: Doug: As I continue to go through your site I am just 'blown
: away'...fantastic!
: Have a question...when reviewing your glassing of the North Star, you
: referred to 'Peel Ply'. What is 'Peel Ply' and where did you get it? Looks
: like it can help to avoid some glassing snafus.
: Bob

Bob,

Peel ply is available in a couple different types (maybe more), Polyester and Nylon. It is available in tape or fabric sold by the yard. It is treated with something the epoxy will not adhere to. It is laid up with the other fabrics just as if it were a permenant part of the layup, and is used anywhere you want to be able to separate the laminates.

The peel ply fabric is then removed and does not stay in the laminate. It leaves the surfaces ready for secondary bonding.

The amine blush forms on the surface of the peel ply if it is the top-most layer and is removed with the peel ply before secondary bonding.

These are used extensively in vacuum bagging and aircraft composites applications.

In my application to the kayak, I will lay up 2" wide tape along the edges of the deck and hull at the sheer joint (it is the top layer in the lay-up) when each is fibreglassed separately. The peel ply will be left in place until the deck and hull are ready to be joined. Just before joining the two, the peel ply is peeled off (like you were removing a piece of tape), if there is any sharp edges of epoxy it would be good to remove them with a light sanding but the bonding surfaces need no other preparation for bonding. Tape the deck and hull together on the outside and glass the two together on the inside.

Same applies to the outer sheer joint, remove peel ply and apply glass.

Check out some of these sources...

http://raka.com/fibergla.htm

http://www.fibreglast.com/VacMatPage.htm

http://www.acp-composites.com/acp-vbes.htm

Doug