Ok..so I'm not sure if its pronounced "fillet" like what I order at a steakhouse or "fill-it"--so if someone knows, please set me straight! Anyway, however it's pronounced, I now have one on my boat. The fillet is just a smoothened bead of thickened epoxy laid in a joint where two panels come together. Tonight, I started on the keel joint. I mixed up the epoxy and thickened it with plastic fiber and microbeads. I then glopped it into a ziplock freezer bag. By snipping off a small part of the corner of the bag and then sqeezing, I was able to lay a nice controlled bead. I then shaped it with a radiused putty knife making a nice smooth consistent bead. After this started to set up slightly, I put a 3" wide layer of cloth down. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the fiberglass place to pick up 3" tape so I cut a 3" x 25' long strip. As I wet out this strip of cloth, the cut edge started fraying and causing a bunch of work to keep it from being a mess. I got the edge cleaned up but from now on will only use the glass "tape" to avoid the fraying edge. I then layed a 6" tape over the 3" to give me two layers of cloth over the fillets. Once again I used papertowels over the whole laminate and then rolled it. This soaked up any excess resin and gave me a nice tight, consistent finish. Turned out really nice and should be very strong.
1 comment:
"Fill-it" is correct. Glad to see you are making so much progress, I need to get over there and see it in person. Let me know if you needy anything or want another person to lead you astray! Looks good, can't wait to see her floating!
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