My first real boat needs relamination and some possible plywood repair of the deck. I think it sat in a boneyard and collected water for a few years. If you used West System to repair your boat and it was successful, please give me a rundown on the steps you took, any tricks or techniques I should know, critical things to look out for, and how long its been since you did the repair. Also, how would I go about replacing some plywood areas or how would I know which to even replace? There are no missing pieces, but the floor was used after the damage occured and there are cracks in parts of the plywood. I'd love to hear any help, advice, or stories. I have read a lot of West System material, but I want the opinion of someone who's used it in "real life". Thanks!
chrissywolcott@hotmail.com
Did you use West to relaminate/repair your deck?
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Dana
Yes...but on the hull laminate
I had a dry roving strand which was wicking water into the hull at the turn of the keel at the foot of my companion way stairs. The hull thickness here is about 3/8" on my CD26. The area to repair was small but left me with about a 3/8" hole through the boat by the time I traced the leak path out. I then ground out a 12/1 ratio scarf radius for the new laminate lay up. (That gave me a 12/1 ratio decreasing beveled hull thickness)toward the hole). Overall diameter of the reglass area was then approx 12 inches round. I installed a backing sheet on the inside hull over the 3/8" hole to match the existing hull curve and to provide the support against the layers of new glass I was installing from the outside.
I tried to duplicate the original glass lay up schedule. I precut the pieces in advance and worked off clean pieces of card board for wetting out the glass. Each new layer of glass had a larger diameter with about another 1/2" of over hang. This provides a strong joint between the old glass and new glass for all layers. With the West epoxy like other epoxy resins you want to wet out the glass fully with resin...I did not have any problems with the West resin..I really liked it....folks say it is a little bit harder to do than poly resin. Just work in the resin very well, wetting it out on one side then turning it over and wetting out the other side. You can not do all layers at the same time...lots of heat as it cures and you will bake it. I continued with my lay up material lay up schedule until the outside surface was raised slight above the surrounding hull area. After it was all dry and hard I could just sand and shape the raised surface down to match hull curvature...
darenius@aol.com
I tried to duplicate the original glass lay up schedule. I precut the pieces in advance and worked off clean pieces of card board for wetting out the glass. Each new layer of glass had a larger diameter with about another 1/2" of over hang. This provides a strong joint between the old glass and new glass for all layers. With the West epoxy like other epoxy resins you want to wet out the glass fully with resin...I did not have any problems with the West resin..I really liked it....folks say it is a little bit harder to do than poly resin. Just work in the resin very well, wetting it out on one side then turning it over and wetting out the other side. You can not do all layers at the same time...lots of heat as it cures and you will bake it. I continued with my lay up material lay up schedule until the outside surface was raised slight above the surrounding hull area. After it was all dry and hard I could just sand and shape the raised surface down to match hull curvature...
darenius@aol.com
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Dana
PS...Three years ago...
The repair still looks great...can not tell at all...
________________
darenius@aol.com
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Dana wrote: I had a dry roving strand which was wicking water into the hull at the turn of the keel at the foot of my companion way stairs. The hull thickness here is about 3/8" on my CD26. The area to repair was small but left me with about a 3/8" hole through the boat by the time I traced the leak path out. I then ground out a 12/1 ratio scarf radius for the new laminate lay up. (That gave me a 12/1 ratio decreasing beveled hull thickness)toward the hole). Overall diameter of the reglass area was then approx 12 inches round. I installed a backing sheet on the inside hull over the 3/8" hole to match the existing hull curve and to provide the support against the layers of new glass I was installing from the outside.
I tried to duplicate the original glass lay up schedule. I precut the pieces in advance and worked off clean pieces of card board for wetting out the glass. Each new layer of glass had a larger diameter with about another 1/2" of over hang. This provides a strong joint between the old glass and new glass for all layers. With the West epoxy like other epoxy resins you want to wet out the glass fully with resin...I did not have any problems with the West resin..I really liked it....folks say it is a little bit harder to do than poly resin. Just work in the resin very well, wetting it out on one side then turning it over and wetting out the other side. You can not do all layers at the same time...lots of heat as it cures and you will bake it. I continued with my lay up material lay up schedule until the outside surface was raised slight above the surrounding hull area. After it was all dry and hard I could just sand and shape the raised surface down to match hull curvature...
darenius@aol.com
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Larry DeMers
Re: Did you use West to relaminate/repair your deck?
