Robin's Laker

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:49 am

G'day Jack,

I saw the method recommended in one or more of Matt's build instructions. I forget just where I saw it. I read it and then promptly forgot all about it.

All I did was after the fillets had been put in and smoothed with a spoon, I removed all the masking tape, mixed up a small batch of epoxy and lightly brushed the resin over the fillets with a 1" paint brush.

This achieved two things,

1. It removed the little ridge that forms on the edge of the masking tape causing the fillet to transition smoothly onto the timber.

2. It got rid of any little lumps and bumps that I missed with the spoon.

My resin goes off really quickly in the heat here so by the time I did that, the fillets were starting to go firm so I rolled a couple of saturation coats of resin onto the rest of the inside, Went and had a cuppa and by the time I got back down to the shed, (about 40 minutes) the resin was tacky enough to hold the cloth in place. - easy

I could only manage the tight weave cloth in patches on the inside. No matter what I tried, it would not lay flat so there are lots of overlaps.

The really good thing about this cloth is that it is so thin that the overlaps and the resulting ridges are very small.

I have just been down the shed & removed all the spring clamps from the shear clamps and scraped worst of the ridges off and applied a third, filler coat of resin. The cloth is completely full now, so I will sand it in a couple of days and put the top resin coat on and start on the decks and other fiddly bits. (probably Monday here)

Mate, if you aquire nothing else, get yourself a carbide scraper. They really are the best thing since sliced bread. 10 minutes scraping, and she was ready for the final filler coat.

Kayak Jack · Post by **Kayak Jack** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:11 pm

hairymick wrote:... Mate, if you acquire nothing else, get yourself a carbide scraper. They really are the best thing since sliced bread...

Roger that! And I like Matt's stuff on the filets. Are you saying that after removal of the tape, you merely brushed on epoxy and it smoothed out the filet??!! WOW.

Post by **jem** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:43 pm

I think if the fillet was still wet, you can kind of mash it down with the brush. Gloved finger works too.

Kayak Jack · Post by **Kayak Jack** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:11 pm

I surely need a post-graduate degree in fillet making. Mine are the ugliest I've ever seen.

To start off, I'll:
1. Do the saturation coat a day or so before.
2. Then put down tape to limit the edges, and
3. Remove tape as soon as I can, next
4. Add glass inside, mashing it into the fillet for better bonding, and then
5. Brush on (epoxy marinade?) epoxy to smoothly dress the finished product.

Did I get this somewhat right?

BTW, Mick. I'm relieved to hear that the tight weave required extra effort to get it to conform to hull curvature. I worked and got the large pieces to conform - finally - never realizing that it would later have its vengeance upon me.

Post by **jem** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:33 pm

This is how I get pretty good results:

What you said but:

add: 3.5

Brush the seam area with a coat of epoxy.

Change step 5 to simply "wetting out the fabric". This is done with the epoxy just applied and still wet.

Then do your fairing and weave fill after cure.

The above is if you're using a small section of fiberglass or using fiberglass tape on one seam.

If you are glassing the entire inside with one piece of fiberglass, then it'll be a little harder to get all the seams at once.

So instead:

1) Apply masking tape
2) apply fillet and smooth
3) remove masking tape while fillet still wet
4) smooth out any small lip/edge left from the masking tape removal with a gloved finger
5) Let cure. Lightly sand before applying cloth.

Now you can fillet all seams and get the one large piece cloth installed before the fillets cure. But you can easily mess up the neat fillets while trying to get the cloth in place. So if I'm glassing all in one shot, I let the fillets cure.

Kayak Jack · Post by **Kayak Jack** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:56 pm

Thanks, Matt. that is (almost) the way I have been doing it. I never triggered on taping along side the fillets. DUHH!

None of us alone, is as smart as all of us together.

Thereon lies a lot of the value of these forums (forii?)

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 6:50 am

OK,

Didn't get time to reply today but here is what is did on MY Laker with the loose weave cloth.

1. Clean up any resin dags inside the hull and vacum out the inside several times to make sure it is absolutely clean.

2 Mask up the seams to be filleted. I allow about 1/4" to 5/16" either side of the seam.

3. Apply woodflour fillets to the seams, including the stems.

4. Smooth fillets with a plastic spoon, making sure that the fillet edges are about in line with the edge of the masking tape.

5. Remove masking tape.

6. Paint resin over the stem fillets lightly and fit cloth off cuts to the stems and wet out with a disposable, 1" bristle brush

7. Check consistency of the seam fillets. They need to be malleable to the touch but starting to firm up. (a bit like bubble gum.) If they are still soft, have a cuppa and come back (soon)

8. Lightly brush the fillets with fresh epoxy, this will take care of any little irregularities in the surface of the fillet and also blend the edges if same into the ply surface. At this stage, there is a chance that your brush will have spread a little of the fillet onto the edge of the ply. This is easy to fix. With a gloved finger, gently work the woodflour back into the fillet till you have a nice even edge all along the seam.

9. Completely saturate the rest of the hull with epoxy resin and then squeegee the excess off, as in normal fibreglass techniques.

10 Let the wet out coat go allmost completely dry. It shoud be only just tacky. Here, that can take as little as forty minutes to about 2 hours.

11. When your saturation coat has reached this stage. carefully work your cloth into the hull. The tacky resin will hold it in place and it can be gently coaxed to conform to the hull shape. Pay particular attention to the seams and the larger flat areas There needs to be absolutely no ridges or lumps or bumps in the cloth anywhere. I start at the middle, seam in the boats bottom and work out towards the stems and sides. There is no hurry at this time. Just take your time and get it right before your try to wet it out.

12. Trim the ends of the cloth so they sit nicely where you want them.

13. Wet the glass out. Pay particular attention to the seams. Work the resin into the cloth with a gloved finger if necessary and be careful to remove any resin that has gone milky from over working it. It can be easily squeegied off and by doing it now will save a lot of sanding later on to remove the ugly white patches they make.

I tried to do the last few steps with the tight weave cloth on Robins Laker but had no luck. I cut the cloth into manageable pieces and then wet each one out individually ensuring at least a 2" overlap. The beauty of the Duckworks cloth is that while it is hard to get to conform to the hull shape, it wets out beautifully. By far the best I have used so far and well worth the little extra trouble. The ridges from the overlaps are easily scraped and sanded down to feather into the finish coat and will be invisible when the process is complete. I like this cloth a lot and would not hesitate to use it again.

Sorry for the long and involved post but the complete process is a step by step manner and it seems to work pretty well for me. Hope this helps a little.

tx river rat · Post by **tx river rat** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:30 am

Mick
Are you really going to paint this boat it sure is pretty wood mate.
But Mama knows best

Ron

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:38 am

G'day Ron,

Thanks mate. I love the way this gaboon ply is coming up. It would be real nice in a high gloss finish.

Robin has insisted that she paint the hull in colours of her choice. I have tried to convince her how nice it would look in Aussie bush camo with adjustable and flush mount rod holders

and a fish well

, but she won't have a bar of it.

The compromise is that she has let me do the deck in brightwork. I got a couple of ideas on that and will try them out on scrap when the time comes.

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:45 am

finished sanding her inside and out, Inside the boat has the top coat of resin on now.

While the resin was still wet, I turned her over so that any runs will run down and hopefully seal any small gaps that there may be in the shear clamps.

fitted a 2" piece of cloth tape to the underside of the stems, just for wear and tear. Robin love to run her boats up onto the sand to get out.

This piccie also shows masking tape in preperation for the first coat of graphite enriched epoxy.