Team Seacats

Apparently I can.  As the fumes from the polyester resin apparently started to get to me (not really – it was more likely the 4 hour marathon mold session) I realized as I tried to take a goofy photo, that when I cross my eyes, only one eye moves inward….weird.

Anyway, the first half of the mold is happily setting up.  I started the evening by pre-cutting most of the glass cloth to go down on the mold.  I first started with preparing a layer of thin, 2″ strips of 3.5oz satin weave e-glass to go around the sharp seams of the mold in pieces.  Then I laid out a 16″ X 48″ piece of the same 3.5oz cloth to cover everything.  Next would be several small pieces of 7oz mat cloth laid in random positions followed by some 13oz Nytex woven fabric (that conforms very nicely to compound curves).  Then, nervously, I shot 6oz of Orange mold gel coat on the plug, again swearing that i was going to get a larger nozzle for my spray gun (it’s 1.4mm now and should be closer to 4mm for the thick stuff).  I eventually got it all sprayed and it was probably just enough – I might have been able to get away with 8oz.  I waited about an hour and came back and mixed up a mixture of 2oz polyester resin and equal parts of milled glass fibers and micro balloons until I got about 4 to 5oz of peanut butter consistency goo.  Equipped with latex gloves, I worked this mixture into the sharp corners of the mold where the fiberglass would have difficulty adhering…lady luck had my back and 5oz proved to be exactly enough.
  

  

Now, I took a deep breath, and mixed up 8oz of straight-up polyester resin and I brushed down the entire plug with it in preparation for the full sheet of 3.5oz cloth.  This might have been an error as I had some difficulty getting the cloth in place – I probably should have used some smaller strips.  I did eventually get it to mostly lay down and I started to wrestle with some minor air bubbles in the areas where the fabric bunched on the horizontal surface of the parting board.  After a while with this, I gave up figuring that I could work out the few remaining bubbles in the subsequent layers of fabric (and I was correct).  Next the mat went down – and it went easily.  The last time I tried to make a mold, I got far to stingy with the latex gloves.  This time, any time I was handling clean fiberglass, I would put a new pair of gloves on – what a world of difference.  After the mat was placed, I proceeded to glop on about 18oz (or maybe 24oz) of resin.  I then used my ribbed roller to work out any air bubbles from the mat (what a miracle tool!).  Once that was done, I laid in the Nytex cloth and it conformed perfectly to all but the sharp corners of the stern.  about another 18oz of resin and the Nytex was completely wet and slowly setting nicely.  I had to put a wood strip on the stern and apply some light pressure to get the heavy Nytex to conform properly.  The electric heater will keep the shop warm for the evening while everything solidifies.  This is a painfull process in that you won’t know that it actually worked until you get to the end (and after investing a significant amount of time and money).