Redoing Transom

[edloh]

guys,

finally i got to the transom, currently removing the old wood and waiting for my coosa to show up. i do have a question in regards to the laminating schedule. i am doing it from the inside. from previous post i can see that 1708 cloth is use fairly often. Now, i have bought stichmat with 28oz woven with 1 1/2 oz mat. is this good enought? also, how many layers of 1708 will get you 1/4" thickness? planning top use vinlyester. thank you

[dcobbett]

edloh,

I never layed up just on type of fabric. I alternated 1708 and 1808 and on a sample strip I did, 4 layers varied in thickness from 3/16" to 7/32", 6 layers measured just about 5/16", and 8 layers were between 3/8" and 13/32". I used epoxy resin in all samples, and I didn't overcoat or do anything extra to fill the weave on the surface layer.

[warthog5]

I would suggest that you also buy enough 1808 for 2 layer's of glass.

1] 1808 +45/-45 2] fabmat 3] 1808 +45/-45

It will give you max strength with the change in direction of the glass strand's.

The 1808 will be smother to look at. [Cleaner look]

Biaxle is stronger than woven roven with equal weight's. I conform's easier too.

[edloh]

gents,

thank you for the reply,

warthog5,

what is fabmat?

if i am not mistaken, you completly redid you mako with correct with many vacuum bag parts?

i plan to vacuum bag the transom. will the polyethyne bag stick to vinyester resin or do i need a release film?

[edloh]

warthog,

also, where is a good source for vac bag supply? care to give a quick lesson on vag bag? thanks

[warthog5]

Fabmat is roven woven of some weight with mat stitched to it. weight of it will vary.

It speed's production up.

The vac bag will stick to the laminate, but it peel's off pretty easy.

There should be some imfo for you in my build site.
http://www.classicmako.com/projects/xshark/

On the vac pump. Volume is important. More important than high hg. To much and you can starve the laminate.

15inhg is plenty. You can substitute heavy visqueen [plastic sheeting] for vac bag material. You can use Duct Tape for the seal. Don't buy cheap Duct tape. You really need a peelply and bleeder cloth to take full advantage of vac bagging.

[edloh]

warthog,

i did see your restoration project on the mako website back couple of years ago and i am very impressed with your project. part of the reason i choose to but a project seacraft.

plastic sheeting as the heavy duty ones that can be purchased at home depot?

from your earlier email, i can peel the sheeting away form the set resin?

i only plan to use vacuum to sandwith the core to the existing transom skin and also core to core bonding. i feel that i can get better bonding than clamping.

[warthog5]

You are correct IF you can get the bag to seal. It's pretty easy to do with a even surface around what your bagging. The problem comes when you throw the stringers sticking up in the mix. It can still be done, but there is a bunch more area that need's to be sealed.

Your under a time element thing here to get the vacuum on it before the resign start's to kick.

Excess resign running down in the bottom can be a real pain to get the bag sealed. Duct tape will not stick, again leading to more time spent to get it sealed.

NOTE: The word bag here is used weither were talking about a actual bag or a sealed plastic sheet.