Glass tape edges

What is the best way to blend the edges of glass tape? They show on my Mill Creek 16.5 bow/stern. You can see pictures on the previous post.

 

Thanks


5 replies:

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RE: Glass tape edges

Assuming that they are already epoxied in the best thing is to go at them with a scraper before the expoy gets a chance to set hard, Ie within a few days of applying. Then it is surprisingly easy to take the edges down and then sand smooth.  Once the epoxy sets up hard the process is the same but takes a lot more work.  Once it has set really hard (several weeks ?)  remember "sanding is fun, sanding is fun, sanding is fun."

In the future, do not use the glass tape wherever it will show.  Cut strips of glass on the bias and use tape to mask off where you want the glass to end,  Apply , wet out, wait till "green", 12 hours? and then cut with a sharp knife just short of the tape and peel back the tape and scrap.  Then scrape and sand as above. 

Ed

RE: Glass tape edges

 

   Thanks Ed. I appreciate the advice.  Will the glass disappear as you add more epoxy? I will use a scraper today and see how that works. It has been cool and only been on a couple of days. I sanded them yesterday.   How about small bubbles or white areas near the sharp edges? Do I cut/sand those as well? Then fill the holes with epoxy? Thanks again for the reply.

 

 

RE: Glass tape edges

   Once scraped and sanded and then fill coats added the glass edge should dissapear.  If the "white" areas are spots where the glass lifted off the wood, then you need to cut, feather, wet with epoxy, lay in a glass patch, more epoxy and then once "green" you can treat like the edges above. You may be able to slice into the bubble, inject epoxy, put a bit of plastic wrap over it and add a weight to shove the glass back down to the wood.  Eventually it should all disappear.  I must confess that on my first kayak (have built 3 now) you can still see where the deck glass overlapped the side because I was  much more interested in getting it on the water than in beauty.  There are also significant epoxy drips that never got sanded out.  (A sharp chisel is great for removing drips when they are still green.)

People still stop me every time I try to launch to say how beautiful the boat is. It certainly does not effect how it paddles.  

My 3rd boat (petrel) is a lot neater but still by no means "coffee table" standard.  

Ed.  

RE: Glass tape edges

   Thanks again Ed. I will attacha few photos. The glass tape has almost disappeared. The scraping reminder really helped it along.

Chris

RE: Glass tape edges

   Here is the before and after pics:

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