Laker for a first timer

[Oldsparkey]

If he would of gone over to the North East a little way he would of found himself inside a protective zone where the Florida Salt Water Crocodile lives , breeds and is protected. Actual chance of finding him self in Jail would be a better bet because it is a no trespassing area by the National Government.
It takes in the southern east tip of the Everglades National Park in the Florida Bay area ,Little Maderia Bay , Joe Bay and all the way to US.1 by Cross Key and Long Sound.

I'm sure there are some that can't read and venture out of the protective area , they have been seen as far north as the Titusville and Cocoa area so there is no reason why they would not go to Key west and the rest of the keys in between there.

Chuck.

[Bruce36549]

Hi Graham, your comments are well taken. I know from experience that if I work in a bent position for very long I pay for it for days afterward. In spite of that I still do foolish things that create problems for me.

Chuck, I got to see a couple of those crocs in the Everglades Nat'l Park last week. It has been a great trip, and wife and I enjoyed Flamingo campground in the Everglades most. Fantastic wildlife viewing and great paddling opportunities. Next time I will have my kayaks, although we did do a guided canoe paddle this time. The Everglades are a remarkable place and thankfully it is a protected area along with Big Cypress Preserve.

Bruce

[Bruce36549]

Got back home yesterday after a month long trip, and finished sanding the hull fillets. Also, I cut a section of the center seam in the floor and placed a wedge to spread the panels slightly as suggested by Mick to remove the "dip" in the seam. Worked GREAT -- slicker'n snot on a shirt sleeve. Looks much better now. As others suggested, the "dip" likely would not affect performance at all, but I'm using this as a learning experience and wanted to see how using the wedges would work. Tomorrow I'll fillet the areas where the wedges are and then some more sanding before a saturation coat. Moving along nicely. It's good to be back home and mixing epoxy again.

Bruce

[Bruce36549]

Finished sanding and put a saturation coat on this morning. Things are looking very nice. The centerline of the floor has a nice even fore to aft curve now -- no dips. The epoxy had set enough by this evening for me to lay the glass over the hull to see how it would look.



I'm entering new territory here, never having done any fiberglassing except what was necessary for the panel splices. The glass lays very nicely over the hull and it doesn't look like there will be any problem except at the ends. With all the excess fabric there I am assuming that it will be necessary to cut pieces out and overlap the edges. Are there any tips or techniques anyone can offer to deal with this?

Bruce

[jem]

Allow a couple hours to wet out the fiberglass. You likely won't need that long, but it's nice not to be rushed.

Measure out the resin and hardener in small batches. Mix as you go along and need more epoxy. Don't mix all at once.

Apply just enough epoxy to wet out the cloth. Applying with a foam roller works well for me. Let it cure, perform a very light sanding on the first coat, then apply further coats.

The first coat will take the longest to apply. It goes quicker after that.

[hairymick]

I would trim the excess cloth before starting to wet out. Leave a couple of inches overhang.

there is a lot of useful cloth there that can be used to glass the underside of the decks and by trimming it now, will make the management of the cloth during wet out easier.

[jem]

Oops. Yes definitely trim that cloth back!

[OnkaBob]

Hey Bruce looks like some good progress there.

I get the impression that you are not talking about trimming the edges but about the ability of the flat layer of glass cloth to conform to the 3D shape of the hull.

Now I know that my effort was a debacle and others here may be able to give better advice but I do have a couple of things to say.
First is that I believe it is possible to have the glass conform to the entire Laker hull without slitting. This pic from my log shows how well the glass conformed to the hull, especially at the ends.

Factors in achieving this are time, cloth orientation and smoothing. Leaving it to hang over the hull for a while seems to make it easier. Having the cloth slightly on the bias (ie fibre direction diagonal to the centreline) also seemed to help. Going over the hull several times gently patting and smoothing will gradually get the glass to stretch in the right places. I ended up with some "episiotomies" because of removing the cloth after this and expecting it to go back on the same way. Had it been left there it would have been better. Others with more experience may have a different opinion based on my pic (- any offers?).
Of course your glass looks a bit heavier than mine and this may make it more difficult - is yours 4oz?

Second, use a roller, although my preference now is for a short nap roller instead of the West foam roller which did not work for me but many people do recommend.

Hope it all goes well.

[jem]

If you slit the ends along the bow/stern stems, you should be able to "pet" the cloth to conform to all surfaces of the Laker. But BEFORE slitting, work the cloth so any folds or overlaps are in the bow/stern area. Then slit. The bow/stern stems will have some overlap, which is a good thing. It's easier to get standard weave to behave rather than tight weave. Chuck will attest to that.

Use clothespins to hold the cloth in place. When you start wetting out the glass and getting near a clothespin, just remove it and the cloth will stay in place.

[Bruce36549]

Good information there, thanks to all. I will re-orient the cloth on an angle to minimize waste, and maybe that will give less excess at the ends. As Matt said, having it overlap at the bow and stern isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something before I started cutting.

Well, out to the garage to see what kind of damage I can do.

Bruce