What Tool Am I Looking For?

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

I have to affix some wood blocks to the underside of the fore/aft decks on a fiberglass sailboat.

From the floor to the underside of the decks is about 30" in the bow and more like 24" in the stern. I need to put some upward pressure on the blocks while the 3M 5200 cures and there's no way to make regular clamps work. The deck is also not thick enough to support screwing into it without penetrating the exposed deck above. I could just cut some scrap 1x4 wood to length and wedge it in there but I'm wondering if there's an adjustable tool that would do this and not be ridiculously expensive. The boat manufacturer suggests doing this operation with the boat out of the water and upside down but I don't have the manpower to flip it and I don't really want to take it out of the water yet anyway.

I was thinking something like a small adjustable lally column. Is that the best option? I've seen some that adjust from 12" to 16" so I could build up below it with 4X4 blocks.

Thoughts?

[hawkgt]

https://www.harborfreight.com/ratche...bar-96811.html

edit: can cut down if needed or maybe a bottle jack?

[carlh]

bar clamps are often reversible to provide outward instead of inward pressure.

[dunfree]

Yes, there’s a wonderful adjustable tool. Rip that 1*4 into 1*1/2. Nice springy lathe. Beware too much force. Car Jack or lally column could easily bust something

[The Tortoise]

2x4 and the jack from your car seems to be the cheapest option to me.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

https://www.harborfreight.com/ratche...bar-96811.html

edit: can cut down if needed or maybe a bottle jack?

Me likey and have a Harbor Freight 15 minutes away.

bar clamps are often reversible to provide outward instead of inward pressure.

True but have you seen the price of bar clamps?

2x4 and the jack from your car seems to be the cheapest option to me.

Simple is usually better. I actually have a bottle jack as noted above but it's 75 miles from where my boat is. Will probably go with the jack from my car.

As always, this community delivers. Thanks all!

[Core Shot]

2x4 and the jack from your car seems to be the cheapest option to me.

Five posts for the obvious response to appear

The Tortoise beat you Hares to the finish

[::: :::]

bar clamps are often reversible to provide outward instead of inward pressure.

^^^ this

or dual wedges cut from 2x...position over longer 2x4 cut shy by 1" or so; knock wedges in from two sides to keep surface parallel; profit

(car/bottle jack? no...you're not trying to break the fiberglass, just put pressure on it)

[The Tortoise]

You can apply as much pressure as you'd like with the scissor jack. It's not an on/off switch.

[CHAIR_97]

Zip poles .might have to modify them . Sometimes you can combine adhesives with different properties like a ca gel for quickset and the other product you mentioned.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

[Obstruction]

Screw Jack. (Not a sentence- the name of a tool.)

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Used my car jack for the first one. Had to use some plywood and shims to get the base parallel with the underside of the deck but after about 5 minutes of screwing around it was ready to go and worked like a charm. Block 2 went into place at lunch today.

No cost and actually very precise in terms of pressure once I got the base aligned.

Thanks again all.

[The Tortoise]

Glad it worked.

Everything I've read says that the 5200 is totally permanent. So it shouldn't be going anywhere.

I've used the 4200 and that stuff will bond anything. Can't imagine what the 5200 is like.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

5200 is the duct tape of the boating world. If only it would kill the mouse that has taken up residence in my boat.

[Peruvian]

5200 is the duct tape of the boating world. If only it would kill the mouse that has taken up residence in my boat.

Strap a loop of it, sticky side out, across the entire beam. that little fucker will not be able to cross it and wham….better mousetrap!

[Vt-Freeheel]

5200 is epoxy