Newbie build question
I am going to build a kayak to begin to learn how to build boats.
Dumb newbie question for you. On a stitch and glue kit, when you fiberglass it, how does the stained wood come through the fiberglass?? For the pictures I see on the pygmy and clc sites, it looks like the wood is stained, but the instructions for the kit show the boat is completely fiberglassed. How can the be? Thank you for your time. BTW, thanks for the link to the glenl site. Love the runabout kit. would love to build one of those someday. |
I am the wrong guy to answer this, because I am a newbie myself, but......
I have heard it said that the epoxy, and glass are clear in their natural state. That is to say that when the glass gets embedded in the expoxy, it is clear. I would assume this depends on the epoxy and the glass, but I don't know. "Jack" wrote in message news:miVHe.7163$W72.3090@trndny05... I am going to build a kayak to begin to learn how to build boats. Dumb newbie question for you. On a stitch and glue kit, when you fiberglass it, how does the stained wood come through the fiberglass?? For the pictures I see on the pygmy and clc sites, it looks like the wood is stained, but the instructions for the kit show the boat is completely fiberglassed. How can the be? Thank you for your time. BTW, thanks for the link to the glenl site. Love the runabout kit. would love to build one of those someday. |
I do not know about epoxy but the original fiberglass cloth and resin
become clear when applied. You are sealing the wood rather than building up a really thick layer. There used to be a few types (or brands) of resin that were more yellow than clear. |
Jack wrote:
I am going to build a kayak to begin to learn how to build boats. Dumb newbie question for you. On a stitch and glue kit, when you fiberglass it, how does the stained wood come through the fiberglass?? For the pictures I see on the pygmy and clc sites, it looks like the wood is stained, but the instructions for the kit show the boat is completely fiberglassed. How can the be? Thank you for your time. BTW, thanks for the link to the glenl site. Love the runabout kit. would love to build one of those someday. The boats in the pictures are not stained, the wood darkens when epoxy is applied. You can see the effect in advance by wiping the wood with alcohol. It is possible to stain the wood before glassing, but you MUST use a water-based stain. Oil-based stains will prevent the epoxy from bonding properly. When fiberglass cloth is properly wet out with epoxy, it become transparent. It's the "wet T-shirt" principle, only moreso. ;-) |
I find that you can use up to 6-oz woven fiberglass or so and it still comes out clear when finished. The fiberglass weave doesn't show through and the wood just looks varnished. I'm betting that on your kayak that it has either 4-oz or 6-oz cloth on it and no additional glass tape on the exterior seams, right? And as someone else mentioned, the epoxy gives the wood color kind of like varnish does. Just wetting out wood darkens it, then depending on which epoxy you choose, you'll get varying degrees of varnish-like golden color added too. Some epoxies are water-clear and some are quite golden. Check with the manufacturer for a description of their products before you buy. You'll also varnish the kayak too, if only to provide UV protection to the epoxy. This will add more golden hue to the boat. You can also stain the wood prior to doing the epoxy work. Use a water-based stain and test-glass a sample first to make sure the glass adheres properly. Epoxy a strip of glass on plain wood and a very similar strip on a stained piece of the same kind of wood, let cure for a few days at 70F or higher, then pull the strips off with pliers. If there is an adhesion problem on the stained piece, you'll notice the difference. Not necessary to use higher tech methods than that. That said, I personally like the color of the wood without stain added. It darkens up quite nicely and looks naturally beautiful. Finally ...buy some wood flour from RAKA and some from System Three, then mix and match until your thickened, cured, epoxy matches the wood color. The RAKA stuff produces a much darker color and the System Three stuff a much lighter color. Not sure what type of woods they use, but one looks like a mahogany brown (RAKA) and the other is quite a bit lighter (Alder? Maple?). The addition of colloidal silica, which is white, can be used to lighten it up for a fine-tune on a mix that is just barely too dark too. Colloidal silica is also called amorphic silica, Cab-o-Sil, or just 'silica', depending on who you buy it from. I always mix some in anyway ....about 20% silica plus 80% wood flour is my usual starting point. Oh, and don't make the fillets bigger than you need too. Beginners generally go to town on fillet size and there's no reason to. Keep them small and pretty and the joints will STILL be stronger than the wood. Try a test sample (glued, glassed) to see ...the wood breaks first. If you get a chance, perform a close examination on a bright finished stitch-n-tape kayak at your local shop if you have one around, or take a close look at kayak projects online ...look for close-up photos. Brian "Jack" wrote in message news:miVHe.7163$W72.3090@trndny05... I am going to build a kayak to begin to learn how to build boats. Dumb newbie question for you. On a stitch and glue kit, when you fiberglass it, how does the stained wood come through the fiberglass?? For the pictures I see on the pygmy and clc sites, it looks like the wood is stained, but the instructions for the kit show the boat is completely fiberglassed. How can the be? Thank you for your time. BTW, thanks for the link to the glenl site. Love the runabout kit. would love to build one of those someday. |
If a water-based stain is used before applying resin, how long should the wet stained wood dry before applying the resin? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned |
William R. Watt wrote:
If a water-based stain is used before applying resin, how long should the wet stained wood dry before applying the resin? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would wait about 2 days or longer...... -- ============================================ PAUL OMAN Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc. --------------------------------------------------------- |
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