Hi all. Finally my first build after a lot of keyboard jockeying. Used some strange techniques as a trial more than anything else. Lots of questions and comments that some might find useful...
Wood laminate:
I thought I would use wood laminate because fibreglass was taking a long time to arrive… but it needs a vacuum really. I found since any bump shows up a lot more. I’m now trying to sand it off but it’s very very difficult! Is sanding always this slow? Any quicker way? bigger grit I suppose
Thicker epoxy surprise:
New pot of epoxy is much thicker stuff. Will warm it next time because on the rail it just runs off and doesn’t soak in… had to massage it into the fibre. It’s the consistency of between peanut butter and maple syrup. Don’t really want to wait for xylene to arrive.
Clingfilm:
I used clingfilm to smooth the rail bands down. But even cling film is being very difficult to sand off. Moved onto shrink-wrap wrapping film now which I hope won’t be much harder. I guess best to use a ziplock bag under the shrink wrap and veggie oil / vaseline the release side to make a smoother finish?
Vacuum:
Getting materials for a vacuum bag system is slow…. the pump can only run at full pressure for 3 mins… I believe the seal after that point won’t be good enough no matter what we do…? It’s a strong pump that will do the max possible… it just doesn’t run for long apparently. Can I use it? If so I’ll search for plastic sheeting from a bedding company.
Rail bands:
The epoxy is more like a putty and I on the rails I needed to massage into the kevlar. Here’s a tip - massage with the weave. The kevlar weave is quite thick. I wasn’t able to get it to wrap about the nose and tail as I was hoping. Bit of drama there… how can it be done? Need a lighter fibre and cut move lines I suppose…? If I was to do the rails in sections would that be weaken gin the board? Tip - can shrink them in stages.
XPS:
Needs to be punctured and then saturated before fibre. I didn’t saturate well enough I think.
Also used nylon mesh which seems strong idea.
Overall…
Perhaps better to start again… is it a lost cause…? I’m worried that even if I can correct all this… I’ll make more mistakes on the final coats since I haven’t had a practice yet. My plan was to use varnish on the wood laminate as final layer but that seems too difficult now. Perhaps I will still finish with standard varnish as so much easier to get a shiny finish than a hot coat. Could use Viynalester UV in the coats between now it’s sealed; didn’t like poly resin in tests as it cracked easy.