fixing split in wood prior to Coelan

[kipugh]

seeking advice - my Finesse clinker 28 is in the process of having the varnish stripped off to be replaced with Coelan. However the coach house sides have one or two splits coming off from the portholes. Once the varnish is off I was planing on putting some glue into the cracks, mixed with sawdust to disguise it as much as possible. But what kind of glue should I use? And is there any problem once this is covered with the Coelan? Should I put on the Coalan base coat before gluing or after?

Advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ken.

 

[srp]

Cut (or get someone to cut) a slim tapered spline. Clean out the split with a hacksaw blade and tap the spline into place with some epoxy resin. Clean up with a chisel and scraper. If you choose the wood carefully (mahogany???) you'll find it a much more pleasing result than bodging it up with sawdust.

 

[ccscott49]

Agree with above, if you mikx sawdust with epoxy, it goes black. or it did for me.
Brummer wood filler would be ok under coelan. But nowhere near as good as a spline.

Just remembered, coelan do a filler of there own for just this job, contact them.

 

[Mukes]

I didn't know you could get filler from Coelan but it has to be a better bet as Coelan boat covering can react with some materials. Also, you need to apply Coelan boat coating to at least a 1mm thickness and this can therefore have a "filling" effect depending on the size of the crack, (when covering my topsides the coating "filled" the screw holes for the portholes!).

Regarding when to apply the base coat, I suppose it is rather like using coelan over caulked deck seams i.e. caulking compound, base coat then coelan - but this is an assumption on my part - not based on known facts!

 

[Gordonmc]

I had the same problem on the coamings on my Hillyard and filling only lasted a couple of years, although that was with varnish on top. Coelan would be more flexible.
During the winter I took the bull by the horns and, with trepidation, put in splines.
I matched the wood as best I could and cut 3mmx 10mm lengths, on a bench saw. On the boat I made a former with battens G-cramped to the coaming as a guide and used a little tool called a rotozip, similar to a small router with a 3mm bit. The splines were cut to length and epoxied into the channels, left proud until set. Sanded off, the repair would be hard to spot if you don't know its there.