Had to open a new GelMagic tip today, so wanted to make the most of it and use it on a bunch of different things I was going to "Magic." One of which is the aformentioned coamings, which were actually constructed out of two pieces, one that lies on top of the deck and actually holds most of the weight by being bolted into the deck from below. I really like the original coamings because having this extra over-deck piece allows them to have a slightly back-learning slant. Plus I didn't want to buy new wood and cut everything when these are fine with a little care.
The thing is, there is some separation between the two pieces of the coaming, a crack. On top, this crack seems to maybe have rotted at some point, as the PO gouged out a 1/2" wide strip (inconsistently) along this crack and then filled it with wood filler. Or maybe it hadn't rotted, as I saw no signs of rot after taking out that old filler, maybe they just wanted the filler to have a better bite. Anyways, for resealing that crack on the top - easy - just take out old filler and add new. Done.
The bottom and sides are another thing. So for the bottom, I thought to essentially do a bit of a fillet with GelMagic, and then cover that with glass tape and epoxy. (Actually, I'll be glass tape and epoxying over the wood filler on the top crack too.) I did that tonight, but was disappointed by how poorly the glass tape absorbed the epoxy. It was 4 oz bidirectional. After reading Amazon reviews, seems like I wasn't the only one with that problem. For covering fillet seams like this (and the upcoming one on my footboards) what type/weight of glass tape is good? I'll probably order my next batch from S3.
Here's a shot pre-Magic/tape. You can see the front of one coaming (with the new wood filler on the top of the joint) and the back of the other coaming (with the back crack of the joint circled.)
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And then here's the result after my meh job of sealing them:
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I used two slightly different techniques. The back coaming I "filleted" how I think fillets work: I ran a bead of GelMagic on the crack, didn't wait for it to gel or anything (is that right?,) and then used one of my mixing sticks to sort of smooth it out (it was a narrow bead, maybe 1/8") and then threw on my dry glass tape, and wetted the glass tape from the top. It took a LOT of work to get the glass tape to absorb the epoxy, but eventually it did seem to wet down quite well, and this might be just because of the quality of the tape I have.
In the front coaming, I ran a bead of GelMagic on the crack, DIDN'T smooth it with the stick, but just left it as the long bead, and then also pre wetted the board itself, like I normally would when I put a fiberglass patch on something. This, however, perhaps again because of my tape, didn't really help the wet down process when I put the dry tape on and then painted epoxy over top of it. I'm worried this second board won't fit quite as well onto the deck, as the 90 degree angle of the joint might be a bit obstructed since I didn't smooth the bead of GelMagic out. We'll see tomorrow. Either way, not a big deal, as I'll probably do what the PO did and seal the space between the back part of the coaming and the deck with silicone.
Was an interesting experiemtn, and leaves me with what I'd do if this was me doing my real-deal fillet on my footboards where any mistakes I make will be much more visible (albeit Easypoxied over.)
1. How do you use glass tape? I assume you don't pre wet out the whole 8' tape, nor use it in short lengths, but do what I did, and either wet the surface it attaches to and then on top, or just on top?
2. When filleting (with Gelmagic, EZ fillet, or whatever) how is the filleting compound and tape supposed to interact with each other. I found this on S3's site about EZ Fillet:
"Alternatively, the tape can be applied after EZ-Fillet starts to get stiff. Use SilverTip Laminating Resin for this purpose and work EZ-Fillet under the wet tape for a smooth, bubble-free composite."
So wait for the fillet compound to start to cure, and then wet glass tape onto it and "work EZ-fillet under the wet tape." What does that mean? Are they talking about using the glass tape to sort of mold the fillet into shape somehow? That sounds like a mess.
3. I know I should've removed more epoxy, as I didn't really work to "drag" it with my plastic scraper, as the glass tape tended to want to move around a lot when I did this. Same for my GelMagic -- I was very quick with my fillet technique, and I don't get how there can be so much wiggle room to so carefully sculpt this little line of sticky goop. Or maybe it was because I didn't let it start to set first?