My glassing skills with epoxy are mediocre. The biggest challenge for me on this channel was a clean glass job on the channel’s 90 degree edges and inner bottom angles. I figured Charlie could do it without problems.
While Charlie was working on this build, I was trying to come up with a good way to hand laminate the channel. The standard recommendation from several members has been to use spray adhesive to tack the dry cloth to the channel walls. The biggest drawback to that method is finding a spray adhesive that won’t melt EPS and that allows some small degree of re-positioning. I tested an idea last week.
I always have a little residual epoxy from any glassing session. I usually pour that into a paper plate so I can gauge when the mixed epoxy reaches the tack-free stage. So, I decided the way to do this is a channel pre-seal with epoxy (which I would do anyway), basting the walls and top edge surface first. Since I was playing around, I went for a narrow section at the bottom while I was at it.
I waited until the epoxy in the plate was still “slightly sticky” but not “tack-free.” I tested with the tip of a popsicle stick/tongue depressor (or a wood match stick). When the wood tip still barely sticks but the resin has set up, I draped the dry cloth over the top edge and wall, holding the cloth off the bottom. I smoothed the dry cloth onto the top first; then from top edge down the wall with a small plastic bodywork squeegee; press cloth lightly but snugly into the bottom 90 degree angle with squeegee while holding it off the bottom; then smooth cloth over a narrow section of the bottom.
I let the resin set to tack free. Then I wetted out the dry cloth with a 2" chipping brush. The test was done on a piece of low-grade packing EPS that formed a long 90 degree channel. The final lamination was clean and tight.
My future approach will be to hand laminate the sidewalls independently from the channel bottom.
