Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
By:Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K
Date: 5/30/2016, 10:19 am
In Response To: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam *PIC* (Fred Brown)

Fiberglass does not conform well to sharp concave or convex angle changes. And epoxy has no tack strength to hold glass in place in these areas.

So, to get glass to conform to an edge, round the edge as much as possible. Wide strips of glass will conform better to sharp edges than narrow strips.

Bias cut fiberglass strips are great for stem edges. For the long exterior hull/deck joint bias cut strips will give you many short pieces which will stretch and distort and be difficult to control and wet-out.

I use 5" wide straight cut strips cut from 60" wide glass. Mask off 1-1/2" on either side of the joint with 2" tape. Use weights to loosely hold the first seam strip on the deck in the middle of the hull/deck. Wet-out the deck surface first from the center to the ends, then do the hull the same way. Leave the last 2" of each end dry, cut straight with scissors and wet flat. Use a squeegee to remove excess resin and press the glass in place. Do the same with the rest of the seam strips, mating the cut ends of each new strip to the old.

To have a transparent seam you must wet-out the glass as I recommend for hull/deck glassing. See - http://www.laughingloon.com/epoxy.html

I used to just wet-out my exterior seam tape with a medium hardener and not pay attention to temperature. And I'd end up with a glass seam I could see, and was not totally transparent.

When the glass reaches a leather hard stage trim the tape/glass edge with a utility knife with a NEW blade, lifting the tape/glass up into blade so you are lightly pressing down and not scoring the underlaying glass.

Messages In This Thread

Strip: Fiberglassing the seam *PIC*
Fred Brown -- 5/29/2016, 6:02 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Rod Tait -- 5/29/2016, 9:07 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Fred Brown -- 5/29/2016, 10:07 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/29/2016, 11:10 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Fred Brown -- 5/30/2016, 6:46 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam - bias cut is al
Ian Johnson -- 6/1/2016, 7:46 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam - bias cut is al
Bill Hamm -- 6/2/2016, 12:49 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam - bias cut is al
ian johnson -- 6/2/2016, 6:22 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam - bias cut is al
Sam McFadden -- 6/2/2016, 8:23 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam - bias cut is al
Bill Hamm -- 6/3/2016, 7:37 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam - bias cut is al
Ian johnson -- 6/5/2016, 5:46 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Brian Nystrom -- 5/30/2016, 4:02 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/30/2016, 4:32 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Marc Donnelly -- 5/29/2016, 10:18 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Craig -- 5/30/2016, 6:06 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Fred Brown -- 5/30/2016, 6:51 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Bill Hamm -- 5/31/2016, 12:46 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/30/2016, 10:19 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/30/2016, 11:43 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/30/2016, 12:07 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/30/2016, 12:17 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/30/2016, 1:45 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/30/2016, 2:09 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/30/2016, 2:16 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/30/2016, 2:27 pm
Failure modes
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/30/2016, 4:04 pm
Re: Failure modes
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/30/2016, 5:08 pm
Re: Failure modes
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/30/2016, 7:27 pm
Re: Failure modes *PIC*
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/30/2016, 9:16 pm
Re: Failure modes
Bill Hamm -- 5/31/2016, 12:54 am
Re: Failure modes
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/31/2016, 11:07 am
Re: Failure modes
Marc Upchurch -- 5/31/2016, 12:14 pm
West System failure tests for strips
Mike Bielski -- 5/31/2016, 11:35 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Sam McFadden -- 5/31/2016, 2:06 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Marc Upchurch -- 5/31/2016, 3:38 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/31/2016, 4:26 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Sam McFadden -- 5/31/2016, 5:01 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Bill Hamm -- 6/1/2016, 12:42 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Bill Hamm -- 5/31/2016, 12:50 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Fred Brown -- 5/30/2016, 11:59 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Fred Brown -- 5/30/2016, 7:35 pm
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam *PIC*
Etienne Muller -- 5/31/2016, 3:18 am
Re: Strip: Fiberglassing the seam
Bill Hamm -- 6/1/2016, 12:45 am