Fillet Blues

I was at about 1 foot = 45 minutes CHarlie between the actual filleting, planning and cleanup... it is slow.

Hold your complaining, wait until you get to the fairing stage - gheesh...

A>
 
I know this isn't an option for everyone BUT having 1 or 2 well instructed/coached partners makes this a ton easier.. After seeing how helpful this was I backed off and only proceeded when they were available to help.. It really cuts down on fustration/mess and time/sanity....

Just a consideration.
 
Mike,

Did you do like Sam Devlin talks about in the book - one person mixing epoxy, one person preparing the fiberglass in a glassing box and one person doing the fillets?

Charlie
 
You Ken are the fairest of them all...; )

I don't think the new guys know how hard it is to do what you did... yet !

Best, A.
 
Charlie,

That is exactly what I did... I built a poleboat first and was doing it all myself and found myself super fustrated and messy and taking way too much time.. Coached a couple friends up on how to make the magic 'peanut butter' and another guy with the glass.. Did my whole BBIII that way and it went smooth as hell.. Or as smooth as a couple of amateurs can get...

Even just having a mixing partner makes things go smoother and more efficient in my opinion..

I did the same thing with heating the wires out too.. A guy in front heating and me pulling behind him.. Once you get in a rythem it goes pretty damn good...
 
I can make fillets pretty fast. They are not beautiful, but they are functional. For fillets where you have one large piece of biaxial over a smaller piece of biaxial tape, what I do is nail up a couple of pieces of PVC pipe, you could hang them between sawhorses, and have the rolls of tape on the pipe like toilet paper on the roll one behind the other. I have a big carpenter's T square and roll the two pieces of tape up at the same time on the square longways (along the 4 foot axis) one and a half rotations or 12 feet, and then cut the two tapes. I make several of these rolls usually first thing in the day and put all but one off somewhere where they stay clean. (I find I can easily make a 12 foot fillet at once, but longer is too hard to handle, or to make in time before the epoxy kicks off in the > 100 degree heat I usually work in.) I then slide one of these four foot long rolls into my glassing box, which is a long narrow box made of plywood. Then I mix up the epoxy (slow hardener), and poor it into the box on top of the tape and work it into the tape (I have a couple of these aluminum rollers. I don't mess with it too much at first, as it will sink in on it's own). Then I mix up the thickened epoxy that goes into the joint and butter that in. By the time I'm done with that the epoxy has wetted out the tape in the box pretty well, and I take it out and fold it out onto the joint, making sure the narrow tape is down and the wide tape is on top. Then I relax and have a home brew before I make the next 12 foot fillet. I can make 12 feet of fillet in well under an hour, not including the beer, using this method.

Ed.
 
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Every time I see this title all I can think about...

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Making fillets are not nearly as messy as sanding and fairing them in IMO. It has just begun!!!!
 
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