Today was some of the hardest fiberglass work I've had to deal with, and not just because it's been awhile since I've done it, but because it's a massive project with very delicate parts thrown in for good measure.
Let's start with a failed math project: this is a 16' boat, shorter because of the curves and rakes, but let's call it 16'. Each of the fiberglass large rolls is 4' across. That means 4 sheets across should cover the hull if they don't overlap. However, since the waterline is actually closer to 14', not 16', there should be plenty of 'glass to spare to overlap using the width-wise 'glassup instead of the lengthwise 'glassup. Not so.
After carefully measuring everything, I tossed about 6 feet of glass over the top and laid it out as best I could in a dry fit. This is a critical part of any 'glasswork and can save a lot of time later. Once the dry fit is set, the frogtape goes down and I have a general outline of the wet out for this part.
But as I mentioned at the outset, here you can see I fell short about 6 inches; my thumb is where I wanted this to end, not where it actually ends. The right half of this photo is the bow section. I think this happened because I had too much waste at the transom, and then too much overlap in the second layup from the stern. In any case, this will need a strip of 'glass and some treatment before I can "fill the weave."
It's not the end of the world, of course, but it does set things back at least a few hours and probably a day as the new application needs to set and cure and get feathered back in seamlessly. But at least I know how to do that.
The other side looks like this. Careful darts seemed to make this fit OK, except for the trianglar gap at the base of the keelnose block.
Annoying but fixable after this cures, just like I'll do at the bow. I could leave it as is but I want a double layer here that extends least six inches from the centerline. Like the other high-impact areas, this will also get a layer of 6oz fiberglass for a total of 3 layers.
Here are some examples of "fixes" where either I had to sand down to the wood again because I missed some epoxy bump, or just mis-measured and didn't extend the 'glass all the way aft.
Let's start with a failed math project: this is a 16' boat, shorter because of the curves and rakes, but let's call it 16'. Each of the fiberglass large rolls is 4' across. That means 4 sheets across should cover the hull if they don't overlap. However, since the waterline is actually closer to 14', not 16', there should be plenty of 'glass to spare to overlap using the width-wise 'glassup instead of the lengthwise 'glassup. Not so.
After carefully measuring everything, I tossed about 6 feet of glass over the top and laid it out as best I could in a dry fit. This is a critical part of any 'glasswork and can save a lot of time later. Once the dry fit is set, the frogtape goes down and I have a general outline of the wet out for this part.
But as I mentioned at the outset, here you can see I fell short about 6 inches; my thumb is where I wanted this to end, not where it actually ends. The right half of this photo is the bow section. I think this happened because I had too much waste at the transom, and then too much overlap in the second layup from the stern. In any case, this will need a strip of 'glass and some treatment before I can "fill the weave."
It's not the end of the world, of course, but it does set things back at least a few hours and probably a day as the new application needs to set and cure and get feathered back in seamlessly. But at least I know how to do that.
The other side looks like this. Careful darts seemed to make this fit OK, except for the trianglar gap at the base of the keelnose block.
Annoying but fixable after this cures, just like I'll do at the bow. I could leave it as is but I want a double layer here that extends least six inches from the centerline. Like the other high-impact areas, this will also get a layer of 6oz fiberglass for a total of 3 layers.
Here are some examples of "fixes" where either I had to sand down to the wood again because I missed some epoxy bump, or just mis-measured and didn't extend the 'glass all the way aft.
After an exhausting couple hours fighting the 90 degrees and humidity, I got the hull done. Looks good from these angles --
-- but don't look at the other side.
This was.. how shall I say this delicately.. a complete sh&tstorm. Things started OK, and then suddenly went awry. At one point, the epoxy was so hot in my gloved hand I had to put it down. The MAS epoxy stuff I have is supposed to be slow curing but I guess the air temperature accelerated everything. This meant I had to go back and mix up some more quickly, and in rushing to get off the step, I spilled a bit down the hull, now forever marked by a dark river of hot epoxy.
And then for whatever reason I could not get the 'glass darts on the top of the keelnose block to take epoxy and lay flat. It was like some cartoon kid stuck his finger in a socket and his hair shoots up. Defeated, I did the best I could do straighten out the rest of the block except the very top.
So this, too, will need to be sanded flush, and then a smaller cut of 'glass will wet this down. I'm not looking forward to doing this all over again on the other side, but I guess if I want to finish the boat, I don't have much of a choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment