Hi Everyone,(and a happy new year to all accross the pond)
I am about halfway through striping my freedom hull, and my question is this:
The 1st strips from the sheer upwards fit together perfectly using cove and bead planks, but as i am progressing up the hull around the bilge section they are a good fit at each end, but as the curve turns in the centre of the hull, then the fit is not as good. I understand that as the bead and cove are at a curve in the middle of the hull there are small gaps appearing (not that you can see through the hull) between the pieces. W ill they dissapear when sanded or will the need filling, then sanding? If they will need filling what should i use to fill it with?
Regards
Steve
gap filling
gap filling
I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was !!
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Patricks Dad
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 pm
- Location: Warrenville, Illinois
You should work hard to minimize the gaps as you do the stripping. A non-gap is a lot easier to deal with than a gap. As you sand to fair the hull after stripping, gaps may appear that weren't obvious before. If the bead isn't seated well into the cove, you may not be able to see light through the gap due to the curvature of the bead/cove but as you sand away the edge of the cove, the gap will be more visible (possibly to the point of passing light from the other side). The best advice I have is do what it takes to minimize the creation of gaps in the first place, This includes checking and re-checking your strips as you lay them on. Use extra clamps on the difficult strips, and pre-bend/twist the strips to get them to behave.
Once you have rough sanded and have a few gaps, you can fill them with thickened epoxy (mixed with wood flour to match color - error on the side of darker) or you can use an "off the shelf" wood filler. For my first build, I used thickened epoxy and masked both sides of the gap to minimize epoxy soaking into the surrounding wood. I removed the masking tape after the epoxy had set but before it was solid. For my 2nd build, I used a tube of wood paste (I mixed a couple different colors to match the wood). This was much easier. The paste was ready to sand in less than an hour, matched the wood color very well and soaked up epoxy nicely when the glassing job was performed. I much prefer this approach.
Once you have rough sanded and have a few gaps, you can fill them with thickened epoxy (mixed with wood flour to match color - error on the side of darker) or you can use an "off the shelf" wood filler. For my first build, I used thickened epoxy and masked both sides of the gap to minimize epoxy soaking into the surrounding wood. I removed the masking tape after the epoxy had set but before it was solid. For my 2nd build, I used a tube of wood paste (I mixed a couple different colors to match the wood). This was much easier. The paste was ready to sand in less than an hour, matched the wood color very well and soaked up epoxy nicely when the glassing job was performed. I much prefer this approach.