Readers’ Projects, Issue 56

Spring 2023

Craig Bjarnason built an 8‘ dinghy. It is a cold molded, cedar hull with mahogany keelson seats and transom. All the laminating was done with thickened WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. The hull was sheathed with 6 oz. fiberglass/epoxy on the outside and was epoxy coated on the inside. This boat is used as a tender for our 34‘ cold molded cutter on Lake of the Woods (Kenora, Ontario). It was also built using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy.

Take a look at some of the other awesome Readers’ Projects our fans sent in!

Maurice Godin built this standup paddleboard and paddle a few years ago. The paddle and the exterior of the board are made of local eastern white cedar. The interior frame is marine plywood. The finish is fiberglass and WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. “Thanks to the pre-cut interior frame and excellent tutorials at WEST SYSTEM and Silver Paddle Boards, it turned out great. This was my first time working with fiberglass and epoxy. I was pleased with how easy it was to work with and the excellent results obtained.”

Micheal Stendzis built this Camilla C, a 14‘ Seneca Pacific Power Dory from plans. The boat is a plywood on frame design, wrapped in fiberglass/epoxy and paint. Michael Stendzis confessed to using “copious amounts of WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy.” As his largest woodworking project to date, he said, “the process was incredibly fun, with lots of challenges to figure out as I went”. The boat was named Camilla C as a tribute to his beloved grandmother.

James Island is primarily known as a luthier (musical instrument maker). He uses WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy on every instrument, in one way or another – sometimes G-Flex, but mostly 105/207. His comments about the epoxy were “I can’t say enough about it. My favorite glue ever!” This mandolin was carved by CNC for the end-grain checkerboard back. He used 105 Epoxy Resin® and 207 Special Clear Hardener® on it to epoxy it together and fill all the gaps.