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Today I filleted and put down the the Biaxial Tape and then the resin in the bow area only. I was able to get out all of the air bubbles and get a nice tight bond to both sides. But I can feel the texture of the fabric still, should I put a second coat of resin down to fill the weave?

Thanks

Dave

That's what is called fairing. If you are going to leave it bright use straight epoxy. If you will paint use epoxy and a filler or quickfair.

If any other structural components (in general) will later be laminated to an area, then if you do fair before that other part is added, you want to use a structural filler such as wood flour or milled glass fibers, which will be hard to sand, but do-able, but typically, fairing is not started until after all construction in an area is completed. If there are no other structural components that will ever be added to that area, and you are not bright finishing it (as ChrisOBee pointed out), then you use a fairing filler which is typically something called *microballons*, in either purple or white. This is made of microscopic plastic bubbles which are very easy to sand compared to a structural filler or straight epoxy. When using a fairing filler, sometimes a little colloidal silica (or cabosil) is added to help thicken the mix so it does not slide off vertical surfaces before curing (but don't add too much or it will start to get hard to sand again). Bateau sells a ready made fairing mix to add to epoxy, and they sell a product called Quickfair which is a two part epoxy product with the mixture pre blended in for fairing. All you do is mix the two parts of Quickfair to get a batch of fairing compound.

So there are your choices. Again, If no more structural laminations in an area, use some sort of fairing blend to fill the weave as it is easier to sand... or... don't fill the weave if you want to be fanatical about saving weight (if it is an interior area). If the weave is not filled, you must be careful when painting, since when you sand prep the surface you may cut too deeply into the glass fibers and weaken the tape. Fairing compound smooths the surface so that before painting you are sanding fairing compound instead of cutting into the tape itself. A scratching of the upper tape fibers is one thing, but cutting deeply into the fibers to try to get a smooth surface is not good, unless you used twice as thick a glass laminate as needed because you want to help Jacques and Joel buy new cars, in which case, the second layer of tape, if it wasn't specified, can be sanded smooth, but it is an odd and expensive way to fair (though I did just that in a few areas, such as where ubolts are installed for attaching lines from safety harnesses).

See, there's always a complicated way to answer a simple question!

Einstein made a good point, in seeming to promote Occam's Razor, but then giving one of his subtle winks...

*Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.*

Thanks

I have to make the decision if I am going to make a minature anchor locker. I can't belive that the fillet and the tape gives so much structure so quickly. I am going to finish off each "box" before proceeding to the next. It will add more time to the contruction of the project but I think I will make a better boat this way

again thanks for all the help

Dave

The rubrails shape the sheer fair and are structural. I'm not sure at what stage your notes tell you to install them. I put mine on as soon as the frames were installed, before the main frame was even taped in. Even though I have a different boat, the principle is the same... those rails established the sheer line so that any construction afterwards was only adding more permanence to that faired sheer line and hull shape. The rails help establish a *fair* sheer and hull. So review your notes. If you haven't got the rails on yet, you may not want to put them on last after all those other *boxes*, but maybe before?

Enjoy the build!

It says right in the palns that the rubrails can be installed when fiberglassing the outside. The box I was going to add was going to be attached to the front seat and not to the hull really. I plan on making a box that will attach to the boottm of the seat and allow me to store a small mushroom anchor and about 25 feet of rope.

A good friend of mine a a great cabinet maker and long ago he told me that a set of good cabinets look good everywhere just not where you can see them everyday. I want all my boats to have that quality


Thanks again for your help,

Dave

Well I put the first coat of fairing down today.



I put it down fairly thin, but I did find out how bad my fillets look. I am going to try to make this as good as I can and just put it down to practice practice practice.

Now comes the question, what grit of sandpaper shall i begin to smooth this down?

100 or 150 might be a place to start inless you want to really get to the bottom quickly. I have had some of the same problems trying to glue in the transoms on my GF-16, so I have even gone so far as to use 60!!!!!

Best luck, It is taking shape and it is yours, so enjoy.

thanks for the reply, I guess I will have to make a trip down to the local HD and buy some 100 and 150 disks. How is your coming along?

Dave,

Here's how I solved the anchor storage problem on my FL14:



Just a simple 'wall' across the front seat and the otherwise fairly useless space in the bow becomes your 'anchor locker'

Mike