Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

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OneWayTraffic
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

Fibreglassed the back compartment today. As this will be covered, out of sight and filled with polystyrene beads (I will bag them and have a hole for ventilation I think) I did this as my first attempt at glassing.

I took the boat outside to warm up in the sun, and put the epoxy in a warm place for a couple of hours.

I first went over my sanded, resanded and wetsanded first filleting job with neat resin. I brushed the remainder over where the fibreglass tape will go and over the bottom.

Then I went over the fillets with about 125ml of resin thickened with silica (westsystem 406). I used a plastic spoon to make the fillets and found this much better than the last week. I applied the goop with a spoon where needed and used the spoon several times to form the fillet, then the plastic fibreglass spreader to remove excess off the sides and then spoon again. I went over each fillet several times before I was happy. I then painted over the fillet with neat epoxy with a chip brush brushing away from the fillet to smooth things out.

Went inside to take a break, have something to eat and let the fillets firm up.

I had already cut the tape to size but had not cut slits in the end to help it go around the corners. So I got some epoxy over our good kitchen scissors. (Now cleaned off I hope!)

I wet out the fibreglass tape (I didn't count carefully but I think I got about a 40% glass content after using excess resin to wet the wood sides.) I applied one layer of tape, wet it out then applied the second layer on top. I did have issues with the odd bit of stitching getting caught in my brush and getting pulled out and the little bits of glass near the edges of the cut tape pulling out and making all kinds of mess. Photos of the worst spots.

After all was done and all the glass was transparent I ran the brush and spreader over the fillets applying a fair bit of pressure to ensure the glass was firmly down, and to try and remove any air bubbles. There were a few places where the tape lifted up here thanks to the friction of the spreader and needed to be pushed back using the brush and my gloved fingers.

Later I used a clean brush to go over the whole surface, pushing down errant threads, popping air bubbles, and smoothing over drips and runs.

Took about 3 hours start to finish. According to the plans I should have been able to fillet, tape and epoxy coat the entire inside in that time. I can see an expert doing it that fast, but I am happy to keep plodding along.

For a first attempt, I am content.

Photos in a minute.

OneWayTraffic
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

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OneWayTraffic
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

Thanks to a fan heater and a makeshift tent the epoxy cured without issue. I am thinking about how to avoid the frayed cut edges of tape for the more visible sections. For the back compartment I left the tape a little long so I had overlaps (and some wrinkles) at the corner. If I were to instead cut the tape a little short for two of the three tapes at a 3 way corner, then the third could wrap and overlap both without the wrinkles.

The photos seem to show some shiny areas of glass. I am pretty sure that that is just the camera, not unwetted glass.

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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by BB Sig »

Looking good! Don't worry about the time that Jacques could do things in. Just eat the elephant one bite at a time! :D

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Jaysen
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by Jaysen »

OneWayTraffic wrote: Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:31 am I am thinking about how to avoid the frayed cut edges of tape for the more visible sections.
The question is "what caused it?" In my case there were two different issues
1. bad cut of tape
2. over working the edge

If you get a nice clean edge to your cut (SHARP knife/scissors) you should be ok. I had to change razors in my box cutter every 4th cut to get nice edges. I bought my wife two sets of scissors thinking that would be better. Going forward I think the best option was described by Peter Curico or maybe someone on his flyer thread
paraphrased wrote:Use a cutting board and a pressure board. mark your glass, set on board, put pressure board on top at mark, then push down on pressure board and cut using p-board as guide.
I did that for a few cuts and ... dang it... it worked great. Peter C also talks about using different methods in that thread. Everything I tried seemed to work really well.

If you had a clean edge and you still got that, then you are overworking the edge. A few things I've noticed folks have done:
1. create a wetting trough for your tape (soak the tape vs paint the tape)
2. use peel ply
3. use the roller and not the brush
4. stop overworking the tape
#4 is the big one. You are going to have to sand. No way around that. Stop trying to make perfect edges and just sand it later. I mixed 3 and 4 toward the end of my v12 and achieved much better results much faster (roll a bit o' 'poxy, lay tape, roll more epoxy a bit heavier, drink beer). No fiddling. Better coverage. Less epoxy used. Same amount of sanding but looked better. Way less stress (might have been more rum than beer, but whose tracking that?).

Hopefully something in this post helps you figure out what works best for you. Just remember, there's no real "bad way" to do this as long as the end result is a boat that floats and you enjoy. Some ways are just a bit more efficient for different folks. You'll figure out what works best for you soon enough.
My already completed 'Lil Bit'. A Martens Goosen V12 set up to sail me to the fishing holes.
Currently working on making a Helms 24 our coastal cruiser.
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Jaysen wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:44 pm I tried to say something but God thought I was wrong and filled my mouth with saltwater. I kept my pie hole shut after that.

terrulian
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by terrulian »

There are neat builders, there are fast builders, there are perfect builders.
I don't fit in any of those categories.
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

Fiberglassed the inside today. Cut out biax tape to size last night. The razor trick worked a treat. Rolled epoxy inside the boat and laid tape and 200g woven cloth. The cloth laid in a fraction of the time! Just pour on the epoxy and spread it Round.

Still a bit of rough edge in places. I'll use a knife and sander.

It's likely I'll have at least a few small air bubbles do I need to grind these down if it's not structural? What are the pros and cons of leaving them?
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by terrulian »

If not structural they will disappear in the fairing process.
I never cared whether the edges were nice and neat. Why does it matter? It all must be sanded and faired anyway. As long as the tape is properly applied and the epoxy properly cured, there is zero difference in strength between a clean edge and a ragged one. Please correct me here, guys.
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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

If you look closely at the tape edge in the photos you can see a couple of places where loose strands from the corners of the biaxial got pushed into a little mound by the brush and spreader. It looks ugly but will not effect strength at all. Too much to fair over. I think doing the outside will be easier as I can cut the tape longer and then slice off the overhangs.

As for this I will grind/sand off what will be exposed and leave the rest. It will probably bother noone but myself.

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Re: Stuart's D5 Dinghy.

Post by OneWayTraffic »

Ground out air bubbles and rounded off the outside of the hull. Used a grout removal rasp on a multi tool to do most the work and a rotary tool for the finer stuff. I'm not sure if it will be ok to leave the pictured bubbles. They are on a seat frame. I'd rather fill with putty and move on but am willing to glass over if it's needed.
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