"Not all those who wander are lost."

J R R Tolkien

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22 May 2013

Building the Boat: Fibreglassing. Part 1

Working on the principle than any decision is better than no decision, I got a bit tired of thinking which option to go for, so I just went with this one:

Glass cloth in one length

And therefore made a start.  The fabric drapes beautifully all over. It follows the curves of the fillets well too. The plan now is to do the glassing in sections 20" wide ( the width of the peel ply I bought) The length of each section will be a maximum of 30". Each peel ply section can overlap each other (so I have read on the WEST Epoxy site) Each section is small enough to be able to work at a comfortable pace. If for any reason that does not work, I can cut my losses, cut the fabric and think again. But I am fairly confident it's going to be ok.



I am trying to "work clean". I'd rather try and avoid the surfaces and the cloth getting contaminated to prevent problems of adhesion. So I have also coverd the cloth with clean new tarpaulin  material. Hopefully that will reduce the risk of getting dirty cloth. Also, it prevents my dog from putting his dirty paws on the cloth when he comes to inspect my work...



I'll have to wait until the week end before I can make a start, as I am working the next two days. Besides, the weather is going to be too cold anyway.



4 comments:

  1. Don't you just hate it when the stuff of life gets in the way of the important business of boat building?

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    Replies
    1. Yes! I quite like my job really, most of the time anyway, so I shouldn't grumble... In any case the weather is too damn cold for epoxy, should be around 18 and it's actually 8 degrees!

      Delete
  2. Ditto on Sixbears observation! lol

    ReplyDelete