The new forum is nice!
TL;DR
SW Dory - I’ve never put down fiber glass cloth before, so I am unsure if it will lay nicely where the cloth meets the structural fillets on the frames, or if I’ve made a mistake by letting the structural fillets around the frames cure prior to putting the glass down.
I added the structural fillets to the transom, stem, and the frames, leaving the joint between the floor and #1 planks un-filleted until the fiber glass cloth is ready to go down as per the manual. But now that I am getting ready to lay out the fiber glass, I feel like I should not have filleted the frames where they meet the #1 planks either. It would have been better to set the glass into those uncured fillets just as with the floor joint. I went back through the manual, and though it doesn’t explicitly detail filleting all of the frames at the structural fillet stage, there are photos of the the #1 plank joints being filleted at the #3 frame, all the way up the transom and #1 planks, and down the stem. It seems that since I have filleted those joints already, getting the fiber glass to lie flat will be a big challenge. I did make those fillets nice and even as well as clean up any gobs or overruns, but they are only as smooth as the filleting tool made them. Of course I can sand (and sand and sand…) but it seems it could have been avoided. Have I read this right? I don’t want to find out I have a problem after I’ve started wetting out the cloth.
Well, I have concluded that I did it by the book, but that there are differing opinions and other options. I have read where some people put the fiber glass down while all of the fillets are uncured, others cure all but the floor to 1st plank joint before putting the fiberglass down. The fillets I added already were easily sanded smooth, so no big deal. I anticipated it being more difficult, but I’ll pat myself on the back for making them nice and clean in the first place.
The next steps did not go so well… I made the fillet at the floor panel much too big, and hadn’t cut the glass cloth very well at the transom. I ended up aborting and tearing it out because it would have been a nightmare to fix if I’d allowed it to cure as it was. Luckily I chose to do one section at a time, and that was one of the small sections. I’ll regroup and recover having only wasted some time and materials. Maybe by the time I finish the boat, I’ll know what I’m doing.
Building boats and working with fiberglass is a learning process. No one gets it right the first time. When I was young my father (who was a research chemist) brought home various epoxy resins to test. It took me a long time to understand that excess hardener is never a good idea
I don’t like having to humble myself on this forum, but I cannot get the fiberglass into my boat to save my life. I’m going to spend some time reading and watching everything I can before I continue wasting materials, but if anybody knows the secret fiberglass handshake, please share it with me.
I did finally fiberglass the cockpit. I thought it was going well, then the wrinkles and bubbles started to appear. The worst spots are on the transition between floor and first plank. I started out with the cloth nicely set in that fillet, but as I worked the epoxy around I must have stretched the weave away from that seam and the cloth lifted slightly. I worked it back in shape with the roller as best I could, but eventually it wasn’t getting any better. I guess I have hours of repair to look forward to.
I think I got a feel for how to work with the materials at least. I’m going to try to not let it put me off of boat building, but fiberglass has to be the least enjoyable aspect thus far. Hats off to anyone who does it well.
After curing overnight, It seems things are not as bad as I thought. I can’t find any actual bubbles. What I feared may turn into bubbles are spots where the weave is not as saturated, but as far as I can tell it is still bonded with the fillet in those spots. A little waviness on the flat bottom in places, but no creases or deep wrinkles. I am somewhat relieved.