Another first timer here!

[dogbrain]

You can wet it if you want to raise the grain before the final sanding. Make sure it's dry before you fiberglass. It's dry here in montana, so the wood is back to dry in a matter of hours. I usually vacuum and run a tack cloth lightly over the hull. Take a look for splinters sticking up before putting down the glass, they might leave a bump.

Mark

 

[dogbrain]

Here's a video of us building my brothers canoe last year. There's a timelapse of us fiberglassing the hull somewhere in there. We had my mother mixing epoxy for us. My other builds have been solo, so it was very relaxing having the three of us there. Good luck tomorrow

Mark

 

[Jim Dodd]

Nice Build video Dogbrain !

I trim the bevel on on the stem ends different, but what ever gets the job done !

Glad to see you took some time out to catch some nice perch before finishing the canoe !


I use a short piece of scrap to guide the blade of the saw, insuring the correct angle.. This works great, except, I will scare the tape covering the stem model. I only have to apply a small patch, and I'm ready for the next strip.

 

[TerryJames]

Hmmm... I’m half tempted to say screw the fiberglassing and drive out to Montana instead. Those are some nice perch. In preparation for tomorrow, I spent the day fishing today. Did pretty decent on the walleyes just fishing off the dock and walking down the shoreline.

Biggest one today was only 25.5 in, but lost one at the shoreline that would have been on the wall.

-Terry

​

 

[TerryJames]

So the first layer went on pretty well. I have a couple of wrinkles but really pretty minor. When I was squeegeeing, the excess epoxy in my “grunge” can got so hot that it started melting the plastic. Is that pretty normal?

Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the results. Just waiting for it to cure to put on the second coat.

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[stripperguy]

I’ve had that happen before
Did you start in the middle and work towards each stem??
Thats the most reliable way to avoid wrinkles

BTW it looks great!!

 

[dogbrain]

Looks great. I really like the dark color on the stems. Yes, the chemical reaction produces a lot of heat. It’s a positive feedback loop. The warmer it gets, the faster the reaction. Are you moving on to fill coats right away?

 

[TerryJames]

Thanks guys. My plan was to do three coats today. However, Jim said to lower the temperature after you put on the resin so how we did this was :

1. Yesterday afternoon I turned the heat on in the garage to 70 degrees. (Outside temperature was around 50-55 today.

2. Today 9am-10:45am put the first coat of glass on. Immediately upon finishing the first coat, we opened the garage doors and turned off the heat. As soon as the shop got to 60 or so we maintained that temperature for 2 hours then turned the heat back to 70 for the last hour.

3. Around 2pm, we put on the second coat and again lowered the temperature. At this time, it was sprinkling outside so the humidity was high and we decided to stop after 2 coats. The second coat seemed to run quite abit and we slowly brushed away the runs every few minutes for the next hour. At that point, (remember that I or anyone with me have ever done anything like this before) we thought that the outside humidity may have been playing a part in the slow drying process so we decided to stop after the 2nd coat and sand it down before the 3rd coat.

Fast forward to now (6 1/2 hours later). Upon further evaluation, I think we just put the 2nd layer on abit thicker than we should have. As I’m looking at it now, There are very few spots that really even need to be sanded down. I am actually very impressed with how this is looking. I think Monday I will do a light sanding on it and Tuesday put on the third coat.

As for the run, I did just take a longboard with 220 grit on it to see if it will sand, and I think I’ll be able to hide it after the next coat or the varnish.... If that doesn’t completely hide it, my excuse will be that I don’t want it perfect because then other people will want me to help them!! Haha

Here is a picture of the run. What are your thoughts? It looks a lot worse in the photo partly because of the light sanding.

 

[TerryJames]

Striperguy,

As for working the middles out to the end.... I started about 1/3 of the way down and worked to one side then worked back the other way. The wrinkle was actually on the first 1/3rd section that we did, but I chalk that up to inexperience with fiberglass.

Also, it was on the side of the canoe that my friend was working on, not the side I was doing. Not saying this was his fault or anything, I think it’s just an unfortunate event. All said and done, it’s only about a 2 inch section and it could be a lot worse.

Also, in between coats, I had this piece of driftwood that I found a few days ago, so I bleached it up and decided to use some of my grunge epoxy on it just to see how it would turn out.


I think I might have found a new centerpiece for my mantel. Really didn’t expect it to turn out as good as it did.

 

[Jim Dodd]

It's not good to sand green (fresh) epoxy. Scrape instead.

The idea of continually applying coats, while the previous coat is still tacky, prevents runs. The tack holds the epoxy .

