Re: [bolger] Re: Fouling resistance of UHMW plastic
Gene,
It is not all that strong, and not easy to join at corners. It's used
on the bottom of drift boats to help them slide over rocks. If you do a
Google search and look at several suppliers, some of them sell sheets
with adhesive already applied. Those look like they would stick to
smooth fiberglass, but I have not tried them.
Ford Walton
smitty97006 wrote:
It is not all that strong, and not easy to join at corners. It's used
on the bottom of drift boats to help them slide over rocks. If you do a
Google search and look at several suppliers, some of them sell sheets
with adhesive already applied. Those look like they would stick to
smooth fiberglass, but I have not tried them.
Ford Walton
smitty97006 wrote:
>
> I'm curious about UHMW is there a way to join pieces of this via heat
> etc and if so is the sheet material and joint strong enough to make a
> boat out of the material itself, as it seems to be made in a wide
> variety of thicknesses and sheet sizes, not unlike plywood.
>
> Gene Smith
>
>
> Bolger rules!!!
> - no cursing, flaming, trolling, spamming, or flogging dead horses
> - stay on topic, stay on thread, punctuate, no 'Ed, thanks, Fred' posts
> - Pls add your comments at the TOP, SIGN your posts, and snip away
> - Plans: Mr. Philip C. Bolger, P.O. Box 1209, Gloucester, MA, 01930, Fax: (978) 282-1349
> - Unsubscribe:bolger-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> - Open discussion:bolger_coffee_lounge-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
UHMW's virtue is that it is extremely tough. Unfortunately, it has
very low tensile strength and elastic modulus. This is the opposite of
what you would want for building a boat. UHMW is often called poor
man's teflon as it's use and properties are similar, though not quite
as slick or temperature resistant.
Doug
very low tensile strength and elastic modulus. This is the opposite of
what you would want for building a boat. UHMW is often called poor
man's teflon as it's use and properties are similar, though not quite
as slick or temperature resistant.
Doug
--- Inbolger@yahoogroups.com, "smitty97006" <cautious@a...> wrote:
> I'm curious about UHMW is there a way to join pieces of this via
heat
> etc and if so is the sheet material and joint strong enough to make
a
> boat out of the material itself, as it seems to be made in a wide
> variety of thicknesses and sheet sizes, not unlike plywood.
>
> Gene Smith
I'm curious about UHMW is there a way to join pieces of this via heat
etc and if so is the sheet material and joint strong enough to make a
boat out of the material itself, as it seems to be made in a wide
variety of thicknesses and sheet sizes, not unlike plywood.
Gene Smith
etc and if so is the sheet material and joint strong enough to make a
boat out of the material itself, as it seems to be made in a wide
variety of thicknesses and sheet sizes, not unlike plywood.
Gene Smith
Ford;
You have an interesting experiment going. I use UHMW for a variety of
industrial applications and knew it must be good for something on a
boat. Sounds like the perfect antifouling but for the fact that it
doesn't bond with anything.
UHMW should make a good cutlass bearing. It is used as the runner
strips for snowmobile tracks. Lasts forever as long as it has some
moisture present.
Doug
You have an interesting experiment going. I use UHMW for a variety of
industrial applications and knew it must be good for something on a
boat. Sounds like the perfect antifouling but for the fact that it
doesn't bond with anything.
UHMW should make a good cutlass bearing. It is used as the runner
strips for snowmobile tracks. Lasts forever as long as it has some
moisture present.
Doug
Group,
Over a year ago, Richard Spelling sent me some UHMW plastic to test for
resistance to marine growth of various kinds. Since then it has been
tied to my dock growing various things. The short story is that weed,
tube worms, barnacles, etc. will attach to the plastic, but they are
easy to clean off. Scrubbing with an old toothbrush got off everything
but the barnacles, and those, base and all, were removed with a plastic
scraper made for removing ice from windshields.
Details: The canal is off Charlotte Harbor, in southwest Florida, and
the salinity ranges from almost fresh in the rainy season to about 50%
seawater in the dry. The natural foulers include oysters, barnacles,
sabellid polychaetes (tube worms), and several kinds of algae.
The UHMW was a strip about 1" x 8" x 1/4" thick. It was tied to a
plastic bottle to keep it at a constant depth of 6". UHMW floats, so I
tied a small weight at one end to sink it. A strip of oak, about the
same size was hung beside it for comparison. The oak collected foulers
at about the same rate as the plastic, but was eaten by borers or rotted
off after a few months.
There were a few low tides that left the strip hanging in the air for a
few hours, but it did not seem to harm the attached organisms.
Cleaning the strip was not hard. I scrubbed it with an old toothbrush
and removed everything but the barnacles. They came off with some
vigorous scraping with a windshield ice scraper. Scraping barnacles
usually leaves the flat, white base attached, but the bases came off
with the rest of the barnacle. A steel putty knife would have worked
too, but I didn't want to scratch the UHMW. The clean strip is back in
the canal, floating this time, to see what else will grow on it.
Thanks to Richard for supplying the test strip.
Ford Walton
Over a year ago, Richard Spelling sent me some UHMW plastic to test for
resistance to marine growth of various kinds. Since then it has been
tied to my dock growing various things. The short story is that weed,
tube worms, barnacles, etc. will attach to the plastic, but they are
easy to clean off. Scrubbing with an old toothbrush got off everything
but the barnacles, and those, base and all, were removed with a plastic
scraper made for removing ice from windshields.
Details: The canal is off Charlotte Harbor, in southwest Florida, and
the salinity ranges from almost fresh in the rainy season to about 50%
seawater in the dry. The natural foulers include oysters, barnacles,
sabellid polychaetes (tube worms), and several kinds of algae.
The UHMW was a strip about 1" x 8" x 1/4" thick. It was tied to a
plastic bottle to keep it at a constant depth of 6". UHMW floats, so I
tied a small weight at one end to sink it. A strip of oak, about the
same size was hung beside it for comparison. The oak collected foulers
at about the same rate as the plastic, but was eaten by borers or rotted
off after a few months.
There were a few low tides that left the strip hanging in the air for a
few hours, but it did not seem to harm the attached organisms.
Cleaning the strip was not hard. I scrubbed it with an old toothbrush
and removed everything but the barnacles. They came off with some
vigorous scraping with a windshield ice scraper. Scraping barnacles
usually leaves the flat, white base attached, but the bases came off
with the rest of the barnacle. A steel putty knife would have worked
too, but I didn't want to scratch the UHMW. The clean strip is back in
the canal, floating this time, to see what else will grow on it.
Thanks to Richard for supplying the test strip.
Ford Walton