Howdy all; I'm at a point where I should really start thinking about sealing all the wooden components of my ship's hull, especially the decks. I know a lot of you folks swear up and down with epoxy, but I've been leery of epoxying my deck because the Iowa has that beautiful incline towards the bow that gives her that distinctively gorgeous silhouette, and I'm worried that if I use epoxy without properly setting the deck in place, I might warp it and be completely screwed. So, what are some really good, non-epoxy ways of waterproofing my main deck? I'll probably end up epoxying the subdeck and caprails, because they're already set in place and I don't have to monkey with them. I also like the idea of my deck retaining some flexibility, but better the deck that's waterproof and stiff and good forever than the deck that's flexible and rotting out from under you, in a manner of speaking...
Spar Varnish works pretty well. It takes around a half dozen coats until the stuff stops soaking into the wood ... that is when you know it's waterproof. Heh. The varnish won't crack when the deck is flexed since it is in the wood vs laying on top of it. Downside is the yellowish tint spar varnish gives the wood.
It's wood, so you will need something penetrating to seal it. I personally don't know of anything else but epoxy that will work. You can do this in place, just use wax paper underneath and around the joints, this will stop it from going "flat" and retain the shape of the incline. Think of it this way, put a piece of wax paper over the hole in the deck. Then put the deck piece back in place. Epoxy the insert deck piece. Then tape over the wax paper edges to the insert side after it has dried. Now you can epoxy the rails. When that is dried, lift out the insert piece and throw away the wax paper. You will still need to seal the inserts sides (whatever your thickness is).
TiteBond II glue works well for sealing wood. On my current build I'm using E6000 to seal all exposed wood. Steve
Thanks for the tips, gents; still not sanguine on the epoxy idea, because the apex of that upward curve towards the bow is right where the wood wants to be most recalcitrant. But, fortunately there are ways around that, and I think I'll go with the epoxy idea, especially when I thought about all the potential immersions and other hard use the deck is likely to be subjected to.
If you've already sealed the subdeck, etc, you should consider putting a mold release agent on the subdeck. You can then epoxy the underside of the deck and securely tape it down without worrying about it sticking. Once it's dry, you can switch over to the other side. That should help prevent warping. Another possibility to consider is putting your deck hold-downs at the points of greatest flexing. If you hold the deck down there, you don't have to worry about it pulling up.
cling wrap works well also. Just do what Kotori said except the cling wrap acts as the mold release. Helps make a really good seal too!
To piggyback on Kotori's placement of hold downs ... I did the same thing on the Omaha. There is a pair of hold downs mid-length on the deck. When they are tightened, it pulls the middle of the deck down to match the curve of the subdeck. It makes for a great deck seal, especially at the ends.
The hold-down points on the deck are critical, and I've been working over that for a couple days... fortunately, the point of greatest resistance corresponds to the placement of two anti-aircraft gun emplacements, so the next step is putting together the stuff to hold the deck down; probably run a bolt through there into a couple little pieces of wood or metal with an up-slope towards the bolt shank so that it can snug down against the deck rim as I twist it.
