Initially Folded Fiberglass Cloth and a very viscous epoxy

General Discussion
1

Hi guys,

I am a new shaper here in the philippines and just wanted to ask a couple of stuff i am experiencing:

For the past 4 boards i have built, i am experiencing the problem of getting bubbles while i glass my boards. The reason for this is because i am buying a re-packaged 1kg 6oz fiberglass cloth which is folded when you buy it ( i could not afford yet the whole 6oz roll yet because i am still experimenting on different shapes). to further describe the cloth, Its a 15ft by 3ft cloth folded into 1ft by 1ft. Also, the epoxy that i am using is so viscous that it is similar to the viscousity of maple syrup.

So here are my questions before i do something:

  1. Is it advisable to use clothes iron to smoothen out the folds (which fold up again when i glass it which makes bubbles especially on the laps).

  2. Do i need to heatup the epoxy or the hardener for it to be less viscous (it seems that the hardener is more viscous than the epoxy)

 

Thanks guys

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2

Relief cuts in the edges of the cloth likely would have prevented that.  Also wondering if you had wrinkles in the masking paper when you lapped your rails which coult have prevented the cloth from laying flat.

3

Maybe get a tube and roll the cloth onto it and leave it for a few days to straighten out.

4

epoxy is thicker when it is colder

i doubt an iron would work but never tried it?

you should be able to pull those wrinkles out with better sqeegee technique - pull on either side of the wrinkle and the weave will shear and the wrinkle will flatten out

and order your fiberglass on a roll next time!