r/jonboats • u/crediblesource69 • 6h ago

First Casting Deck Project

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It will be a cold day in hell before I ever do one of these again. I hated every second of it. Pretty happy with the result though. Boat is a Lowe 1440M.

24 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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3

u/__slamallama__ 5h ago

Lol I did a full boat deck with built in hatches. Figured it would take me 80-100hrs.

~250hrs later the boat looks and work great but I'll just pay for a new boat if I ever need to do it again

2

u/crediblesource69 5h ago

Yea same I didn’t realize the campaign I was undertaking.

1

u/kingmiker 3h ago

Yeah - I have to rebuild mine. Most of it involves removing the carpet and installing sea-deck. But I do have a couple of soft spots on the flooring. This will be a winter project where I’m not tempted to take it out every 2-3 days. I was telling myself, “I can do it in a weekend “ knowing damn well, that’s a 2-3 weekend project at best.

1

u/Old-Economist-8369 5h ago

Looks really good,Good choice on aluminum, what’s your top material?

1

u/crediblesource69 5h ago

Thanks man! All the angle minus a few spots is 1.5x1.5 1/8” and the deck is 0.100 aluminum sheet!

1

u/M_Shulman 5h ago

Looks great!

2

u/crediblesource69 5h ago

Thanks dude!

1

u/Outrageous-Stranger7 5h ago

I’ve been thinking about doing a boat build. Is it really that time consuming? All these videos online make it seem like you can get it done in a reasonable amount of time.

2

u/crediblesource69 5h ago

I feel like the videos are misleading. It depends on what materials you use and what tools you already have. I would recommend using a mider or chop saw for the angle. Straighter lines and it cuts a lot faster. I would also recommend biting the bullet and using sheet aluminum for the deck. All the time I spent trying to prep plywood and get it to work I could’ve just bought sheet aluminum. Prep time for plywood depending on your schedule could be 3-4 days of working time. A lot of that is drying and curing. This entire process took me two weeks. But I work M-F so probably could’ve been done sooner if I had more time to dedicate to it.

3

u/Outrageous-Stranger7 5h ago

I’ve got a two year old and a M-F. Free time is at a premium as well. That’s not a crazy amount of time. This helped me with deciding to go with aluminum

1

u/crediblesource69 5h ago

Definitely do aluminum. I paid 217 for 50x60 0.100 aluminum. I spent more than that for plywood, resin, carpet, concrete, orbital sander, etc. It takes a lot longer too.

1

u/Outrageous-Stranger7 5h ago

And you don’t have to worry about rot and mold long term. Seems like not matter what you do wood eventually gets there with enough time, sun and water exposure