I’ve been searching the archives for info about installing a glass leash loop but I’m confused by some of the posts. The traditional technique seems to involve pulling the long strands of glass out of cloth strips around 5" x 2" and then taping 1 end of the bunch together. Is the idea to end up with a bunch of long strands (like a fin rope?), or do you actually form the loop out of what’s left of the cloth strips? If so, 2" seems just too wide. I feel like I must be missing something really obvious, but I’d be grateful for any suggestions.
i use the long strands, and set them over a pencil, straw, 2 liter cap (acutally i dont suggest this, it ends up thin IMO) i might be doing it differently though
Joyride,
I’ve watch somer real pros make these and the secret is to have a pot of laminating resin all ready to go to dip roving into. You want hanks of roving about half the diameter of a pencil about 5 inches long. About 5 or 6 of them for the loop and 4 of them to run laterally at either end to dress the piece into the board. You get these hanks by cutting a pieces of cloth (I’d use 6oz.) 5 inches by 1 inch and teasing the long fibers out until you get enough to form a nice hank that you tape one end of to hold it together. Once you get you hanks ready you just tape a regular old drinking straw to the board where you want the loop and start draping the saturated hanks over it. Once you get the loop built nicely you lay a couple of hanks over the ends of things. When the resin starts to go off you just trim things up with a razor blade and slide the straw out. You can shot a hot coat on any time after than and sand things to you heart’s content.
This is too much of bother for me. I nice piece of a fin panel cut to suit with a tapered hole in it and mounted like a glass-on fin is just as good and a little more straight forward IMHO though certainly not as pleasing to those that worship the past.
Mahalo, Rich
Rich, Many thanks, that helped a lot . . .
An easy way to make these is to cut the base off and old box-type fin, shape into a crescent, and glass on the deck. Drill a hole thru it after all the glassing, sanding, polishing is done. If you need to make several, lay up a sheet like for fin stock (see archives).