OD16 - Hull Glassed and more on PMPly..

DrBones · Post by **DrBones** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 9:18 pm

Well folks, I had me a power epoxy weekend along with my 10 year old son! Man, am I glad he helped me. I hate mixing and applying epoxy for hours on end. Took us about three hours to get the biaxial applied. Here's a pick with the Poor Man's Peel Ply (PMPly):

Here one after cure and after pulling the PMPly off:

and

This is what it looks like after sanding the areas. I just sanded the hull sides so I could put the 9oz over it on the hull sides:

Now here's a pic of the hull with the 9oz on it after I pulled the PMPly off. Some creases, but rather nice and smooth in most areas. I got both sides done today with the help of my son! Yay! First time I ever met my work goal on the boat! Now, there's lots of sanding and fairing awaiting me:

I swear on this peel ply method. The only area where I didn't really use it was on the transom where I dropped the biaxial cloth all the way to the clamping board edge. The weave there is all open and I'll have to fair the entire area. With the PMPly I have creases, but generally those are the only areas I plan on fairing out.

Let me know what y'all think!

Troutlet · Post by **Troutlet** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 9:32 pm

Man I'm learning a lot watching your posts Doc. Your boat is coming right along isn't? You'll be painting soon!

Bayport_Bob · Post by **Bayport_Bob** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:10 pm

I'm curious why people aren't using polyester or nylon peel ply?

The excess resin will wick though the pores or the material and leave a very fair surface and one that also has a fine texture for enhance bonding of subsequent layers or fairing compound.

Numerous "at home hobbiest" vacuum baggers use inexpensive polyester fabric sold at sewing stores. (Of course it should be tested on scrap material before commiting it to a boat hull) Seems like it would be a perfect material for this application instead of nonpourous plastic. One tip is to remove this type of peel ply when the resin is still green and not fully hardened.

Here's a post from an airplane building forum...

We, and several of the local canard builders, go to the local fabric
store and buy bolts of the very light weight 100% Polyester/Dacron
fabric with a high sheen used for coat liners (best I can describe it)
to use as peel ply - works great. It MUST have a high sheen to it or
you WILL be sanding it off! I try not to use white peel ply on
something that I'm going to leave peel ply on to protect the surface for
any length of time. I use a very light blue, yellow, orange or green so
it's easier to see the peel ply is still on the surface a long time
later. The fabric stores have these odd colors on sale a lot, $1 to $2+
per yard, 50 to 66" wide. Fabric stores will even order you a few bolts
at a good deal when they do their next order. If you are not sure of
the fabric you are looking at, the store is usually very happy to give
you a sample piece to try to make sure it pulls up.

I think I've mentioned this in past posts before, but I also iron all my peel ply with a warm iron to pre-shrink it and get all the creases
and wrinkles out, then roll it up onto a cardboard carpet tube that
carpet stores throw out. Saves a lot of headaches later when glassing.

Just curious - Bob

DrBones · Post by **DrBones** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:57 pm

Good that you mention it. I'd forgotten, but I actually tested some real deal peel ply - compliments of EvilDwarf

He described it as 'cumbersome' (My boat wouldn't be half this far along without him cleaning out his garage and sending it to me!)

Now, since I had never used it before, I tested it first on some scrap plywood and some biaxial tape. It works exactly as you state, i.e. the excess squeezes through the very fine weave. At the same time though it doesn't do much as to 'disappearing the weave' of the biaxial fiberglass. It also leaves behind a somewhat 'rough' surface as you describe and is a pain to virtually 'tear' off once cured.

In the end, I stuck to my plastic sheeting. I like the fact that the plastic sheeting actually leaves a thin layer of epoxy resin on top of the glass. I use a rubber roller from the arts and crafts store and roll the air out from underneath the cloth with quite some force. This also makes sure that the fiberglass is snug up against the wood, while a thin layer of epoxy is above the tape. This allows for some sanding before you even hit the fiberglass weave itself.

Even though the creases leave behind trails that need to be faired, I still feel that the PMPly method has "built in fairing" that comes with it. That's why I decided against the actual commercially available peel ply EvilDwarf sent me.

Now, I must admit: I've never really tried anything else except for the above experiment. So, I'd be happy if some of you experienced folk chime in here!

ddbiiz · Post by **ddbiiz** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 5:39 am

Doc,
Your almost there, looks good!! What kind of power are you going with? I don't know about you but I can't hardly wait to flop that first fish on the deck!!

OD18
Don

kickinbackfl · Post by **kickinbackfl** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:56 pm

Doc your boats looking good! It wont be long now. I still have to do the deck and the seats. I'm shooting to paint the outside of mine this weekend. I'm going to roll on the primer and test the power sprayer on a scap piece of wood first to see how it works. If that doesn't work I will roll and tip. Again I say boats looking good the finish is in sight.

DrBones · Post by **DrBones** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 1:12 am

Thanks guys...well, I've still got quite a bit of sanding/fairing to do. - Then the paint. I plan on using a non solvent based urethane enamel. I hope I find the colors I need in the M22 series - Yes, they take forever to dry, but on the inside it did a fairly good job. I'm also going to be rolling it on.

As to power..hehehehe: Here's my freebie.

It all depends if I can get this baby to run fairly inexpensively. So far the name of my boat: "Inshallah" hasn't failed! So God willing... we shall see!

P.S. - I hate this image gallery thing - What a clunky piece of software that is..took me forever to find my own damn pictures. - Just had to vent here..been a long, long day.

cottontop · Post by **cottontop** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:15 pm

Hi Doc! Boy the boat is sure looking good. I hope to start taping some side panel parts together tomorrow. Will be my 1st experience at fiberglassing. Will read a little more from info sheet, then give it a try. How's the family? cottontop

DrBones · Post by **DrBones** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 9:55 pm

Well, I finally got my skeg glued on. I'll put another two coats of epoxy on it tomorrow...and then the primer!

I bought Benjamine Moore Fast Start Deep Penetrating Alkalyd Primer ($30/gallon). With a little luck, I'll sand an eentsy teeny bit tomorrow and then start putting the primer on.

I'll post some pics in the next few days.

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