Phantom 18 in Maine
Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:03 pm
Well, I can't believe I've made it this far seeing that I went against the advice of many by not building a small boat before building a larger one.
I know I still have a very long way to go, but fiberglassing the outside of the hull was a bid deal for me.
I spent 6hrs taping the seams Friday night, 4hrs glassing one side and 3hrs glassing the other on Saturday.
A little too much epoxy
So far things that I've learned:
* allocate enough time to complete the task. I started glassing one side Saturday morning knowing that I wouldn't have too much time to finish. I ended up running out of time so I stopped applying epoxy to the fiberglass before it was completely covered. I then came back to a mess.
* mix conservative size batches. Saturday morning I went for a big finish and mixed too much and paid for it. The epoxy started to kick and I didn't realize the mistake I was making by applying it until it was too late.
how do I fix it?
* scale for mixing ratios. I bought one today because I am sick of pouring resin into one container, the hardener into another then both into a third container. I have the pumps but who wants to pump 18 times to get 6oz. Hopefully the scale will allow me to mix in one container.
* Be smart (if you can) about the products you buy. Even though I purchased the fiberglass kit from bateau, I didn' approximate the amount of each hardener I needed very well. I asked for 2 fast hardeners and 2 medium hardeners. My garage has been in the upper 40's to low 50's for the last week. I should have been using a mix of the two hardeners but instead I used only the fast. Now I am running low on the fast hardener and a long winter a head of me with mostly the medium hardener. I'll probably end up buying the 3 gallon kit along with more filler material. I'm going to need it to get a boat that looks half as good as the ones in the gallery.
* metric rules.
Thanks Jacques and the rest of you guys for supporting such a great web site.
Off to sanding....
Steve
I know I still have a very long way to go, but fiberglassing the outside of the hull was a bid deal for me.
I spent 6hrs taping the seams Friday night, 4hrs glassing one side and 3hrs glassing the other on Saturday.
A little too much epoxy
So far things that I've learned:
* allocate enough time to complete the task. I started glassing one side Saturday morning knowing that I wouldn't have too much time to finish. I ended up running out of time so I stopped applying epoxy to the fiberglass before it was completely covered. I then came back to a mess.
* mix conservative size batches. Saturday morning I went for a big finish and mixed too much and paid for it. The epoxy started to kick and I didn't realize the mistake I was making by applying it until it was too late.
how do I fix it?
* scale for mixing ratios. I bought one today because I am sick of pouring resin into one container, the hardener into another then both into a third container. I have the pumps but who wants to pump 18 times to get 6oz. Hopefully the scale will allow me to mix in one container.
* Be smart (if you can) about the products you buy. Even though I purchased the fiberglass kit from bateau, I didn' approximate the amount of each hardener I needed very well. I asked for 2 fast hardeners and 2 medium hardeners. My garage has been in the upper 40's to low 50's for the last week. I should have been using a mix of the two hardeners but instead I used only the fast. Now I am running low on the fast hardener and a long winter a head of me with mostly the medium hardener. I'll probably end up buying the 3 gallon kit along with more filler material. I'm going to need it to get a boat that looks half as good as the ones in the gallery.
* metric rules.
Thanks Jacques and the rest of you guys for supporting such a great web site.
Off to sanding....
Steve