[Rhodes22-list] Tiller Repair Question

[Wally Buck]

The guy I purchased my boat from had painted resin or epoxy on the tiller 
handle. It looks like crap and it is peeling and turning yellow. Also two of 
the wood layers are seperating. I wanted to sail last year so I put off 
tiller repairs untill Spring.

Now that warm weather has arrived I can start hitting it with varnish. I 
sanded down to bare wood yesterday and the tiller looks great. I have about 
a 8 inch split in between two of the layers of wood. I am sure this is why 
the PO applied expoy coat. The job was not done properly and I want to 
reseal the split area.

The gap is very small and it will be hard to fill in the space with epoxy. I 
think this is what the PO tried but he wasn't able to seal it off. He only 
epoxied the outer edge and it seperated after time. I want to try and epoxy 
the inside of the split and then clamp the tiller until epoxy sets. I was 
also thinking of using a screw(s) from the bottom of the tiller to help draw 
the wood together. I will then varnish with several coats of Z Spar.

Is there a better way to do this repair? I was really surprised to find out 
how nice the wood looked under all that opaque epoxy.

Thanks for any suggestions or tips!

Wally


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