Wooden sink

[Kaladar]

Anyone ever make an epoxy and marine plywood sink for their boat? I have a small boat with limited space and thought this might be an idea.

[Lewisboats]

The only problem I would think would be the drain area...and this could be eliminated by cutting the hole oversized, filling the area with thickened epoxy then drilling the correct sized hole in the middle of the epoxy disk. Of course, the inside would have to be filleted and glassed with a few coats of epoxy to protect. a few coats on the outside also. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how long it would last...perhaps quite a few years if the barrier wasn't penetrated. Better to buy a SS salad bowl for a few bucks and rig it as a sink. You could also scavange a sink out of a scrapped camper at a junk dealer.

Steve

[Klaus]

How do you think the epoxied (or painted) plywood would hold up to hot water, dishwashing liquid and the scraping of eating utensiles?

My boat has a plastic sink, I could not find a stainless one for the size I was after. Surpisingly, this sink has held up rather well, now into its eight year of reasonably frequent use. A stainless sink possibly would last as long as the boat while a plywood one is a bit an unknown factor.
Klaus

[Paul Girouard]

What size sink are you looking for? SS would be the better choice.

[Bruce Hooke]

This is a quote from a different thread: http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=56248


The Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT) of a polymer is the temperature at which the material begins to soften. For WEST epoxy and the various WEST hardeners, their HDT is in the range of 116-123F. For those materials to be structurally reliable in tropical sun, they'd better be of a light color.

Since it is quite easy to end up pouring boiling water into a sink (pasta anyone?), you could be in for some temperature related problems, at least if you use regular boatbuilding epoxy.

I don't think regular paint would hold up at all well, and I don't know if you would run into heat problems with two-part paints.

[Jim Ledger]

Sure you could. But depending on the level of finish you want it could end up being a lot of work. Conceivably, you could build any shape sink/drainboard/backsplash combination using ply,epoxy and fillets. There would be a lot of tedious sanding and fairing but it might be something you're willing to do.

Personally, I don't think the heat would be a big problem but getting a durable paint finish might take some research. You might keep it easily removable for periodic repainting.

The bottom could be made of four triangular pieces, slightly pitched to the drain. The drain hole itself is a bit problmatic as you dont want any kind of lip at the flange.

In 1973 I made a plywood and glass (polyester) shower stall for my boat and used it for 10 years and it worked fine.As far as I know it's still in use.

Nowadays I'd look for a custom stainless steel sink. There's lots of shops with the capability and custom sinks are quite common. If you count your labor this would be the cheapest way to go.

[soba]

About four years ago I made a wooden bathtub for our home. The wood I used was from holding the structure in boxes that came from the phillipenes and malaysia. Half the woods I couldn't identify. I laminated them into a box using system three epoxy I had left over from a stitchnglue project, and then hacked out a nice sink shape with a hand adze and a drawknife. Some parts I had to do with a dremel, as the wood was so hard.
After sanding down, I used a pourable epoxy finish the same as what is used for burlwood tables and clocks.

Well, four years of heavy use (and some VERY hot water...my water heater is at 130 deg for the infloor heating) it looks great, barring a few scratches from when the window blew in.

And a (non boating) friend of mine built a hottub with cedar laminated inside with polyester resin...it holds up very well, and he did things that would make you shudder.

A small corian sink might work, too. Corian is only $$$ if you buy huge pieces.

anyhoo, gl!

*stone cold soba*

[L.W. Baxter]

Why plywood and epoxy? Why not a turned wooden bowl?

But stainless steel is best for a sink.

[paladin]

If you can't dump directly overboard, make a large drain hole at the lowest point and plumb it as straight down as possible....works fine...use xynole, not fiberglass, and then paint it with imron or similar...will take everything short of boiling water...you can assemble the sink and then add the cloth with perhaps a pint or so of Hi-temp resin from McMaster Carr......If ya wanna be really cheeeep ya gotta be creative.....sailing is more important than owning a gold plated yacht.



http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p6dd558c72a9d35692ba752d937f341e6/e8e6a1fa.jpg

[Jim Ledger]

Here's a sink I'm making out of Corian for the famous catboat Sea Rover.



http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m193/searover1916/P1010165.jpg

[brad9798]

Great (romantic) idea ... but it really makes no sense ... go with SS.

For every good story of a sink or bathtub of lumber, there are 200 nasty stories ...

[paladin]

Actually.......in the late 50's and through the 60's a large number of the boats being built to Jim Brown/Ed Horstman/Arthur Piver/Norm Cross etc had wooden sinks, wooden water tanks, wooden refrigerators etc and many of the same boats are still sailing around the world. In some boats the fuel tanks were built the same way. Water tanks were made, steamed out, then painted inside with hot beeswax and the water in those tanks was sweeter than something from aluminum or plastic. My 31 foot Searunner cost me less than 10,000 bucks complete with sails and fittings, sailaway......I can recal only one such boat being destroyed by fire and it was because of a propane refrigerator.

