Never again!

[zoidberg]

I mean it this time!

That's my very last attempt at wrangling with loose, floppy and above all STICKY woven-roving and resin in a tight confined space. I'm reminded of those kids' toys, with magnets in, which will NOT go even close to where you want them to.

I'm going for a lie-down now and a serious grump, after which I'll have a go at cleaning myself up!

Harumph....!

 

[johnalison]

Look. We're not here to be your emotional prop. That's what wives are for.

 

[billskip]

Look. We're not here to be your emotional prop. That's what wives are for.

That's right, make him suicidal...

 

[Stemar]

Ah, the joys of owning an old boat.

 

[justanothersailboat]

Slightly wondering if zoidberg ended up resined to the sheets after that plan of "lie down, then clean up". Hope all's ok...

 

[Greenheart]

I sympathise with the poor fellow. Even layering that flappy woven stuff in a well-lit shed with plenty of space, is rotten.

It doesn't have enough rigidity to bear the weight of the resin upon it; so I tend not to obey the instructions to ensure it is coated in resin before applying it to the work area. I prefer to get the area well covered in resin then put the sheet on dry, then more resin. It does make it harder to get rid of air bubbles though.

There's usually at least one slightly ragged end on it, which somehow snags something and pulls and unweaves the section that I'd finally got stuck in place. And gloves and tools stick as easily to the resin as the saturated cloth does to the intended surface...

It's one of those foul jobs I do just too rarely to get any better by practice.
.

 

[zoidberg]

It was an especially awkward job I'd been dreading, and procrastinating, for yonks. FWIW, I'm putting a U-bolt down under the bow to help support a new alloy bowsprit, and I reckoned the 'V' bow needed reinforcing in the inside. "So what?" do I hear? But that specific place is VERY difficult of access. It's worse than caving, pushing a taddy-bottle ahead of you.

I can't get 'head and shoulders' through the narrow semi-bulkhead and cannot reach a hand right forward, never mind two. I've had to cobble together a range of grasping, roller and stippling 'tools' spliced to 6' poles, to position, present, and attach epoxy-saturated grp/woven roving strips right into the 'V', in all the right places and orientation, while maintaining line of sight. And for reasons I won't trouble to explain, it hurt. A lot.

No, it wasn't easy. And once started, I couldn't stop and come back to the job. Each layer needed to be applied before the preceeding one had 'gelled'. And it was messy. The dripping resin didn't quite get everywhere... but I certainly need a new haircut, and my sticking-out ears now don't!

But it's done.

The strings and things? That was part of an earlier complicated process of positioning some well-epoxied D10 GRP reinforcing thick sheet with Nyloc nuts bonded in 'right places' so I could drive hardware securing bolts down from the deck above. That, too, was a monumental faff - but it worked out. Another job I don't want to do again....

 

[Blueboatman]

You did remember to turn the boat upside down first?

 

[RunAgroundHard]

What are you going about. You could hold a weight watchers convention in that space.

 

[Greenheart]

I had a similarly ghastly weekend of work putting a U-bolt in my boat's stem, but with the U inboard as a strong-point to anchor the forestay foot beneath the foredeck, when the original tang had rusted to nothing.

The confines of the anchor locker in the July heat, reachable only by bending and twisting to slither in as far as the stem, nearly put me off ever buying any boat in need of any work, ever again! And I wasn't even using resin.

Sit back and think of all the fun you'll have, flying that asymmetric kite.
.

 

[zoidberg]

Sit back and think of all the fun you'll have, flying that asymmetric kite.
.

And praying aloud to all the Old Gods that nothing breaks....

 

[Blueboatman]

I never did much like that racing quip “We puts 'em up and God takes ’em down”

Some sunny Debussy and a bit less of the Wagner perhaps ?

 

[Alexis]

Very helpful title for a thread! Well done.

 

[Caladh]

I mean it this time!

That's my very last attempt at wrangling with loose, floppy and above all STICKY woven-roving and resin in a tight confined space. I'm reminded of those kids' toys, with magnets in, which will NOT go even close to where you want them to.

I'm going for a lie-down now and a serious grump, after which I'll have a go at cleaning myself up!

Harumph....!

You should try doing some lovely deck caulking and the treading on your good work…….

 

[Stemar]

I've seen people wetting the substrate then putting dry cloth on and rolling it on with more resin as needed. It doesn't seem quite as messy, but getting anything to stick to the underside of a deck is always going to have entertainment value for onlookers.

 

[zoidberg]

I DID wet-out the scoured substrate, as can be seen, but knew in my bones that any attempt to place dry w'roving strips exactly in place, then keep them there while stippling away like mad with a dripping brush cocked at an angle, on the end of a long stick, was doomed to a messy, hair-tearing-out failure. And so was the method I tried....

More by luck than judgement, here's the result:

It'll have to do.

One can see, at the top, some errant remnants of the 'escapee' strands/bundles which defied persuasion, blandishments and cusses. Perhaps I'll go back one day and tidy up that part.

Perhaps....

 

[Stemar]

Perhaps I'll go back one day and tidy up that part.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps you should just say, Sod it, and go sailing That's what I'd do, albeit grumpily

 

[Blueboatman]

There are of course methods and techniques.
Such as laminating the whole epoxy/mat matrix on a bit of plastic strip and then using a stick to poke one end of the matrix in place at the top in the bow whilst ( carefully) pulling and sliding the plastic away on a string tied to the lower end of the plastic strip..etc

The “Victorian child chimney sweep” would work brilliantly but no longer available

 

[ducked]

Its about 40 years since I last did (some small scale) GRP work, but its looming again.

I understand its theoretically possible to assemble it all dry and then do vacuum bag infiltration of the resin. I dunno how this works out in practice, but it would seem to potentially avoid significant stickiness..

Annoyingly, I'd been saving a couple of fridge compressors to use as tyre inflators, and finally threw them away last week as part of a house move.

Didn't think of this potential application until the next day

 

[RunAgroundHard]

…

…

It’s a very neat job.