BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Largest Piece Or Smallest Piece First When Laying Fiberglass Cloth Over a Tapered Edge?

wrote:
I would like to know the right way to lay down layers of fiberglass
clothes over a tapered edge of a fiberglass skin of a deck. Should I
lay down the largest piece first or the smallest piece of fiberglass
cloth first?

The balsa of the cored deck was rotten, and I needed to cut out the
outer skin of the deck (the outer skin was destroyed during the
process), removed the rotten core with good one. When I finally put
good core back in place, I will need to use epoxy and layers of
fiberglass cloths to replace the outerskin of the deck. I am supposed
to grind the edge of the sounding fiberglass skin into a tapered edge,
and then attach the edge of the fiberglass cloths over the tapered edge
of the surrounding fiberglass skin.

The question is: Should I put the largest piece of fiberglass cloth
first and the smallest piece last like what West System has suggested?
Or should I put the smallest piece first and the largest piece last
like what Don Casey (author of "This Old Boat") has suggested?

I don't care which way "looks" best; all I care is which way can give
me the strongest deck.

Which way is the right way to me?

Thanks in advance for any info.

Jay Chan

I have always put the smallest piece down first, the largest last. The
reason? So as to have the smoothest finished lay-up.

I didn't know the West System recommended otherwise. They are probably
right. They know their stuff.

I will probably continue doing it as I do unless someone makes a good
case for doing it otherwise.