One wet out coat, and three fill coats are best put on this way.

Did you have any bubbles ( outgassing) ?

Love the strip combinations ! Amazing how the hull transforms when you apply the resin !

Jim

 

[TerryJames]

Hey Jim, absolutely no outclassing that’s I can tell.

The only spot that I sanded (very lightly) was to see how that spot would react to the sanding. The coat is still green that is why I stopped sanding, but I am pretty sure that I did not do any aesthetic damage to the hull. Maybe I am wrong, which is probably the case, but after seeing how much I was fighting with the second coat, I thought that sanding in between the coats would produce a better result. I will let you know how that goes.

Yes, it’s absolutely amazing how the hull transformed after the epoxy. By far the best part about this build yet!

 

[dogbrain]

Hi Terry, I'm with Jim. You should take care of any drips or imperfections with a sharp scraper and move on to the next fill coat. I don't know what the timing is on West Systems epoxy, but Raka has at least a 24 hour window to recoat without having to sand. I like to roll on thin coats of epoxy and use a foam brush to smooth out bubbles etc. I would also trim off all that overhanging fiberglass while the epoxy is still soft. You should wait at least a week before sanding the epoxy.

Mark

 

[TerryJames]

Ok makes sense I’ll head back over there now and put on the next coat.

thanks

 

[dogbrain]

Hey Terry, did you pop the boat off the forms yet?

mark.

 

[TerryJames]

No I haven’t yet Mark. Been trying to figure out what to do about the fiberglassing. I went back the next day and put on the next coat but it didn’t go on very well. I really don’t like how it turned out. One side looks really good, but the other side looks terrible. Yesterday I finally decided that I’m just going to sanded it all back down and refiberglass. I know that I wouldn’t have an issue with it floating, and from 7-8 feet away it looks really good, but It’s not what I want so Tuesday a friend of mine and myself will be sanding it back down.

Was going to order more epoxy and fiberglass tomorrow. I think I’ll give RAKA a try this time.

Are you guys using the 127 or the 900 HP? And which hardener do you suggest?

 

[dogbrain]

Put some pictures up and show us what you're thinking is wrong with your work. Maybe it's not a lost cause, especially if you think you just messed up fill coats.

Mark

 

[TerryJames]

There are just a lot of runs. Epoxy was layed on too thick and we had an issue with the squeegeeing. I had 2 squeegees and both of them got knocked up on the grunge can and they were leaving streaks, so we stopped using them which was a huge mistake. At that point, I thought we were going to just sand between the coats and would have taken care of it, but that wasn’t a smart idea either.

Also, we had put everything on with brushes because it looked as if the rollers were leaving air bubbles so we decided against rolling it.

Here are a few pictures. When I run back over to that house, I can take a few more close ups, but I think that starting over is really my best bet to make it look how I want it to.

 

[dogbrain]

The question I have is whether you were able to get the original wet out coat on without the thick buildup of epoxy? if the drips and thick buildup are from fill coats, then you just need to scrape or sand that epoxy down to the point where you’re not sanding into the glass. Do you have pictures from just after your wet out? Ideally the glass would have been right against the wood and not floating above it. Regardless of all this, I’m not sure I would take the drastic measures you are proposing. Hopefully Jim Dodd, stripperguy and the other experienced builders will chime in.

Mark

 

[TerryJames]

I don’t have any good pictures of just after the wet out coat, but I did take 1. Not sure if it’s going to show you what your looking for though.

It shouldn’t be that hard to just sand down and redo would it? I mean I know it’s going to cost abit, but I’d rather have it done right and look good.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[dogbrain]

Hi Terry. From the photo it looks like the glass is tight against the wood, and the problem you had is with the fill coats. Whether or not you sand all the way back to wood, I think you should at least attempt to sand only until the hull is smooth to see if you can live with the finish. I did see the couple wrinkles you have in the fabric on your last post. I would sand through those and even cut them out a little and feather a patch over the top. They're on the bottom, so that's what will get scratched up anyway.

The real issue you're going to have if you try to sand everything off is that the cedar is way way softer than the epoxy. Getting down to wood and being able to smooth it all out without gouging the wood may be problematic. I suggest you go out and buy a few nice sharp scrapers, the ones with the longer handles for leverage. Get a couple buddies over there to help and make a go at smoothing out the hull as much as possible, then sand with a random orbital with 120 grit. You're going to have to do this anyway. At that point you can make the decision to leave it as is, do another fill coat or to try and take the rest off the hull.

Good luck, Mark