Easiest Way to Lay Up This Glass as One Person?

[CatBuilder]

I have arrived at a tricky spot. Glassing the bilge area.

I already have a roll of glass from bow to stern on the topsides and now I'm preparing to glass in the rest of the hull to the keel.

As you can see in the picture, I have the glass already in place - dry.



I would like to work my way along somehow, coating the foam under the glass ahead of me, wetting things out, squeegeeing things out and putting on peel ply behind me.

Last time, I rolled up the piece on a stick, which worked out well.

This time, if you put it on a roll, it will pull up what you were already working on since the area is not even close to flat... the curve make the roll up impossible.

So how does one guy do this one? Any ideas?

[Landlubber]

One guy does it by hiring another.....it would be money well spent.

I can only do just over a two metre section at a time, buggered if I would try to do that job on my own.

[CatBuilder]

Well, I did the one just to the left of it myself in about 4 hours.

I'm not keen on hiring people. I'd like to find out how to do this myself. Quality control, you know!

Still, even if I did hire a guy, what would be the best way to do this?

How do you handle the advancing edge? It's thick 34oz (1150g) triaxial. I was thinking of folding it back over the clamps, then folding sections down as I go, but I'm not sure I could get it right doing that. Can't envision the process well.

[CatBuilder]

Hoping to do this lamination in the AM.

Anyone have experience doing this type of thing?

[PAR]

Large lamination projects are not the best thing for a solo adventure. Hire someone with some 'glassing experience or you'll spend most of the time yelling and going back over his efforts.

[Landlubber]

Of course you will need experienced people, i have done about 25 so far, but never alone for such a large amount of cloth. Way too expensive to take any risks on your own I reckon, but it certainly could be done, but why.

[waikikin]

Catbuilder, probably the easiest way to do that length solo- "if" you have the width of fabric to spare for an extra lap is to slit it & do 2 x 620mm strips- less leaning & maybe less puckered fiber in the turn of the bilge, its gunna cost a little extra resin for the lap but not much. Also, by the way, the less you "handle" triax & double bias fabric the better, try look after it- on your cut ends run some 2" masking tape to hold the ends sweet & if slitting or transfering to some pvc storm pipe or similar, get it cut & rolled flat & neat on the table as you go. When projecting the run of fabric on the job dont use the cloth your gunna laminate with- use some builders film or such to represent the cloth width to see how it wants to sit- triax & quad dont like to be "edge set" very much, if you do it upsets the bias & longti fiber especially & can pucker or wrunkle the cloth esp on inside curves/compound. Regards from Jeff.

[CatBuilder]

Thanks, waikikn.

Guys, see the same lamination width to the left of the one I am asking about? I did that by myself yesterday and it wasn't a big deal. Im asking for practical advice on how to do the same thing on a curved surface and all I see is to hire people??
I just did this quite easily by myself.

Do you guys have any practical advice from lay up experience or no?

[CatBuilder]

And,even if I did hire a guy, there is only 1 post here with advice on how to do this lamination.

[waikikin]

Hi Catbuilder, I could send you my resume` of 30 odd years but it reads real wanky, some how working on some random stockbrokers superyacht becomes "vessel repair management to asset value 10M" etc. Having good hands on a job really helps, but having read your posts your circumstance won't support a build team obviously, as you've mentioned the layup you've done wasn't that hard, it's hard work at times as you gotta keep moving, I can't speak for others but in the past have laid up 300gm chop + 600gm biax to 13meters long solo inside a couple of hours one up- there is risk but only to yourself- thats your right. Your preparation & having everything to hand + spare rollers/scissors/buckets/scales etc etc will be the key to success. All the best from Jeff.

[rwatson]

What about putting a bunch of sticks from the keel line to to laid bit,the length of the hull thus keeping the cloth off the foam until you can coat the foam. Once you have done a meter of foam, pull one or two sticks out, to drop the cloth on, wet it out, and pop the peel ply on. Primitive sketch attached.

you will need to lift the sticks a bit higher where you are covering the foam, may even be worth putting a saw horse or boxes on either end of the sticks - or making a clothsline arrangement to keep the sticks higher.

Something like that perhaps ..... ??

[michael pierzga]

Just passing by to say nice work area that you have assembled. Looks good. Since you will be working undercover for some time, you should consider protecting the top of your tent with a UV shield. The sun will burn the top fast. Locally they use that cheap green plastic screen type material that you see at construction sites and simply lay it over the top and tie down. .

Ive never worked with such large lamination's, so I cant pass on any experience. I seem to remember Rxcompsit passing on worthwhile tips. Keep up the good work

[waikikin]

Originally Posted by CatBuilder

Well, I did the one just to the left of it myself in about 4 hours.

I'm not keen on hiring people. I'd like to find out how to do this myself. Quality control, you know!

Still, even if I did hire a guy, what would be the best way to do this?

How do you handle the advancing edge? It's thick 34oz (1150g) triaxial. I was thinking of folding it back over the clamps, then folding sections down as I go, but I'm not sure I could get it right doing that. Can't envision the process well.

Catbuilder, you might want to do a small test piece off the job to see if that triax will wet through from the top nice, use small fresh batches & sqeegee thru but dont move the sqidge too quick, that can make the resin a bit "foamy/smallbubbles" as you cross the run of fiber bundles. & dont advance too quick- you gotta "see" though the fabric to the foam for it to be right.

[War Whoop]

Rolling the glass back up will not work with that radius, in the tunnels of my big cats, I fold the laminate into a 48" long bundle,Backwet and flip the thing over ,then again.

[CatBuilder]

Folding! Smart idea, War Whoop. I will try that next time.

That's really cool about the idea to fold, back wet, slap it down, wet out, move along... really smart thinking. Thanks.

And those who said it couldn't be done... thank you. I'm going to assume you were using reverse psychology to get me to move faster. It worked! It took 4 hours again this time. Physically, I was very tired though by the end. Very VERY tired.

It was difficult to keep myself in position because due to epoxy run off, I was slipping down the hull. I had to hold myself with one arm and squeegee with the other. Really difficult, physically.

Only problem? I couldn't get the peel ply to stick to the vertical surface, so I went without. My laminate didn't have enough surface resin for the peel ply to stick well to it. Oh well. At least I know it's not over saturated with resin. I will just do a quick scuff up where I need to attach the bulkheads.

Mr rwatson: I tried your sticks method this morning. It almost worked, but the 2" lap kept coming out of alignment if I used the sticks. I ended up rolling the fabric up on a stick like I did for the last bunch and it worked well enough. Just a few small wrinkles to smooth out.

Here is the result of today's work: