There must be a better way?

Robpeek79 · 25 Jul 2012 7:24 pm

I have just fibreglassed the deck on my Kaholo 14'. The manual suggests leaving a 1" overhang around the deck so you can epoxy it to the sides. The manual also suggests using a disposable brush to 'wet' the cloth. This fast turned into a nightmare for me. The material frayed all over the place and I have ended up with a very rough edge. I am hoping that I will be able to sand out the frayed material.

Although it is too late for this project I would like to know if anyone has a bright ideas. I would like to have a better solution for a tandem Werry I would like to build next.

Thanks for any tips.

Richard · 26 Jul 2012 6:23 am

Don't worry it should be possible to sand out the fray. I found that the worst thing to do was to try to pull out he strnds. for some reason it pulled everything and made a mess. I use a squeegee for this job which is perfect. Paul at fyne told me that an old credit card works well but I got one of these:Squeegee

I am sure it wil be fine.

Robpeek79 · 26 Jul 2012 7:42 am

Richard,

Thank you very much for the reply. I will try a squeegee on the next build. I tried pulling one of the threads and, as you said, it made even more of a mess. I am about to start sanding and see if I can smooth it out.

Regards,

Paul · 26 Jul 2012 9:26 am

I can confirm that the squeegee is the best way of spreading the epoxy over the fabric.

For more information see this: Using epoxy

Robpeek79 · 26 Jul 2012 10:07 am

Thanks Paul.

The photo below just about shows the very uneven finish I ended up with.

However, after a load of sanding I think it is coming up ok. I guess I will only really know after I have painted it?

Paul · 26 Jul 2012 3:17 pm

It should come smooth with sanding.

By the way on the Tandem Wherry that you are going to build next the fabric is laid over plastic tape and then the edge cut with a knife when the epoxy has cured.

gooseneck · 26 Jul 2012 4:23 pm

The technique mentioned for the wherry is the same as used when I made a pram.

See this link Pram Build

It was used on the inside - it was easy and as you can see the result was perfect. On the outside I made a slight mistake. Actually it was really because I thought that I knew better so don't do what I did.

Robpeek79 · 26 Jul 2012 4:35 pm

Thanks Gooseneck,

Great pics of your pram. I am glad about the difference with the Tandem Wherry, as I did hours of sanding today!

WillCurwen · 15 Aug 2012 11:51 am

Hi Robpeek79

When I built my Chesapeake, I decided that I wanted a nice clean feathered line between the deck cloth overhang and the sides of the hull - something pleasing to the eye that would only be seen at certain angles of the light. What I did was to run 3M packing tape around both sides of the boat 50mm below the edge of the deck before fibreglassing. I did this twice, and it gave me a safety zone of 100mm to guard against slopping any epoxy. Then I ran masking tape around the top edge of the packing tape, again all the way round the boat. This gave me a visual indicator as to exactly where to cut away the excess cloth to get a clean line after wetting out the deck.

I did all this, and 12 hours later, using a scalpel and a steel rule, I very carefully cut away the excess cloth. As the epoxy does not stick to packing tape, the excess cloth came away very cleanly. What I got was a sharp straight line. After removing the packing and masking tape, I then left the epoxy to cure for another 36 hours before carefully feathering the sharp line into the sides of the hull with sandpaper.

Then I scrubbed the deck with soapy water to remove any trace of developing amine bloom before making my 2nd 3rd and 4th coats of epoxy to the deck. By the time I was finished, you could not see the join. It had blended in beautifully.

Very pleasing!

Last edited by WillCurwen (16 Aug 2012 6:15 pm)

Robpeek79 · 15 Aug 2012 9:39 pm

Will,

This sounds like a superb technique, I will defiantly try it on my next build.

Thanks

Richard · 16 Aug 2012 6:33 am

Will your methhod beats my suck it & see technique it seems a lot of set up time but it must make the sanding later easier. Thanks for the tip

Leggy · 16 Aug 2012 9:23 am

top tip Will

#1 25 Jul 2012 7:24 pm

There must be a better way?

#2 26 Jul 2012 6:23 am

Re: There must be a better way?

#3 26 Jul 2012 7:42 am

Re: There must be a better way?

#4 26 Jul 2012 9:26 am

Re: There must be a better way?

#5 26 Jul 2012 10:07 am

Re: There must be a better way?

#6 26 Jul 2012 3:17 pm

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#7 26 Jul 2012 4:23 pm

Re: There must be a better way?

#8 26 Jul 2012 4:35 pm

Re: There must be a better way?

#9 15 Aug 2012 11:51 am

Re: There must be a better way?

#10 15 Aug 2012 9:39 pm

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#11 16 Aug 2012 6:33 am

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#12 16 Aug 2012 9:23 am

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