Some guy posted an article at http://www.duckworksmagazine.com about using
slightly-heavy clear plastic sheeting to fair a boat. If I recall, he put
the glass on the boat, then rolled the sheeting onto it, let it cure and
pulled the sheeting off. The pictures that I saw were marvelous ...glossy
smooth with no imperfections, no boundary marks or lines near edges of
overlapped cloth or at scarfs or anything. Never did give it a try myself
though, but it looked like it worked for him.

I did recently cut off the curved top of a transom to make it flat so I
could run a tuna handline behind the boat (tied to a handline cleat) without
the line rubbing on the transom. It's impossible to get a perfectly
straight cut and all I did to tune it up was to put a thin layer of
microballoon mix + epoxy on it, lay plastic wrap over it, then used a piece
of aluminum angle stock to press the top flat. Came out beautiful. Ready
to fair it in and paint....

Brian D



"DSK" wrote in message
...
Brian D wrote:
I don't think that I've ever gotten a drip of epoxy falling off a
pre-wetted chunk of fiberglass tape. Of course, by the time I started
using that method, I'd gained enough glassing experience to know how much
resin to put into it, but really ...the glass holds the epoxy quite well.
Try it sometime 'cuz I think you'll like it.


Another good way to pre-wet-out pieces of cloth is to use PVC sheet. It's
commonly sold in varying thickness as painter's dropcloth. The .5 mil
stuff is kinda flimsy but can be molded around 3-D shapes pretty well, the
3 mil stuff is pretty strong and I use it for wetting out pre-cut pieces
on a flat bench or floor. It can be re-used almost infinitely too. Cured
epoxy will not stick to it, makes a great barrier film.

My method is to get a piece of the plastic sheeting that's at least twice
as big as the fiberglass cloth I'm laminating, lay the cloth into one half
of it, then add some mixed resin. Fold the other half of the sheet over,
then roller it so that the resin gets spread eavenly thru the cloth and
you don't get ick all over your hands or the roller. You can really get a
great resin-glass ratio and handle the piece without fear of runs or
drips.


And isn't the concern over a drip here and there a bit like being
concerned about getting wet when you go fishing? Be careful, but don't
sweat the occasional drips and runs. Buy a 3" wide carbide scraper (with
handle, and a knob above the business end) and the SurForm tool with the
short handle and 2" by 1-1/2" (approx) curved cheese-grater on the end
and you'll no longer sweat the little accidents ...they come off easily
after curing and it's easy to leave a smooooth finish behind. Home
Despot has these things for cheap and no epoxy user should be without
them. Forget sandpaper for fixing drips and runs ...bad idea. Relax and
enjoy the build.


Or get a plastic putty knife and scrape up the dripping / running resin,
take it over to your wet-out work area, and re-use it on the next piece of
cloth. Economical and saves clean-up time.

I've seen a heck of a lot of people working in fiberglass who seem to
bring an unshakeable woodworker's mentality to the process.... make it
thick, then cut it or sand it... then add some more and sand it off... etc
etc. Shucks, the beauty of molding composites is that you can make it any
shape you want, in less time, and make it *strong*. Get the material to
work for you, not against you.

Not that I'm an expert or anything, but I've made a lot of stuff out of
epoxy resin added to various other materials... including carbon fiber...
over the years.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King