Suffice to say I am exhausted. Took a long time and a nudge from my brother in Ohio to decide to have a margarita and some dinner instead of just going to bed. 12 1/2 hours, 6 gallons of epoxy and 22 yards of glass later the stringers are laminated.
I made up a rod holder on the side of my gantry to hold the rolls of glass, and set up one of the sheets of plywood that's waiting to be used for the bulkheads as a cut table early this morning.
Felt like home ec class 30+ years ago all over again.
I started off trying to use rollers and smoked a couple batches of epoxy and trashed a roller frame so was in and out of the hull more than anticipated. The result...there might be a bit of grass laminated in the bilge... Threw down a layer of plastic which helped that, but unfortunately it liked to slide around on the excess epoxy draining out and to my shoes which have a nice healthy coat. A word to the wise - don't wear slip on shoes when epoxying - they might be convenient but when they get sticky they tend to slip off just as easily as they slip on!
But I got it done, including a layer of 1708 down the keel/bilge.
Left a little tag for whoever pulls this hull apart next:
That's a lot of epoxy...and based on the estimation from West Systems' page I only exceeded the estimate by a quarter gallon - and based on the smoked batches I tossed - I'd say it was spot on.
I know the layup isn't perfect - there are bubbles and I'm going to have to either drill and pump in a fill or grind and reglass a few spots on the fillets. I think the heat was too much today for this epoxy formulation - they laid down flat but then it really seemed like once they started to gel the whole lamination shrank. If I were to ever do this again (highly unlikely! LOL) I would laminate up each side of the stringer and then cap the top instead of trying to do a full wrap from tab to tab. Hindsight is 20/20. Should've followed the process so many others have used.
Tomorrow will be a well deserved day of relaxation. All I plan to do is pull the 2 worn tires off the new trailer and maneuver the trailer into the back yard so I can unhook it from the truck and then cut the grass. Happy Labor Day y'all!
Greg