Wetting out cloth

[Emerger]

What's your favorite way of wetting out fiberglass cloth or mat? Thanks for any tips or tricks.

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Wetting out cloth

If you're talking about a deck, your'e going to put glass over wood, so get the wood wet, then lay down the cloth, and then use a fiberglass roller to work the cloth into the resin. You can go over the cloth with another coating of resin after the first coat of resin gets tacky, and that will fill in the little holes in the weave.

 

[KRS]

Re: Wetting out cloth

Underneath material wet first, then lay cloth, then pour out resin in piles, then squeegee or brush or roller over all the cloth.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Wetting out cloth

I buy 9" rollers made for adhesives and epoxy, at home depot. I then cut them to fit my 4" roller. I first roll on the epoxy (the roller makes it easier to apply evenly) then lay down the glass, then use the metal cloth roller to press it down. If there are any dry spots, I go over it with the 4" adhesive roller till it wets out.

I did my whole 20 ft boat floor with this method and it was a breeze.

 

[Mdude]

Re: Wetting out cloth

If you take care, either method will work very well. It really comes down to how you feel comfortable doing it. I'm building a 14' Glen-L Zzip using Okoume plywood over mahogany frames. If I wet the wood first, I found that it was much more difficult to get the cloth in just the position I wanted. If I let it touch, it made a mess trying to pull it back up and go again. So I got to laying the cloth where I wanted it, holding it in place with a couple of tabs of masking tape and then I applied the epoxy. Worked like a charm.

There is this one big difference though. If you're going to wet the wood first, you probably should have a helper to lay on the cloth. Laying down the cloth first allows you to work alone.

 

[linesix]

Re: Wetting out cloth

Apply resin with a 9" paint roller then fold cloth over itself to allow resin to "baste" cloth a few minutes. If you are applying cloth overhead where it will need to cling, keep it very dry otherwise it will fall.

 

[i386]

Re: Wetting out cloth

I'm building a 14' Glen-L Zzip

Cool!

Post some pics sometime.