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Sanding into fiberglass weave


Scott H.

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I am building a Spindrift 10. I just finished reading some of the posts on sanding and fairing the edges of the taped seams and feel like I really screwed up. While in the process of sanding the tape edges I have cut into the fibers of the glass. In some spots a good amount of glass fibers were disrupted. I should have researched this process better and now am wondering how badly I have hurt the integrity of the joints. Does anyone have any ideas on how I might be able to improve my situation? I would hate to have to re tape the seams!! Will the infrastructure provide enough strength? Thanks, Scott

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How extensive is the "damage" compared to the total area of the tape? Glass tape always gets a fat edge when you put resin on it, sort of a reverse taper. You *need* to sand that off to get anything like fair. I suppose the tape would be stronger with the fat edge left on, but it would be uglier than week-old sin. Also the fibers at the fat edge tend to cut your hands.

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The maximum strength is needed down the center of each seam. the glass can be tapered out near the edges with no loss of strength.

Because of the weave constrution you only need to sand half way through the cloth to totally destroy its strength at that place.

When I am fairing my seams I taper the outside half inch and never touch the center of the seam with sand paper.

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It would be helpful to know just which 40% of the tape you are referring to. If you are just referring to the edges of the tape, all is probably well. If you actually sanded on the seam of the plywood joint, then that is another story as Graham said. The glass at the center of the the tape seam should never be touched with sandpaper. That destroys all integrity of the joint. Only fair that part of the tape after it is completely submerged in epoxy or fairing compound. These tape seam joints are much more robust than most think and a failure is rare but you have to leave the glass fibers in the seam area unmolested.

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I use heavy duty plastic wrap or plastic sheeting say from Home Depot and lay that over the wetted tape..Also peel ply( or dacron from a fabric shop) which is best. Brush this on to the wetted glass tape and it fairs it out nicely.

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