thanks again to everyone who has replied!

Cheers and Beers
Scott

[cormorant]

Kizza has it down pat.

Always good to do a test in a bit of ply or chipboard as some of those angled rod holders need an oval hole. The wood can be a template for marking up as well.

Check where they will drain to when it rains

We put masking tape over the whole area before we do the final markout and that way no scratches.

Buy decent quality rod holders as for the time it takes to put them i you may as well have ones that will last - plastic can be very fragile after acouple of years in the sun and you can never fond the sae ones again so have to mess around with holes etc.

Put them in a place where if required you can use some ply ( soaked in resin or sealed ) as a backing plate for bolts and nyloc nuts and always use as bigger washers as you can all 316 hardware and askin of sikaflex against the deck.



Lastly don't breathe in the dust you create.

[bigjimg]

All good advice,also as matter of course put your motor at full tilt or travel position
and check relation between bait board installed position and cowl of motor.Also another sealing product especially for ply but can also be used on glass is 'Norglass' epoxy preservative or 'International' Everdure epoxy preservative.
Both top products and can purchase in small amounts.Jim