Repost - Dolphinite bedding compound

[Jim Hillman]

Phil
Member # 2197

posted 06-23-2001 03:50 PM
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I am building an ELLEN 12' lapstrake plywood sailboat and the plans call for using dolhinite bedding compound to seat the keel and outer stem. Do any of you folks know what this stuff is or what it is for? Are there any substitutes? Thanks again for any help. I just thought of this too. I am going to scarph the rails 1.5x.5 white oak. Is it OK to scarph by cuttting the thin side instead of the 'conventional' way... rotating the planks 90 degrees so I can fit it on the table saw?
thanks for any advice
Phil

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Posts: 46 | From: Buxton, Me

Allen Foote
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Member # 798

posted 06-23-2001 03:54 PM
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Dolphinite Bedding compound creates a water/rot proof barrier between 2 pieces of wood. So that, if one piece rots, then the rot willnot pass into the piece it is attached to.
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Posts: 1846 | From: Alexandria, VA

JMAC
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Member # 2575

posted 06-23-2001 06:46 PM
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Dolphinite is a bedding compound whose smell, like that of bottom paint and white oak and cedar can throw me right into a nautical daydream. Did I forget George Washington pipe tobacco?
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Posts: 280 | From: burnham, maine, usa

Bateau Boy
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Member # 3466

posted 06-23-2001 06:51 PM
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It is a very old style non harding compound that was use for many years before 5200 or Sikaflex on most al wooden boats. it is an oil base product
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Posts: 584 | From: florida

Phil
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Member # 2197

posted 06-23-2001 08:43 PM
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Can I just seal everything really well with epoxy. Maybe epoxy mixed with wood flour?
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Posts: 46 | From: Buxton, Me

JimConlin
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Member # 2394

posted 06-23-2001 10:08 PM
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Don't do it. Something more permanent, like epoxy or 5200 would give you a big-time PITA when the stem or keel have worn or gotten dinged and needed to be placed.
A substitute is the Interlux 'Boatyard Bedding Compound'. These goops will maintain a waterproof seal but are willing to come apart. A last-ditch substitute would be a polusulfide bedding compound like Life-Caulk.
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Posts: 1227 | From: Wellesley, MA USA

Jay
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Member # 2167

posted 06-24-2001 12:20 AM
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Try contacting Doc Freemans in Seattle. We picked up our last can there. All our hardware is bedded with Dolphinite and no problems so far.
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Posts: 39 | From: Newport , Oregon

Bob Cleek
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Member # 1211

posted 06-24-2001 06:09 AM
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I can't imagine anybody using 5200 or Sikaflex anywhere Dolphinite is called for! Sheesh! Dolphinite is 1) fungicidal and 2) easily removable. Polysulfide products aren't. True, it is seemingly harder to come by these days, but it's around. Those rubbery stickums just hold the moisture up against the wood and you need a chainsaw to get the fitting off.
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Posts: 2696 | From: San Francisco Bay

WILLIAM E. HARRIS
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Member # 65

posted 06-24-2001 10:55 AM
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I tried to get fungicidal Dolphinite and couldn' locate it. I think the fungicide has been removed. CHEMIST, do you know how to get it made in the fungicide formula?
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Posts: 66 | From: Arvada, CO U.S.A.

Stan Derelian
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Member # 196

posted 06-25-2001 12:32 AM
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The old formula had a heavy-duty fungicide, pentachlorophenol, that I believe is now banned. It really worked. I don't know if the present product has any fungicidal properties. I have mixed a good dose of copper napthenate in the new stuff. Seems to mix ok. I guess I'll know if it worked in 20 yrs or so.
(it was in the old as well).
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Posts: 171 | From: Saltspring Is. BC

RGM
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Member # 3295

posted 06-25-2001 02:11 AM
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Check a recent topic titled "bedding compounds" in the Resources / Product Search section of the Forum. There has been some discussion recently that you might find useful. Bob Cleek is right, you don't use a bomb proof adhesive where a bedding compound is called for. Additionally, besides Doc Freeman's there's an outfit also in Seattle called Fishery Supply that I believe stocks Dolfinite and alot of other marine snake oils and coatings.
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Posts: 864 | From: Seattle, WA

