Classic Australian Wooden Power Boat Association

I'm now in the process of building my 3rd wooden powerboat hull and had previously used BoteCote and steel staples in a pneumatic gun to apply my 6 metre long x 30mm wide mahogany lamination strips. This was a tedious process, particularly removing the staples afterwards and filling the holes they left.

About 18 months ago I read about the Raptor Polymer Brads and Staples that are manufactured in Texas in the US and decided to buy some from the sole Australian agent who is based NSW.

They're absolutely brilliant. Twice the tensile strength of steel, half the shear strength, don't damage cutting tools, sand easily, accept stain, and don't need to be removed. I used over 2000 in each side of my hull and they're virtually invisible. You need to be about 6 inches from the surface to actually detect them with a naked eye .They partially melt from friction when piercing the timber so don't leave gaps and are nigh on impossible to pull out.

They come in lengths of approx 1/4 inch to 2 inches and can be applied using a $50 pneumatic brad gun from Bunnings rather than the expensive $300 guns from Raptor.

I'm now about to flip my current hull, bolt in a rebuilt 304 V8 and fabricate a decorative laminated deck over marine ply using these polymer nails rather than screws/plugs etc.

I have lots of pictures, but as I'm currently not a member yet, my view of the bulletin board doesn't give me the option of submitting them. I'm happy to supply some via email if anyone is interested.

Gary, there should be no reason why you can't post pictures on the Board

Hi Greg. I found the Attachments tab behind the Options one when replying to your post, so will compress my files to save space/time uploading them and will add them in the next 24 hours. Regards, Gary

Here are some of the pictures I have....

The Australian agent for Raptor polymer nails and staples is brafordindustries.com.au 02 66518123

Looking very nice so far Gary. Great work.

Thank you

That's an impressive technique Gary. Looking very good.

Thank you Bob.

I've previously used expensive Indonesian Mahogany as a laminating timber but did some experiments and found that Meranti had a similar grain but terrible colour when varnished....plus was about 20% of the cost. I tried several blends of stain and turps and came up with the final reddish colour I liked. As previously mentioned, the polymer nails were as easy as the Meranti to sand and also absorbed the stain, making them undetectable. I also used the 6 x 30mm x 6000mm Meranti strips as laminations along the boat as they easily followed the contours of my hull. I also tried steaming Maranti for Sheers and Chines, but found that the sharp curves snapped 24 hours later when the timber dried out. To solve the snapping, I made my Chines and Sheers out of multiple laminations of Meranti....also made it really easy to fit them.

Laminating my meranti chines and a sheers due to the timber being brittle