Building a 2.5" over/under dredge

Vance in AK said:
I can buy polyester resin at Home Depot here by the gallon for about $30.00 I believe! We have to order our epoxy resin & pay close to $100 per gal.
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And I can get epoxy here for $30 (even Walmart has it). Poly is $45 (shipping included) a gallon shipped out of Florida. We used to have a couple Marine supply stores in this area that carry it, but they closed up all of there sattelite stores and retreated back to Florida during the recession. West Marine had stores every where, now as far as I know they aren't any farther north than Destin, Fl. So boat supplies suck around here now.
 

SHoward said:
And I can get epoxy here for $30 (even Walmart has it). Poly is $45 (shipping included) a gallon shipped out of Florida. We used to have a couple Marine supply stores in this area that carry it, but they closed up all of there sattelite stores and retreated back to Florida during the recession. West Marine had stores every where, now as far as I know they aren't any farther north than Destin, Fl. So boat supplies suck around here now.
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Strange world isn't it!
 

Well I got off to a late start today. Dang flu bug has me moving a little slow today. I did finally get started laying the glass on the second float, it seems to be going a little easier and faster than the first one but will still be another late night.
Hopefully I will get it done tonight so I can knock out the sanding on both tomorrow.
 

SHoward said:
Well I got off to a late start today. Dang flu bug has me moving a little slow today. I did finally get started laying the glass on the second float, it seems to be going a little easier and faster than the first one but will still be another late night.
Hopefully I will get it done tonight so I can knock out the sanding on both tomorrow.
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Sh any up dates on your floats and the glass work?
 

I'll have some pics tonight or tomorrow.
I hope to get the top decks on both finished today or tomorrow. The sides and bottoms are complete and sanded on both as far as the matt goes. Then it will just be the final layer of cloth to finish them up. I don't have many days off this month so things have slowed down.
I got enough of the steel bent and welded last week so I could get the measurements for the mounting hard points on the top deck.
 

Yesterday I finished forming up the top decks and got one glassed in.
dredge floats 004.jpgdredge floats 006.jpg
Hopefully I'll get a chance to get the second glassed in tonight.
 

SH,

Looking really good. Im looking forward to see you dredge all together and running.

well Im heading back out to the creek to run some material
 

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About 16 lbs. I weighed the almost finished last night and it was at 25 lbs, way over weight like me. So I made up another foam blank at my boss's (wife) suggestion and found that the foam blank was 10 - 1/2 lbs. I didn't feel like ten lbs to me, felt like two or three to me. So the foam is going away. I feel they are plenty strong without it.
 

Reed Lukens said:
Wow with 8 cup holder's we will all be doing some serious drinking :evil6:
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Those are not cup holders...Those are a part of the adult beverage restraint system.

BTW.... for some reason the 2 pics look like one...Only 2 floats
 

Haven't had much time off the last couple of weeks so no progress has been made.
I'm off this weekend so hopefully I'll get enough time in the shop to at least get the second float caught up with the first, but the wife has "plans" so I don't know how things are going to go (probably not the way I want).
When I get off work in the morning I'm going to try to catch up with a friend that has a huge press brake in his shop ( like 12' ) and get the sluice box bent.
The metal work is at about 80 percent done and would have been done a long time ago if I would stop changing my mind every five minutes.
After this weekend I have a little over 3 weeks with no time off so this is my last chance to get anything done for a while.
 

Ok, I lied.... My buddies brake is only 10', and the really great news is he has some 3' x 10' .063 aluminum sheets taking up space in his warehouse. He's kind enough to donate one to the cause, so of course the sluice just got bigger....Going to make it 6' long and see how that works out. Hopefully I'll be able to speed up the flows and still be able to keep the end out of the water.
I guess now all that's left is finishing it !!
 

It' getting a little closer. It's a little wider than I had it pictured in my head, at least it didn't look that wide on paper !!New Dredge 008.jpgNew Dredge 006.jpg
 

I will get some more pics later...the other three pics I took the files were to large to upload
 

the lower your pump is the better your suction will be! more suction could be less plug ups! my first dredge I built had its eng/pump about the same height as yours . I was advised to lower it back then and im glad I did!
 

Drop the pump down lower. The less head the suction has to pull the more efficient the pump will be
 

Yeah, after I got it all together I was thinking the same thing. I'm going to see how it sits in the water before I make any changes, it will sit a minimum of 2" lower in the water. I did get some welding done this afternoon and the frame is about 90 percent done.
New pics showing the work done on the frame today.
New Dredge 2 012.jpgNew Dredge 2 003.jpgNew Dredge 2 006.jpg
 

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