Phew! I spent four days taping together the panels on the Pygmy Pinguino 145 and yesterday was finally able to get the panels epoxied.
(NOTE: By "spent four days" I really mean I tinkered on it for four evenings... probably took about 3-4 hours or so in total to tape the hull together. Compare that to how long it would take to "stitch and glue" with wires. It would take you three hours just to drill the holes, another hour to cut the wires, another 3-4 to get the panels lined up and stitched, and then afterwards another 3-4 to remove the wires! Add to that how much blood you'll lose poking yourself with the wires... the "taping method" is sooooo much better!! And your boat looks sooooo much better!)
Whether you're doing the taping method or the stone-age "stitch and glue" wire sewing method, your hull won't look pretty at this point. You'll have epoxy smears, maybe a few drips and runs that you missed, etc... Not every seam will be filled well. It's a messy process, but it will all look great within a few steps when you get the fiberglass on.
Here's how it looked when I was finished last night.
The Pinguino panels seemed to come together very well and I ended up not using too much tape. I bought three rolls of strapping tape but ended up using just most of one. I also used Gorilla Tape in places. That's the black tape. But compared to other hulls I've taped, this one used very little.
Here you can see some of the tape that was wrapped all the way around the entire table and back up the other side.
Do whatever you need to keep the panels as perfectly aligned as you can!
Here is a picture of how the seam "should" look when filled with epoxy. After this sets up for an hour or four, you should then come back and add some thickened epoxy. No, not all my seams look this nice as you can obviously see in the other pics.
Next steps: Remove the push-pins, remove the tape carefully, fill the gaps, add thickened epoxy to the ends, etc...
Cheers!
(NOTE: By "spent four days" I really mean I tinkered on it for four evenings... probably took about 3-4 hours or so in total to tape the hull together. Compare that to how long it would take to "stitch and glue" with wires. It would take you three hours just to drill the holes, another hour to cut the wires, another 3-4 to get the panels lined up and stitched, and then afterwards another 3-4 to remove the wires! Add to that how much blood you'll lose poking yourself with the wires... the "taping method" is sooooo much better!! And your boat looks sooooo much better!)
Whether you're doing the taping method or the stone-age "stitch and glue" wire sewing method, your hull won't look pretty at this point. You'll have epoxy smears, maybe a few drips and runs that you missed, etc... Not every seam will be filled well. It's a messy process, but it will all look great within a few steps when you get the fiberglass on.
Here's how it looked when I was finished last night.
The Pinguino panels seemed to come together very well and I ended up not using too much tape. I bought three rolls of strapping tape but ended up using just most of one. I also used Gorilla Tape in places. That's the black tape. But compared to other hulls I've taped, this one used very little.
Here you can see some of the tape that was wrapped all the way around the entire table and back up the other side.
Do whatever you need to keep the panels as perfectly aligned as you can!
Here is a picture of how the seam "should" look when filled with epoxy. After this sets up for an hour or four, you should then come back and add some thickened epoxy. No, not all my seams look this nice as you can obviously see in the other pics.
Next steps: Remove the push-pins, remove the tape carefully, fill the gaps, add thickened epoxy to the ends, etc...
Cheers!
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