Peel ply....

[Charly]

Good luck Yellowjacket!

hope you are able to post some pics

[skyking1]

Originally Posted by PAR

Most pros don't use peel ply, but instead nylon or polyester fabrics, typically "rip stop". It can be had "virgin" which solves the "finishing" contaminates that can be found on these fabrics, if you don't want to learn this the hard way.

I use the heavy film trick mentioned on the previous page. Mylar and polyester sheet goods. I get it on a roll from 10 to 30 mils and it's a fairing dream, especially with bright finishes. It leaves no tooth and doesn't breath like fabrics do, no contaminates, no bugs. Of course these heavy materials need to be diagonally arranged on round bilge boats, but plywood boats you can go with the planking flow. Most use peel ply thinking it'll save them a bunch of time, but their shop conditions require that the surface must be cleaned and sanded anyway, in spite of the peel ply. Ridges left by butt joints on the rigid plastics (diagonal stripped round bilge projects) are easily knocked off with a scraper or DA. If your shop is clean and environmentally controlled, then peel ply is a time saver, other wise, not so much.

Par, I have not found the 10 mil stuff on a roll, could you give me a product name to search for? 10 mil sounds perfect.
I will be trying this out on my next layup.

[Pylasteki]

Does the mylar/polyester sheet work on thicker cloths like 12 and 17 ounce biax, or is it only good for 6 and 10 ounce woven cloth?

Thanks

[Yellowjacket]

If you are using in on final layers of anything it will be better than not using it. The heavier the cloth, the more it tends to "stand up" when wetted out. the plastic seems to result in a more "compressed" layup that uses less resin.

On heavy intermediate layers I don't know if it is better or not, I haven't used it for that.

[rwatson]

yes - thats right.

basically, it will 'flatten' any size weave, but with the thicker weaves you are going to have a lot more resin used just to level out the surface.

Unless you need a flat mirror finish, peeply produces a less resin heavy finish, but not as flat or shiny.

Also, if your Mylar has been wrinkled, putting a heavy flat object over it will reduce the sanding needed, caused by the resin standing up under he wrinkles.

I wonder if you can successfully iron out wrinkles in Mylar like peelply?