Composite Boatbuilding 5

Soon after the hull is finished, we started laminating inside hull and preparing to build deck.

The fiber clothe we used for the hull was EDB240.EDB240 means that it's E grade/class, Double Biased and unit weight is 240.There are variety of fiber cloths with different weight, manufacturing method(woven, stitch, chop strand) and so on.

First we need to find how many cloth we need and each size of the cloth. When we laminate the glass, it needs to be overlapped by max 50mm, min 40mm.So this overlap should be considered when we cut the cloth.

First we measured the width of fiber glass and made story rod with same length(width of glass). Then we marked each position of cloth including 50mm overlap on the hull. Then, we found out that we needed 4 full width and one narrow one at the bow.

Then with cardboard which has almost same width as of fiber cloth, we got the length and shape of fiber cloth and its position on sheer.

Then, we went to fiber cloth bay to cut the cloth we need. We brought cardboard pattern of cloth and cut it out. Cutting table was not big enough so little adjustment was needed.

One thing to note when we cut fiber cloth is that cloth is quite easily stretched and damaged. So when we handle the fiber cloth we need to handle it with caution, gently lift it. And masking tape right next to cutting line could be quite helpful.

 When it's cut, it needs to be rolled up again to avoid from being damaged. And we need to mark some information on this roll including its position(where to apply), orientation(port/starboard, forward/after). If it doesn't have these information, glassing job could be a total disaster; unroll all the cloth to find which is which and its orientation.

 Then we cut the peel ply as exactly same way as we cut the fiber cloth. By applying peel ply, we get less sanding on the surface when it's peeled off. Also peel ply absorb excess resin and protect the laminated surface from being damaged.

Then we dry fitted fiber clothe onto hull and used brush to do this. Soft brush hair and static will keep cloth in position.

Then we applied resin on the cloth. We used roller on the middle where it's hard to reach and squeeze on sides. It needs to be glassed form the middle to side and to be squeezed or rolled one forward and after so it could be in shape.
By doing this excess resin is squeezed to the side from the middle.

For the rest of cloth, the same applies and the small cloth at the bow was a lot tricky because it has drastic change in its shape.

Note.

* Fiber Orientation

All the cloth has its applying orientation. Usually long straight line is direction of longest part of the subject. Two diagonal means fiber direction of cloth. 

* Rabbet(Rebate) sanding on overlap

 As you see, we had max 50 / min 40mm of overlap between cloths and this could damage the hull fairness. So the best way is rabbet sanding to the hull to make it fair but this was inside hull, it's not in the water so, I think we skipped rabbet sanding, but I am not sure. But also to reduce the weight of the boat, we still need to do the sanding.