[JimJ]

Instead of looking at "sinks", how about a SS bowl. I just googled and came up with these

http://www.petpeoplesplace.com/store/product.php?id=2560

Just cut a hole in the bottom and Bob's you uncle.

Jim

[paladin]

...or...you can use scrap wood, epoxy and sawdust/talc and make a mould, and use it as a plug to lay one up in fiberglass......lotsa options if you don't want to spend money and you have the time.

[The Bigfella]

There was a thread on here somewhere about Whitehawk being for sale and in one of the linked photos there was a shot of her beautiful laminated bathtub. I wouldn't mind doing the same for the shower base in Grantala.

[Jay Greer]

I have seen many wooden sinks an tubs on boats over the years. Tubs are best built up like wooden buckets out of staves. Pardeys have a wooden tub on their Lyle Hess boat as well as does Linda Smith on hers. The tub is easily built to fit the boat in this case.

Bob Sloan had a wooden sink on his schooner "Spike Africa". The main advantage is that plates do not rattle and break as readily as they do in metal sinks. Here polyurathane or resourcinol glue is the best way to go as epoxy will soon delaminate with the constant changes in dimensions. Sloan built his by the bread and butter method. I would prefer building one of plank sides with external cross bolting to allow for shinkage. My choice for custom metal sinks is German Silver as it gets better looking as it ages.
Jay

[donald branscom]

Yes it has been done.

But what i want to know is when does Wooden Sink magazine come out !!! LOL HahAhaHaha

THIS MONTHS ISSUE:
How not to build a wooden sink.
Burlwood sink for a million dallar home.
Wooden sink with bear carved into it.
Wooden sink to sink a battleship
Round wooden sinks
Organic shaped wood bath tub with sauna and sink.
Wood sinks in outer space.

[Kestrel1891]

A while back a saw a wooden sink on a boat made out of teak. I am pretty sure it was on an ex-Swedish pilot cutter of 1904 called L'Atalanta. As I recall it was very nicely made with the base being four triangular pieces to give a fall to the plughole - guess the sides and bottom were jointed together and caulked. It would be interesting to try to reproduce and rely on the quality of the joinery rather than epoxy to keep the water in.

[WillW]

Yes it has been done.

But what i want to know is when does Wooden Sink magazine come out !!! LOL HahAhaHaha




Yes, and of course:

Save a Classic Sink

[Jay Greer]

The editor lives in Sinkwood Hollow.
Jay

[ron ll]

I built a plywood/epoxy shower pan (entire floor of the head compartment) for my boat. It is a very odd shape and has a raised area for the wc. It became the foundation for building the bulkheads for the head compartment. It turned out great, but it was a LOT of work. Each piece of plywood was thoroughly saturated several times with CPES before assembly. The 1" radius fillets were made with epoxy putty and shaped and sanded, and sanded and shaped and sanded... The drain hole was built in by constantly test-fitting the brass tailpiece. It was finally painted with cross-linking epoxy paint, several coats. It has about 4 years on it and still looks like new. But it is not subject to the heat and abrasion that a sink would incur.

So yes, it can be done. But I wouldn't do it for a sink with so many better options available.

[Kaladar]

Thanks all, one of the reasons I've been thinking about a wood sink is I would like to size it to fit the small area I have and would perfer a rectangle shape about 12" x 10". I appreciate all the responses and will let you know which way I go, wood or S.S.

[merlinron]

considering your need for an odd size and using all the space available, i personally would go with corian.

i know it's expensive, but for the size you need, i'd bet you'll spend as much in time and effort making a wood sink of the same dimensions. corian is super simple to work with, as well.

[coelacanth2]

Somebody, either Ruel Parker or George Buehler, suggested building the entire countertop out of Corian with 4" to 6" sides - and the drain in one corner. The entire counter was thus well "fiddled" and was also available for washing up or rinsing off after food prep. If ever I get that far, I'd be tempted to try it...

[3pepper]

an all wood sink is very doable
i am starting an all wood sink/countertop in 8/4 black walnut for my master bathroom next week , i'll post pics when i am done . i have done alot of wood countertops out of teak , cherry , and black walnut and a bath sink/top in mahogany , the sink was done several years ago and has not had any problems , it was sealed with 8 coats of waterlox . a designer speced everything out so my liability was limited , they are becoming very popular in europe . and yes i charged alot for it .
in a house moisture changes are more controled (hopefuly) in a boat i am not sure , you would need a very stable wood like black cherry .
do a google image search on "wooden sink" there are several people marketing them , and alot of creative ideas . i will be pushing to sell more of them soon .
follow your creative impulse and if something doesn't work , try again . its failure only if you quit .
best of luck
stephen 3pepper