edge preparation

Im building a 14 ' kaholo (from a kit) and i have a question about the edges preparation for fiberglass. They made it pretty clear for the deck joint in the manual (it should be rounded to a 1/4 inch radius...) but for the other edge ( side panels to bottom panel and the center of the foward section of the bottom panel) they said that the edges should be sanded clean. My question is do they need a proper rounding too to ease the fiberglassing step (if yes what would be the radius).

thank you

Maxime


3 replies:

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RE: edge preparation

   Do radius the edge where the sides and bottom join, called the chine.  On my first Kaholo I radiused the chine about 3/8 inch.  There is nothing wrong with smooth rounded edges.  

A little fiberglassing  tip.  Lay out the cloth and spend about 15 minutes smoothing it out and getting out EVERY single wrinkle before putting on the epoxy.  Up at the bow work and work the cloth with two hands until it completely conforms to the shape of the hull.  The weft and warp of the weave will slip and slide and conform to the hull shape so that you will not have to make any scissor cuts at the bow.

RE: edge preparation

   I raidiused the hull to side joint first with a plane then DA sander, this worked but was hard to make a consistent radius. If I had to do it again I'd build some type of rounded jig to hold sandpaper to get a consistant radius. Be careful not to take too much of your fillets off as they are structual. 

RE: edge preparation

   Has anyone tried using a router with the appropriately sized round over bit to round the chines etc?  We are getting to that point with our Peeler Skiff and I was wondering if there were any reasons not to use the router?

Thanks

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