Join the discussion 8 Comments

  • Mark A says:

    Andy,

    Nice video. Thanks for posting it on Thanksgiving. Since I’m working and it made for a nice break. I will be interested to see how you get this all smoothed out and how it looks when finished. My [some day when I have time and $$] project boat — a Hatt 42 LRC has core problems up near the bow pulpit and I’m trying to decide whether to attack the issue from the top with gravity helping (like you are doing) or from the bottom (working against gravity). Happy Thanksgiving,

    Mark

  • Kurt R. Wlasak says:

    Andy,

    You mentioned in the video to keep the fins clean, which you ALWAYS say, clean clean clean.

    How do you keep them clean?

    And what about about between applications? If I am fiberglassing for the day, what steps do I use to ensure it wont clog on me????

    The 1974 Gamefisher is coming along. I have say using your tip and taking my time has made this project easier to work with. So every time and even in my notes I have written clean clean clean!

    Have a great day,

    Kurt

    • ~Andy says:

      Hey Kurt,

      Good to hear the project is moving along; Progress is always good! For cleaning the fin rollers I usually just soak the roller part in acetone between use (same day use) and at the end of the day I’ll take it apart and again wipe everything down with acetone. A soft wire brush works really well for getting the resin out of the fins..

      If you’re using a metal roller there is a small set screw on the end of the roller. Just back that out and the roller part will come off of the frame. Clean, clean clean 🙂 It always makes the next day easier to get rolling (no pun intended 🙂

      Let me know if you have any other Q’s!!

      ~Andy

  • Kurt R. Wlasak says:

    Andy,

    Thanks for taking the time to respond….

    One more thought…….Will the acetone in anyway effect my pre-laid work? In other words, If I am layering, should I use the brush technique of tapping to remove the bubbles, add a layer tap again then roll? Or should I just roll the part I am working on? And what size roller should I be using? I read somewhere, iboats I think. It mentioned a 1×3 roller……I was also thinking of getting a 1/4-1/2 corner roller too…..

    Any thoughts…

    Kurt

    • ~Andy says:

      The acetone will evaporate within seconds off the roller… Pull it out of the acetone bucket, give it a little flick, test to make sure the roller actually rolls smoothly and put it to work 🙂

      I’ve found it best to first lay down a wet layer of resin with a 3/8″ nap roller, apply the glass (already cut to shape), roll on the rest of the resin needed to wet out the fabric then go over that with the fin roller to remove any air. After that’s good then repeat the process with the rest of the material.

      Unless you’re doing some specialty rolling (lots of small detailed profiles or curves) the standard roller like this one will do 95% of your work. Specifically the Quick change rollers and the standard economy rollers. http://expresscomposites.com/ROLLERS.html

      Personally I prefer the 3/4″ x 6″ aluminum models..

  • Derf says:

    If you were going to gelcoat instead of painting with Awlgrip, would you have used fiberglass resin instead of epoxy? Also, I always heard that fiberglass matting and epoxy don’t work well together. BTW, great videos, keep them coming..

    • ~Andy says:

      Hey Derf,

      If I were going to be finishing with gelcoat, then I would have used polyester resin for all of the glass repairs. As far as using epoxy with CSM; you are correct that they don’t really work. I’ve done it for very small repairs where all I needed was some minor re-enforcement, but I’d choose another option for a ‘structural’ repair 🙂 They do make epoxy compatible CSM, but it’s a specific type of glass that I have never used. Truth be told, I prefer using either poly or vinyl resin for glass work as it sets up faster.

Leave a Reply to Kurt R. Wlasak Cancel Reply