Chris,
Dana has the most in-depth experience in this matter I believe, at least from the articles I have read for the past few years. For what it is worth, I retired a 2in. seacock and filled the hole last year, using West System epoxy and fiberglass cloth (Defender Ind.), and the whole operation went very well.
I did as Dana instructs, although I would not bet that I got a true 12:1 scarf ratio as he did. Mine was more like 6:1 when finished. I used a small 4in. right angle grinder to bring the inside lip down to approximately half the thickness of the laminate, then did the same on the outside lip. I ground out this lip so that the slope extended about 10 inches past the edge of the thruhulls hole -or 12 in diameter. Then I cut woven roving and unidirectional cloth (I think it was 10 oz.) in circles, starting at 3in. (giving a 1 inch overlap), and increasing in diameter by ~1 in for each course. This first layer was applied first to the outside lip, allowed to setup a while, then an identical piece was applied to the inside lip. Succeeding layers were rotated 30 degrees when they were installed, to give reinforecing strength in all directions. The final exterior layer was 7 oz. cloth, which has a fine weave to it, and will not show thru on the outside. It gives a nice flat surface to apply bottom paint in this case..or gel coat (which I did not use). All total I used around 10 layers of glass, but to get this dense of a laminate, I had to squeegee out the excess resin once the cloth was installed. I used a 6 in. plastic wallpaper application tool for this. Epoxy did not stick to the tool when cured, it is flexible and comforms to the slight curvature of the hull easily, so the final finish is smooth as a baby's butt.
Cheers,
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 Lake Superior
demers@sgi.com
Dana has the most in-depth experience in this matter I believe, at least from the articles I have read for the past few years. For what it is worth, I retired a 2in. seacock and filled the hole last year, using West System epoxy and fiberglass cloth (Defender Ind.), and the whole operation went very well.
I did as Dana instructs, although I would not bet that I got a true 12:1 scarf ratio as he did. Mine was more like 6:1 when finished. I used a small 4in. right angle grinder to bring the inside lip down to approximately half the thickness of the laminate, then did the same on the outside lip. I ground out this lip so that the slope extended about 10 inches past the edge of the thruhulls hole -or 12 in diameter. Then I cut woven roving and unidirectional cloth (I think it was 10 oz.) in circles, starting at 3in. (giving a 1 inch overlap), and increasing in diameter by ~1 in for each course. This first layer was applied first to the outside lip, allowed to setup a while, then an identical piece was applied to the inside lip. Succeeding layers were rotated 30 degrees when they were installed, to give reinforecing strength in all directions. The final exterior layer was 7 oz. cloth, which has a fine weave to it, and will not show thru on the outside. It gives a nice flat surface to apply bottom paint in this case..or gel coat (which I did not use). All total I used around 10 layers of glass, but to get this dense of a laminate, I had to squeegee out the excess resin once the cloth was installed. I used a 6 in. plastic wallpaper application tool for this. Epoxy did not stick to the tool when cured, it is flexible and comforms to the slight curvature of the hull easily, so the final finish is smooth as a baby's butt.
Cheers,
Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 Lake Superior
Chris wrote: My first real boat needs relamination and some possible plywood repair of the deck. I think it sat in a boneyard and collected water for a few years. If you used West System to repair your boat and it was successful, please give me a rundown on the steps you took, any tricks or techniques I should know, critical things to look out for, and how long its been since you did the repair. Also, how would I go about replacing some plywood areas or how would I know which to even replace? There are no missing pieces, but the floor was used after the damage occured and there are cracks in parts of the plywood. I'd love to hear any help, advice, or stories. I have read a lot of West System material, but I want the opinion of someone who's used it in "real life". Thanks!
demers@sgi.com