Prep for glass works

Once again, it's time to glass the inside of a float half, this being the third half.  We prepped the foam core by trimming the edges, grating off all glue overflow from the seams, patching all screw holes and any other imperfections with epoxy putty, and sanding the entire surface.  It is very fair, no doubt thanks to Catherine's skilled effort.  We also marked the surface with the placement of the stiffener and the trim pattern of the stern.

Then we were ready to cut all of the glass fabric to size.  Here you can see all of the pieces of glass neatly laid out on the workbench. I mark the pieces with sticky notes to help avoid confusion when we are trying to race the epoxy kick time.  On the first hull half I marked the pieces with a marker, but the ink bleeds in the epoxy and makes a mess.  Sticky notes help keep things neat (assuming I remember to take them off before applying epoxy).  I write out the order that we apply each piece of glass to allow sections to start to cure before applying additional reinforcing, and to keep track of what layer goes on top of the others.  The result is a neat and shimmery glass job with minimal curses.  You can also see my respirator mask for mixing microballoons.  Definitely a requirement for working with microscopic glass balloons that tend to spontaneously evaporate like a cup of dry ice.

Here's a picture of Catherine explaining how the halves will be combined in to a whole float hull.  Either that or she saw a cool bug walking around up there ...

Dawna had to help a friend, so I only had her expert help for the first half of the glass work today (the nice half you see here).  I did alright though, after carefully studying her technique, not that I'm going to show you.  Trust me, my part looks almost as good as her half.

Actually, it all turned out very nice, though my epoxy decided to kick half way through the fifth section, which required some quick mixing and extra effort working in the new batch.