the actual laminating process

here's a low quality picture of my progress......turns out I accidentally had my camera set on "macro". Regardless, after I smooth on a thin skim coat along the full length . I then use a half width roller and take my time rolling on resin over a section the width of my peel ply. Then I start rolling my glass down over the wet epoxy. I then roll another layer of epoxy over the top of the glass then cover the section with peel ply. ( running cross ways and overlapping it an inch over the last section) ........I work the whole section smooth with a rubber spreader and then I'm ready to roll back the glass a little bit and start the next section. I repeat this over and over till I fall off the end of the transom.......unfortunately, I ran out of B side so I had to stop mid stream.

skim coat the foam before laying down the glass

Before I lay down the glass, I have found that I can create a better bond with my corecell foam if I first give the foam a skim coat of epoxy / microballoons / aerosil .

Here's my recipe for my skim coat :

300ml B side
600ml A side.........mix with drill mixer

then mix in the dry stuff :
* 2000ml aerocil ( fumed silica;wicked stuff don't breath it)
* 1000ml glass microballoons

It ends up being like fluffy white cake frosting and the aerosil keeps it from running.

mixing the batch

I then I use a cordless drill fitted with a mixing blade...... a good minute or two will do the trick.

mixing system three silver tip epoxy for laminating

For laminating, I find it easy to just mix 1500ml batches of epoxy at a time.

so here's my routine......

from my 5 gal. buckets,

I pour the following into my plastic measuring cups,

* 500ml side B
* 1000ml side A

then I tip them together and let them drain into my mixing container.

back at it

After a cold january, a warm february day finds me back in the shop..........Today I'm laying down the 24oz. triaxial glass along the inside starboard hull half. Even know a three inch overlap is supposed to be as strong as continuous length, it still makes me feel better to do complete runs of glass.