How to use peel ply

[gonandkarl]

Hi,

I am using peel ply for quite some time since I was told in the forum what it actually is. My epoxy supplier in Berlin
sold it to me but I have no idea if I am using it correctly. In German it is called Abreissgewebe meaning tearoff material and thats all I know about it, that I heave to tear it off after 24 hours. For instance I recently put biax glass on the 2 seats and then put peel ply over it and tried as good as it was possible to push any creases with my rubber gloved hands away to make it smooth.
Is that the correct way to apply it ? Bytheway I am satisfied with the result achieved on the 2 benches, but there is always the doubt if CL or any other of you experts work with it completely different.

Greetings from Karl ( Austria )

[Knottybuoyz]

Hi Karl

Basically you got it right. I use a 'squeegee' or bondo spreader to smooth out the peel ply. It's much better than your hand at moving epoxy around and getting out the bubbles.



One of the purposes of using peel ply is to help reduce the amount of epoxy in your fiberglass layup. It also helps you see any dry spots that need more epoxy so you can squeegee epoxy from one area to the dry spot. As far as I know you can leave it on as long as you want which helps protect your part from spills etc. I have some that has been on for 4 years and it still comes off the same as day old peel ply.

I normally start in the middle of an area and work outwards towards the edges. This helps keep your fiberglass where you put it.

I show how I do it in this video clip. https://youtu.be/ZHFYxkdTAs8 Skip ahead to the 4:00 mark.

Good luck.

[remedy32]

Hi Karl,

I posted this a few months ago; take a look. You should also consult the West System online guide for some good pictures and diagrams of peelply in use.

http://forums.bateau2.com/viewtopic.php ... 25#p364316

Just a few more thoughts....

You could use peelply to allow for smoothing as well but this adds unnecessary cost. I'd recommend using a plastic squeegee to move resin from wet areas to dry areas without peelply. If you do use the peelply use the squeegee rather than your gloved hand to produce more uniform results. Some feel that the surface left after the peelply removal is OK th glue without further prep. That might be true but everyone I know still sands at least a bit.

Hope that helps.

Bill
CT USA

[dbcrx]

You pretty much have it sussed. I have two slightly different ways of using it. One is if I just want to soak up any excess pools of resin, I just put it on and run a spreader or dry roller over it. The other is if I want to fill in the weave of a loose biax for example, I put it on but then wet it out as though it was another layer of glass until it is all evenly wet. This will fill the weave the same as spreading on epoxy, but still leave you with the "ready to bond surface" for priming or fairing. And yes, peel ply is designed to leave a ready to bond to surface.

[gonandkarl]

Hi Rick,

Thank You so much for the info and the video (s ) I naturally watched the one about fairing as well because in spring I will be fairing the outside. I have a lot of squeezies in all different sizes, but I never got the idea to remove the bubbles out of the peel ply with them. I sofar only used them to apply epoxy/woodflour.

Greetings from Karl ( Austria )

[gonandkarl]

Hi Bill,
Thank You for the advise and the good pictures show me exactly how it should look like when one is finished with the peel ply.
Greetings from Karl ( Austria )

[gonandkarl]

Hi Dave,
I like both methods of Yours and will try them out soon when I have to glass the side decks. The second method with loose biax and the peel ply straight away ontop and then the epoxy is most probably the better one for smaller areas to be covered ?
Greetings from Karl ( Austria )