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S10n #993 Progress and Question


mjshp

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Progess!

So the breasthook is in, gunwales are on and the quarter knees are secure. I have tacked togeter the panels between the wires! On to the next step of filet and tape.

So last night I was laying everything out to fillet and tape the aft starboard chine, and doing some basic prep of the tack "welds"--pulling the wires and knocking down a few big bumps left over--to make the next step easier, and it occured to me, things would go much better if I could pull all the wires, prep all the seams and fillet, then tape the boat in one fell swoop.

The question is, given that I have a small fillet of epoxy between every wire, can I take out all the wires and prep all the seams, or should I leave the wires in as I work on one seam at a time? I have visions of the boat poping apart as I remove the wires--oh the crazy visions that come from having never done this before.

As always, thanks for the help and advice.

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I'd do 1 side at a time. The process can be time consuming. Pull all the wires on that side, watching the most highly stressed spots to make sure they don't let go. Clean up any remaining bumps. Cut your glass tape to length before you mix your epoxy. (Actually, you can cut the tape for both sides at the same time. Just make sure it doesn't get near the epoxy until you're ready to lay it in.) Then recoat where you'll be filleting w/ unthickened epoxy. Mix thickened epoxy and apply the fillet down the first side. Go back and clean up any excess. Now GENTLY apply another coat of UNTHICKENED epoxy over the fillet, smoothing as you go. Then lay the pre-cut tape along the filleted seam, spacing it evenly up the sides & on the bottom panel. Again, use your brush to GENTLY set the tape into the wet epoxy. The epoxy will soak into the tape, changing it from white to grey to clear. As it soaks in, you'll see the areas that need extra attention. Try hard not to disturb the fillet. If it wants to stay dry, add a little extra epoxy, but not to much. If its too wet, the tape will lift off the fillet. Not good. Watch for epoxy runs. Clean them up before the epoxy sets.

Once you're satisfied w/ one side, do the other.

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I made longer mini epoxy fillets to hold it together when the wires were removed. I remember thinking how firmly they held when the wires were out. I filled a zip lock plastic bag with thickened epoxy and cut a small hole in the corner to extrude epoxy into the join. I then made a mini fillet with a cut down tongue depressor with a small radius. To avoid any problems with sanding /secondary bonds I did this one night and the next morning removed the wires and filleted/taped over everything while the mini fillets and epoxied ply were still a little green.

post-425-0-52367600-1331674581_thumb.jpg

With respect to taping over fillets I prefer to pre wet the tapes on a bench...it seems easier that wetting out the tape on the epoxy fillet.

Cheers

Peter HK

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I made no tacks at all. I just left the wires in and did the filets and taping as one process using primary bonds of everything and no sanding until it was all done. I removed the wires with heat just before rounding over the outside corners. Removing the wires is not that hard to do and this saved a lot of work dealing with cured epoxy and prepping for secondary bonds.

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