Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[ebb]

Tony,
Great solution to a baffling problem!
Nice work, nice frp sheet work!
Easy, but expensive, huh?

[Tony G]

Thanks, Ebb. When I looked at McMaster-Carr I thought the sheets seemed kind of expensive once shipping was factored in. But I had all the supplies on hand (minus my sheet of glass )so why not just make it myself? Capt. Kurt said once, a long, long time ago, just use cheapo polyester to make sheets out of. But being this was for the water tank I figured I'd keep it all epoxy as everything I've read had refered to epoxy. My bad on the resin amount though. It was only one half of a gallon....

I glued in the baffles last night with some big fillets so I'm curious to see how stiff everything became once the epoxy cured. Next up is some kind of 'fillet forming jig' to thicken up the top edges where they'll meet the tank top proper. This ought to be amusing!

[Tony G]

Here are a couple of photos of a simple little jig I put together to help make some wide fillets on the top edge of the baffles. There is now a full one inch wide pad to bond the baffles and the top panel together with.

[Commander 147]

Very creative Tony!!!!

And very nice work. I'm always impressed by the abilities of the people on this forum.

[ebb]

WOW


Nice work goes into that jig. Tony - and no surprises later when you have to reach in there to clean the tank out.

In fact your design makes it easy to pull maintenance on that nice s m o o t h interior
without any surprises in the overhead fillet work that can leave snags and hollows and ridges because it's almost impossible to lay in a wet cove unseen and upside down.

Great solution!

[Tony G]

First time we ever see a filleting jig?

Au contraire, sir! Stolen from YOU.

EBB's PHOTO GALLERY, post number 170, photo #2. Ha! Or should I say, "Thank you"?

[ebb]

Don't think so, man.
In that pic you see a single piece jig frame laid on top of the up stuff.
Had to reach into the tank and do the filleting upside down - and essentially unseen.

It worked out OK but I didn't end up with the beauteous fillets you have here, post #434.
Had many filmy extensions of epoxy that had to be sanded back to the cove after the jig was removed.
Told self nobody would ever see the sloppy work!

The problem really is how do you get the gel into the corners you want filleted.
My method after epoxy priming and wiping dry the corners was to use the 2" brush
and dab gobs of gel directly into the corners. Precise method! Then use the filleting spatula to smooth in a cove.
Messy.
The trick was to custom each plastic former, cove maker, to the space the cove former had to run in.
I use the pliable green spreaders most suppliers have now. - cut to fit, including 'sharpening' the rounded 'finger' The idea is to scrape clean the sides as you press in a decent cove.

In the pic at post 170, the cove along the hull had a custom spreader of less than a right angle because it had to ride along the hull, which tilts inward.
Mini bulkhead/baffles across the tank used a right angle cove maker.
Custom cove makers that bear on both flats of the corner almost eliminate clean up. Otherwise you probably leave behind a hard ridge of material you didn't pull into the corner.

But making sure you also get a completely filled-in cove is a problem.
This, Tony, you solved with your jig what allows making fillets from the GRAVITY side,
the TOP. In plein sight.
These fillets spanning the top, are put there so that the lid has plenty of surface to be glued to.
In case somebody wants to know. After you butter up the lid and get it in place, it's so easy to reach in the access hole to wipe off the squeeze out with an alcohol damp rag.
Any gallon of liquid will be proud to splash against what you are creating inside your tank. Huzzah!

But then what are you using to seal the tank?