Thoughts and questions on my latest glassing.

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alick burt
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Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:41 am
Location: united kingdom
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Thoughts and questions on my latest glassing.

Post by alick burt »

I finished glassing the inside of my fourth canoe today and the process has gone ok but still leaves me with lots of questions about how I may make possible improvements in future.
1.When I did the wet out coat I stopped half way though to squeegy the area I had covered first.When I did this I noticed the earlier areas were dry enough that very little resin was left on top and the effect of the squeegy was almost lightly scratching (making a scratchy sound as i ran it lightly over the weave) rather than removing any surplus.Had I not put enough resin on these areas or had I left squeeging too late?Should I have just left the dry areas alone? :thinking Image
2.On other areas the squeegy glided better over the surface and did remove some resin but was I too early? :thinking
3.Once I had wet out the rest of the hull I went over it again with the sgueegy and still noticed some areas that were shiny whilst others were matt and dry looking.I tried to squeegy the shiny bits but it didn't seem to do much so I left it and waited one and a half hours(useing the cotton bud test) before beginning my fill coats.Should I have put more resin on earlier to the matt areas? :thinking Image
4.When I put on my fill coats the problem seemed to be getting it even.I used a brush on a 10 inch square at a time working it both ways finishing with the grain.I did this twice with again a one and a half hour wait between coats.I didn't get as many runs as I have had on previous hulls and I tipped it off with a dry brush at 7 last night but it still didn't cover the weave when I inspected it today.So would It have been better to leave it overnight at the earlier stage after the first fill coat? :thinking
5.I put another coat on it this morning (13 hours later) with a roller and then tipped it off with a brush and brushed on some more where it still looked a bit dry?would it have been better to let it cure fully rubbed it down and then done a final coat? :thinking Image
6.Have I just got to face the fact that my workshop is too cold.I have been working at the colder end of the allowable temperature for my resin (12C) and have been warming the resin in my boiler since my over fast curing experience! to around 85F Is this why It doesn't seem to spread evenly during the fill coat stage?or should i leave it longer between coats? :thinking
Any advice appreciated.
Many Thanks
Alick
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