08-27-2007, 07:03 AM
For those of you about to glass...we salute you! (a little rip-off of AC/DC song). Anyway, I glassed the entire bottom of my weekender including the hull sides and transom this weekend. I thought I would pass along some thoughts to the next guy undergoing this task.
First, you should consider a second pair of hands to help. It became apparent that it was easiest to have one person rolling the expoxy on while the other used a squeegee (spelling?). If you plan on only doing a small section (5' wide or so), you can probably do it single handed easily.
Make sure you have a plastic squeegee...it is a lifesaver. Clean it between sections with a widget after it starts curing on the squeege.
Make sure you have extra foam rollers (if that is your method of applying). Use chip brushes (not foam brushes) to help get the epoxy in corners (keel/hull joint).
You need multiple mixing pots as you will only be able to do a little epoxy at a time before it cures on you, thus to keep moving, you will need more containers.
I highly recommend using the measured mixing pots to measure out the hardner and resin then dump into a mixing pot of your own. I kept the measuring mixing pot for the resin with the resin container and the hardner one with the hardner container so I could keep using them.
You will obviously need a paint stirring stick and TONS of latex gloves (I went through an entire box of 25 gloves).
You also need a razor blade to make cuts....some last minute cuts as well. I wouldn't use a carpenter knife, use a widget or something that holds a thinner blade. Make sure you also have scissors nearby.
If you use a roller, use a tray liner (have many spares) and make sure you pull the foam of the roller immediately after use or it will never come off. Be prepared to throw any of your stuff away that comes into contact with the epoxy (widget, chip brush, possibly the roller, etc.). Don't ball up rags or paper towell etc. with epoxy on it into a nearby trash, it will burn.
I now am the proud owner of the worlds biggest paper weight! I screwed up and mixed the equivelant of a gallon of epoxy and it set immediately. I found that you could only mix a batch of epoxy the size of a medium sized butter container (I think it was 600 ml...can't remember the units of measurements on the mixing pots..but 200 ml hardner and 400 ml resin). Otherwise you will not be able to keep up with curing. I was able to use the foam roller through two of these batches then I had to replace it (kept checking epoxy wasn't curing on roller).
I poured the epoxy on, rolled it, sqeegeed, then rerolled it immediately. I had problems with the cloth pulling away from the keel/hull joint. It took me 6 hours to do the entire bottom, bow, sides, and transom...and that is with a friend who (thank god) showed up a bit after I started. Personally, I plan on only doing a 5' section (length of cloth roll) on the topside at a time...that I can single hand okay.
Hopefully the above helps someone else. I found that it is all in the prep work as you will very quickly figure out best way of rolling, sqeegeeing, etc. as you go. Be prepared to make some last minute cuts, overlap wettled cloth, etc... a lot of curves etc.
First, you should consider a second pair of hands to help. It became apparent that it was easiest to have one person rolling the expoxy on while the other used a squeegee (spelling?). If you plan on only doing a small section (5' wide or so), you can probably do it single handed easily.
Make sure you have a plastic squeegee...it is a lifesaver. Clean it between sections with a widget after it starts curing on the squeege.
Make sure you have extra foam rollers (if that is your method of applying). Use chip brushes (not foam brushes) to help get the epoxy in corners (keel/hull joint).
You need multiple mixing pots as you will only be able to do a little epoxy at a time before it cures on you, thus to keep moving, you will need more containers.
I highly recommend using the measured mixing pots to measure out the hardner and resin then dump into a mixing pot of your own. I kept the measuring mixing pot for the resin with the resin container and the hardner one with the hardner container so I could keep using them.
You will obviously need a paint stirring stick and TONS of latex gloves (I went through an entire box of 25 gloves).
You also need a razor blade to make cuts....some last minute cuts as well. I wouldn't use a carpenter knife, use a widget or something that holds a thinner blade. Make sure you also have scissors nearby.
If you use a roller, use a tray liner (have many spares) and make sure you pull the foam of the roller immediately after use or it will never come off. Be prepared to throw any of your stuff away that comes into contact with the epoxy (widget, chip brush, possibly the roller, etc.). Don't ball up rags or paper towell etc. with epoxy on it into a nearby trash, it will burn.
I now am the proud owner of the worlds biggest paper weight! I screwed up and mixed the equivelant of a gallon of epoxy and it set immediately. I found that you could only mix a batch of epoxy the size of a medium sized butter container (I think it was 600 ml...can't remember the units of measurements on the mixing pots..but 200 ml hardner and 400 ml resin). Otherwise you will not be able to keep up with curing. I was able to use the foam roller through two of these batches then I had to replace it (kept checking epoxy wasn't curing on roller).
I poured the epoxy on, rolled it, sqeegeed, then rerolled it immediately. I had problems with the cloth pulling away from the keel/hull joint. It took me 6 hours to do the entire bottom, bow, sides, and transom...and that is with a friend who (thank god) showed up a bit after I started. Personally, I plan on only doing a 5' section (length of cloth roll) on the topside at a time...that I can single hand okay.
Hopefully the above helps someone else. I found that it is all in the prep work as you will very quickly figure out best way of rolling, sqeegeeing, etc. as you go. Be prepared to make some last minute cuts, overlap wettled cloth, etc... a lot of curves etc.