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I am going to glue in a puck transducer into the hull of my fiberglass boat this weekend and was looking for tips on the surface prep/process from you guys who have done this before. Humminbird puck on a bass-style boat where a previous transducer was siliconed but got knocked off removing my gas tank.
Sand the hull and transducer with coarse sandpaper. Wipe both clean with a solvent like acetone, alcohol or thinner. Use an epoxy designed to stick to plastic. Most don't. Devon Plastic Welder or Loctite Plastix Bonder are two that I have used that work. Use plenty of epoxy to fully fill the space between the transducer and hull. Weight the transducer down with something like a sandbag for a day.
I used clear silicone on our family boat and it works fine. Make sure to keep the air bubbles out by keeping the gun low and make a large pile to push it into. You can remove it easily also. My Fishing boat is metal. If I could do the same to it I would.
I think the mistake a lot of us make is thinking the state-appointed shrink is our friend.
Reaper, Where Fish come to Fry
I've read posts where they recommend building a little dike it the area you want to mount the xducer. Then you pour mineral oil in the dyke and drop the xducer in there. You can then try your sonar out to see if you get good results. Might save you from being disappointed. If the results are good, follow the above recommendations for a permanent mount. PS I guess you could use modelers clay or something like that to make the dyke.
Thanks for all the advice. The Javelin boat that it is going in has a factory fiberglass cup molded into the hull where the flasher ducer was mounted by the factory but I never thought about which epoxy to use or sanding the transducer face itself in addition to the hull. Thanks again and I'll post pics when complete for future reference.
If you have a water tight cup, just fill with mineral oil or water..... and set TD into it. Not really a need to epoxy!
I DO MY BEST PROOFREADING RIGHT AFTER I HIT THE "SUBMIT" BUTON