Sunday morning... I love the morning light, even if I hate mornings.
Every thing's laid out and ready for a long day.
A VERY important step: protect the hull with sheets of plastic.
IAW the book "Advanced composite techniques" a slurry of 1:1 epoxy-micro balloons is mixed
And applied to the hull and the foam, then the foam is pressed into place. In retrospect, I made the horizontal pieces too long and should have tapered them into the hull more.I also wish I had known about vacuum bagging back then.
As planned some slurry expanded into the holes I poked. The brown is West Systems 405 fillet blend. It worked ok but after the first pass I stayed with plain microballoons.
Fillet strips are applied to the sides and center.
The main pieces are prepped by applying a layer of slurry, then sandwiching it inside 2 sheets of 3 mil plastic sheeting.
After which the excess slurry is pressed out.
****note******
Adding the reinforcing rails was another one of those times where I should not have believed everything I read on the web. DO NOT add them, they're in the way of the hull/frame mate and also totally unnecessary. I've left this entry in the blog for history, and to warn others not to repeat my mistakes.
The next day I tackled the screwup with the reinforcing rails.
And with a bunch of scrap foam I filled in the gap.
"You ok in there Steve? Just checking."
Using scrap cloth I laid up all 4 at once, but tried something different. This time after applying/squeezing out the slurry I cut them into pieces and stripped off one layer. Then I used the other side as an applique. Thanks again to "Advanced composite techniques" for the idea.
The next morning I drilled and dremeled out the bilge drain holes.
Since I had the resin out I also drilled and filled the mounts for the rudder pedal springs.
More prep: the part of the cockpit that won't get carpet gets painted with Brightsides Hatteras off-white.
And prepping a place for the bilge pump mount plate to screw into.I'll smooth it out tomorrow.
Every thing's laid out and ready for a long day.
A VERY important step: protect the hull with sheets of plastic.
IAW the book "Advanced composite techniques" a slurry of 1:1 epoxy-micro balloons is mixed
And applied to the hull and the foam, then the foam is pressed into place. In retrospect, I made the horizontal pieces too long and should have tapered them into the hull more.I also wish I had known about vacuum bagging back then.
As planned some slurry expanded into the holes I poked. The brown is West Systems 405 fillet blend. It worked ok but after the first pass I stayed with plain microballoons.
Fillet strips are applied to the sides and center.
The main pieces are prepped by applying a layer of slurry, then sandwiching it inside 2 sheets of 3 mil plastic sheeting.
After which the excess slurry is pressed out.
****note******
Adding the reinforcing rails was another one of those times where I should not have believed everything I read on the web. DO NOT add them, they're in the way of the hull/frame mate and also totally unnecessary. I've left this entry in the blog for history, and to warn others not to repeat my mistakes.
The next day I tackled the screwup with the reinforcing rails.
When I started on the bottom the extent of the poor glasswork became obvious. I decided to just take all the edge glass off.
And with a bunch of scrap foam I filled in the gap.
"You ok in there Steve? Just checking."
Using scrap cloth I laid up all 4 at once, but tried something different. This time after applying/squeezing out the slurry I cut them into pieces and stripped off one layer. Then I used the other side as an applique. Thanks again to "Advanced composite techniques" for the idea.
The next morning I drilled and dremeled out the bilge drain holes.
Then applied a layer of resin to waterproof them.
Since I had the resin out I also drilled and filled the mounts for the rudder pedal springs.
I think summer is over...
More prep: the part of the cockpit that won't get carpet gets painted with Brightsides Hatteras off-white.
And prepping a place for the bilge pump mount plate to screw into.I'll smooth it out tomorrow.
