Re: Glass on the inside

Posted by Howard on Jul 17, 2005

for doing the inside of the wr18....you need to really have a good open schedule...(that is, time to get the glass in the hull... and time to come back when it is green to trim it and touch it up...and a bit more time to watch it cure and ensure that your trimmed edge stayed put.)

for the shears:

do as you describe and get the glass into the hull. as you approach the shears, continue to wet out the glass and push it under the shear and let the excess simply wrap over the shear. use a couple spring clamps to hold the excess cloth in place. don't worry that you will not be able to really get the cloth to stick in the tight corner of the shear and the hull...its just important that the cloth is wet out and the corner has epoxy in it.

to get it neat you have to trim the glass AFTER the epoxy has started to cure. this is typically withing an hour or two after finishing depending on temperature. wait till the glass is slightly rubbery in consistency. when it is, it will cut easily with a razor knife/box cutter.

after you trim the glass with the razor, you can then press it down neatly under the shear and and touch up with a bit of fresh epoxy as required.

for the bulkheads:

it is neatest is you allow the cloth to come up and overlap the fillet along the bulkhead and maybe an additional 1/2 onto the bulkhead itself.

like the shears, do the best job you can with placing the cloth...but expect some excess. leave it..and do not try to trim it at this point. wait a bit...and when the cloth is green, come back with a razor and cut a clean edge and pat down the edge of the cloth to work out any bubbles or places where the remaining cloth is not flat against the underlying surface...touch up with a bit of fresh epoxy.

again, the important thing in this step is to monitor the "curing" of the epoxy. if you try to trim too early...the knife will not cut the cloth cleanly. if you wait too long, it will be too stiff to push the cut edge back against the hull. it also helps to come back for a third pass after trimming and touching up to ensure that the cut edge stayed put. so keep an open schedule so you have the time to monitor the situation.

hs

In Response to: Glass on the inside by Mike D on Jul 17, 2005

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