Passagemaker Forgot the celloFill!

Well, I was very proud of myself for easily my puzzle joints fit together when I tried to figure out why it looked so much neater than my Ch-17 when I realized that I forgot to add the Cell-o-Fill into the goop.  Just finished a couple of hours ago so it should be possible to take the joint apart.  I assume that is what I should do?  And then resend the puzzle pieces and start over?

bruce

 


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RE: Passagemaker Forgot the celloFill!

The only reason for the thickener material is to keep the epoxy from running out and starving the joint. If the joint is tight enough for the epoxy not to run out, it's actually fine with unthickened epoxy, provided the ends were painted with epoxy first until they stopped absorbing any more.

That's a couple of big ifs that can only be determined by physically inspecting the joints. Since this is at least your second build, can you tell if the joints are properly bonded? You'd need to look for consistent and even contact, no signs of epoxy dripping out and no hollows over the joints that indicate that the epoxy flowed out, as well as remembering if you'd painted the ends before actually joining them.

Two things in your favor are that CNC cut puzzle joints, if properly aligned, are very tight and that the Eastport Pram has very gentle curves which won't strain the joints. If everything went well, you can just leave them as is.

If you can't tell or are nervous about it, you can fix it without having to separate the joints. Just glass the joints on each side. Use at least 4 oz cloth, 6 would be better, and run it 3 inches on either side of the joint. Once it's fully cured you can sand the edges to feather in and fair the patches. That will give you all the reinforcement you'll ever need to hold everything together. It's a lot easier than separating and re-gluing and if done correctly will be invisible even under a bright finish.

Good lusk,

Laszlo

RE: Passagemaker Forgot the celloFill!

I agree with Lazlo's comments.  I will add that on the newer kayak designs from CLC, you do not even epoxy puzzle joints together.  You assemble them with CA and the joint gets all the epoxy it needs when the joint is covered with epoxy/glass.  Picture below is the deck of my Petrel Play held together with CA.  The seams will get fillets but not the puzzle joints. 

My advice is to keep building but make sure you are liberal with epoxy when covering the puzzle joints.

 

RE: Passagemaker Forgot the celloFill!

Thanks to yo both.

  Since it had only been two or three hurs when I realized my error and I didnt want to wait for replies last night while the epoxy continued to cure I decided to take pieces apart.   Some firm but gentle pressing and pushing accomplished that.  I remixed with the CellOFill this time, reapplied mix and put it all back together.  My only concern is whether in doing what I did I interferred with the bonding process on the redo.   The good news - or better news, anyway, is that all this happened to the starboard side only.  Hopefully I can stay concentrated long enough to do the port side properly  

Bruce

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