What's the Strongest Filler to Fair Decks?

Discussion in 'Fiberglass and Composite Boat Building' started by robali, Sep 29, 2010.

  1. War Whoop
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    War Whoop Senior Member

    Adtech is a good choice for a store bought system, shop made fairing putties I use 3-M Glass Bubbles as the base filler as usually there are severe weight targets and constraints in my one off projects,plus this material sands easy and the base Resin system blended back into the putty for added safety.
     
  2. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Many shops will employ premixes because it's faster, which is their bottom line (literally). It's also important, especially if your labor force isn't highly skilled, to have uniform mixes, which a premix will provide. Premixes charge several more times the value of their filler materials, just for the convenience of the premixed product.

    In Robali's case (the original poster) if it's a one off, then mix up your own from what you got. In Wardd's case the same is true. You'll save some bucks buying and mixing your own raw materials. If you're in a production situation, you might be able to justify the cost, with the speed you can get from a premix. In these situations, saving 5 minutes mixing time can mean something, but to a one off builder, not so much. In other words, saving 5 minutes every time you mix up a batch, across several gallons of filler, in a production setting is substantial, but not in someone's garage.
     
  3. War Whoop
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    War Whoop Senior Member

    My problem is the weight of store bought material(I build One offs),plus like I mentioned it is nice to have the "same" chemical backbone in this as the work, for batch to batch consistently if someone can't maintain proper batch ratios they should quit the business.
    I even had the 3-M Flown in when I was overseas and My shop was 65000 square feet with a 42 man crew hardly a garage.

    The material by my recipe spreads perfect, sands easy and stays "ON" ,well good enough to win a couple world titles and 4 national titles on the offshore cats.
     
  4. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    My mixtures are fairly precise too, but a lot of folks don't think about things like weight or filler consistency or viscosity to suit ambient conditions, etc.
     
  5. War Whoop
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    War Whoop Senior Member

    We all mix materials everyday,it is a basic part of the business, with us to guarantee performance, the weight had to be controlled especially on large one off race boats.
     
  6. GG
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    GG offshore artie

    Steve 1 whats up?
     
  7. War Whoop
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    War Whoop Senior Member

    Artie how are you? I am ok.
     
  8. GG
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    GG offshore artie

    Par , i hate to say this but you being in the Yacht end of the business ...why would weight really matter considering how much mud is spread on a 80 ft plus yacht welded hull and deck ? Par ,the reason being is when i worked at Skater Broward was just down the road and talk about spreading some mud and the length of the long boards to boot .
     
  9. GG
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    GG offshore artie

    Steve glad to hear that and i kinda figured that was you .Steve have you noticed that Tunnels drops in here time after time and gets kicked to the curb every once and a while ....or should i say thrown under the bus and have a great sunday .....Take Care .
     
  10. PAR
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    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    G. G. I would say that filler weight wouldn't matter much, on "a 80' welded hull and deck".
     
  11. Herman
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    Herman Senior Member

    The stuff I sell (Sicomin) comes in pre-weighted containers of resin, hardener and powder. Cheaper than premix, and still easy to do, if you can train your people to empty every container into a bucket and mix...

    About weight: For some projects this is interesting, for others relatively irrelevant. I have seen them spreading impressive amounts of fairing bog onto 40 meter (120 ft) boats, in thicknesses that would give me a headache.
     
  12. mydauphin
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    Large beautiful yachts use a lot of fairing compounds to cover welds, some of it lighter than water and actually adds to buoyancy.
     
  13. Herman
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    Herman Senior Member

    Lighter than water: yes. But most of it is above the waterline...
     
  14. mydauphin
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    True, My boat has something that looks like a yellow hard foam that looks like it was sprayed on. Then another layer of harder fairing material. It is very interesting when I drill a thru hull to see the layers. It is like 1/4 inch aluminum and 1/4 or more fairing. I know one area that is about 1 inch fairing. Multiply that by a 70 foot boat, 15 feet high, and that is a lot of fairing.
     

  15. robali
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    robali Junior Member

    Thanks for all the good advice. Being in a country with big import duties we are only able to use our own mixtures from basic raw matierials... aerosil, talc, Q-cell, milled fibers. We cant afford to import the pre-made specialty products.

    Any advise for Professional long lasting results for fairing topside/below the waterline using these same raw materials with epoxy? Either over glassed strip planking or Corecell.
     
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