Preliminary Fairing

[Dan_Smullen]

What are the ramifications of some initial fairing at the tape edges prior to laying glass?

Cured tape edges have been sanded. Smooth enough to run a hand over without feeling a splinter, however there is somewhat of a serious "drop off" at the edges of 2 layers of tape and raw plywood. I had some concerns about glass and resin not laying all the way in at these spots.

Just ignore it and build on, or skim with something? Any harm in skimming it with something? High Density Filler?

[Jaysen]

Answered on other three but...

Ignore it. If you fill don’t use fairing compound. Used milled glass silica or wood flour. Sands like hell but you reduce the risk of delam.

[Dan_Smullen]

Hey, Jaysen! Thanks for both responses.

Wood flour, because I have it on hand, is what I planned on using. Going to do it wet on wet so there won't be much to sand.

[Jaysen]

Be careful to avoid excessive qty for sure. Exothermic reaction. And the heat from the first layer will speed up the cure of the second. AKA cut your working time.

[fallguy1000]

I like to hotcoat those with a 4-6" knife.

But if it is the whole hull bottom; then you can prefill with slow epoxy before your wetout.

If you allow the infill to kick, it will get sticky, but you can prewet over it without the roller picking up the filler.

If you wetout before kick; then you have to be a bit careful to not pull the infill up with the roller AND it will be harder to wetout.

I always infill those tape edges for tapes 17 oz and greater or for any stack greater than 17 oz. I hate air on the hull bottom.

Keep in mind a hotcoat is very sticky, so you will not get any movement of your glass unless you wet out above the hotcoat.

Great question.

[Fuzz]

You can put some wood flour glue along the glass line much like you would do if fairing. While it is still wet go ahead and lay your glass over it. It will not be thick enough to cause you any heat problems.

[fallguy1000]

I like to hotcoat those with a 4-6" knife.

But if it is the whole hull bottom; then you can prefill with slow epoxy before your wetout.

If you allow the infill to kick, it will get sticky, but you can prewet over it without the roller picking up the filler.

If you wetout before kick; then you have to be a bit careful to not pull the infill up with the roller AND it will be harder to wetout.

I always infill those tape edges for tapes 17 oz and greater or for any stack greater than 17 oz. I hate air on the hull bottom.

Keep in mind a hotcoat is very sticky, so you will not get any movement of your glass unless you wet out above the hotcoat.

Great question.

Hotcoating has little to do with actual heat. It just means waiting until the coating has exothermed. You will not have a heat issue with a coating under 1/8" if you let it go to gel time and then glass over it.

Just to be clear..

[Dan_Smullen]

Thanks for the helpful responses, Gents! This is all what I had in mind.

I laid and rolled tape over tacky wood flour/peanut butter and like the way all the layers seem to bond.

I wanted to make sure I wasn’t introducing new unforeseen problems while trying to avoid the gaps that epoxy/cloth may not fill. Sort of bridging over a void below. Can’t have that!

Optimistic this may save me some labor at the fair stage as well. Double bonus!

[Jeff]

Good results Dan!!!! Jeff

[fallguy1000]

Won't save any fairing; sorry.