Stringer Fillets

bcollier9253

Cadet
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
14
Good morning all!
I am in the process of doing a stringer and bulkhead deck replacement in my 93 Wellcraft eclipse 232. I got my material from US composites, they sent me epoxy to peanut butter my stringers down to the hull with and poly to glass with. I have to lay a pretty good size bead of epoxy down on the hull because of the angle of the hull( the bottom of the stringers are cut square) so there is about an 1/2" gap in the low side of the hull ( inside of stringer). When that epoxy oozes out can I go head and use it for my fillets? Like I said I am glassing with poly.
 

Baylinerchuck

Commander
Joined
Jul 29, 2016
Messages
2,726
Good morning all!
I am in the process of doing a stringer and bulkhead deck replacement in my 93 Wellcraft eclipse 232. I got my material from US composites, they sent me epoxy to peanut butter my stringers down to the hull with and poly to glass with. I have to lay a pretty good size bead of epoxy down on the hull because of the angle of the hull( the bottom of the stringers are cut square) so there is about an 1/2" gap in the low side of the hull ( inside of stringer). When that epoxy oozes out can I go head and use it for my fillets? Like I said I am glassing with poly.

I have seen posts from Woodonglass concerning this subject. Apparently US composites has been doing this to sell epoxy. If you make your fillets out of epoxy you'll need to do all of your tabbing in epoxy. You can do epoxy over unwaxed poly, but you CANNOT put poly over epoxy. The rule of thumb is to stick with one system and don't intermingle. Thickened polyester resin works excellent as a glue and for bedding stringers. I'm not sure why anyone would want to spend twice the money on epoxy. I put 1/4" chop strands in mine to add a lot of strength, but this is absolutely not necessary. I like a little overkill.
 

CrazyFinn

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Dec 12, 2016
Messages
357
I have to lay a pretty good size bead of epoxy down on the hull because of the angle of the hull( the bottom of the stringers are cut square) so there is about an 1/2" gap in the low side of the hull ( inside of stringer).

Any particular reason why you didn't cut them at an angle to at least somewhat match the hull?

Like others have mentioned, using Poly on a job where you have already used Epoxy doesn't work well. You would be better off using Poly for the whole job (and it would cost less).

Like others, I used poly resin with cabosil as a thickener and some chopped strand for strength to bed the stringers.
 

bcollier9253

Cadet
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
14
No reason really, going by what a shop owner told me. Yep, I bedded and put fillets all with poly. I was trying to post pics but couldn't them to load. I'll keep trying. Thanks!
 
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