Dale Harvey
unregistered

posted 06-25-2001 09:09 AM
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The stuff is right in the West Marine catalog, its just the idiots they have running most of the stores don't have a clue what it is or is for, so they don't stock it.
as they already blew it by replaceing the California lifeguard hats with department store junk, if they discontinue Dolphinite I will discontinue them. Hats are still available from Medof Marine Inc. at www.medof.com (http://www.medof.com) and they are only a couple of bucks more to ship than you pay at West for the new garbage hats!
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Bob Cleek
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Member # 1211

posted 06-25-2001 11:17 PM
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Yep, word is that the "fungicidal" in Dolphinite was outlawed. (Thank you, EPA!) The new stuff isn't as nasty as the old stuff, so I suppose it isn't as deadly. You COULD mix Di-al into mine. This is tributyl-tin in a kerosene type solvent. It is sold at paint stores to add to paint to prevent mildew. It is outlawed in bottom paint and stuff as well... this isn't legal advice! LOL
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Posts: 2696 | From: San Francisco Bay

Andrew
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Member # 64

posted 06-27-2001 08:08 AM
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I could have sworn I read Bob's post in the afternoon yesterday but this morning it says it was posted at 11:17pm last night?
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Posts: 1043 | From: The banks of Sleepy Creek

thechemist
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Member # 1468

posted 06-27-2001 04:14 PM
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It's Deja-Vu all over again........

[Mrleft8]

What's the problem Jim? Dolphinite is available everywhere.

[Lew Barrett]

Doc Freman's is long gone, but it's no big deal to find Dolphinite anywhere marine supplies are sold. I think Dolphinite is OK as a bedding compound, but half the cans of Dolphinite I've bought in the last few years are skinned over when you open them and the stuff dries out in place pretty quickly. I'd never bed windows with it again, for example, and avoid bedding pads with it as well. It's OK for buttering screws, or maybe butt blocks.
If I can, I'd use something else though such as one of the Pettit products (for bedding or paying underwater seams) or even Sikaflex. Like they say, 5200 isn't a bedding compound....
If you do use dolphinite and the stuff feels like it's going on a little dry, you can mix linseed oil back in and that seems to help rejuvinate it and maybe even help it last longer. I don't think it's as good as it used to be for some reason, and not just that it lacks the fungicides. But I mean...the stuff dries out in the can.....
Lew

[ddeaton]

Is Sikaflex recommended for bedding? Sorry to barge in. I have a lot of bedding to do on 2 boats and just bought a few cans of Dolphinite. If one of the tube products will work, I would much rather squeeze from a chaulking gun.

[Lew Barrett]

I used Sikaflex last year to bed the radar right above my head. I hate that drip....drip.... drip when things go wrong. Works dandy and I think holds up better, being flexible and really goo-ey. I don't trust dolphinite anymore for that kind of job.

Lew

[sdowney717]

All the dolphinite on my 1970 egg was dried out. It was on every but block underwater. I was able to reuse a few butt blocks. Most were cracked and rotted. Planks survived well simply due to being saturated with sea water.
I was surprised to find quite a bit of red brown mahogany colored 5200? used for bedding butt blocks etc... All of it was in good shape. All of it above the waterline. Good adherance to the wood after 35 yrs. I have to rebuild the port back side of the boat. If they had simply coated the planks edges with epoxy before assembly it would have prevented the planks from rotting. In fact coating all the individual pieces with epoxy would have helped immensely. The way these boats were made simply sets them up for devastating rot pockets in 20 yrs.

[Thad Van Gilder]

If you prime the bedded wood parts with red lead before using dolphinite, the oil won't be absorbed into the wood, and it will last longer.
-Thad

[iolanthesf]

Was just chatting with one of the old guys from a fishing family. Their practice is to mix bottom paint in with bedding and seam compounds. It stops rot as well as "bugs". Guess there's not much that'll chew through a layer of copper and keep going... I recently did a lot of work with Dolphinite. Copper-Green works to thin it a little. It does skin over in the can, and that never seems to soften again.