Drilling into Kevlar/glass

[mshelton]

I outfitted mine the same Martin but we must be mindful of our vertically challenged brethren.

[squeakyknee]

personally I think you should get some super fuzzy tight fitting pants and just cover the inside of the sith with industrial strength velcro

[Mike W.]

Martin, my knees were nowhere near the foam in your boat
I'm doing my anchors just like yours. The difference is that I'm just doing a lap-belt w/o thigh-straps.

I was thinking bulkhead, but "super fuzzy tight fitting pants" & velcro sounds like a winner to me! Squeeky, I'm sure you know where I can find some

[bearboater]

if you were only in CO, there is a store here called Mcguckin Hardware that has everything. Literally. You can buy west systems Epoxy, webbing, cookware, clothing, childrens toys, food, john deere tractors, and more than likely tight fitting fuzzy pants.
Skaal
-Isaac

[John Coraor]

Mike:

If you're worried about the strength of the layup at the anchor points, you can reinforce them with some additional layers of composite in the same way that you would patch a crack (i.e. sand throughly and apply patches of decreasing size [largest to smallest] to minimize stress risers). You could use kevlar or glass (S or E), but carbon might be preferable for its stiffness for this application. Alternatively, as Dave notes, you can fray the ends of the anchor rope for a greater length than normal and rely on that as the reinforcement. As others have noted, metal turnbuckles or other kinds of metal attachment points can be substituted for rope.

If you want to drill holes and use bolts, fine; however, if you would prefer to leave the hull and deck intact, know that there are indeed methods that will work regardless of how light the original layup might be.

John

[bearboater]

okay, so for size of patches in decreasing order... I have always done the biggest one last. I don't understand the biggest one first. I guess more surface area on the boat. but when you have a crack, it makes more sense for me to have larger layers out, so you can fully cover, and saturate the ones that cover the immediate area of the crack/break etc. not tryint to argue, I just don't understand... Hope all is well
-isaac

[RodeoClown]

largest to smallest- I think it's a "the way it's always been done" thing. The only reason I can think of that would make any difference it is eliminates the small pocket of resin around the edge of the previous layer, where the next layer is stepping down (does that make sense). In theory this would be a resin bubble, that wouldn't occur if you did it largest to smallest.

I usually do next-to-largest to smallest, then cover it with the largest, since it just seems more aestetically pleasing to have the largerst layer on the outside, but I've always heard the largest to smallest thing.

I agree with John- this seems like the obvious solution to me. If you're worried about glassing in anchors because it's too lightweight, I'd be wary of drilling too.

Isaac, I think I missed that store in CO. Where is it?

Jeremy

[bearboater]

the resin bubble makes sense, I am wickedly anal-retentive about how patches look, and so I try to do as much of the structural parts inside the boat as possible, and just like 1 or 2 layers outside...

it's in downtown Boulder on either South Boulder road or Arapahoe road... it's only like 9 blocks or so I think, away from CU. I was going to go there today, and then I found self-adhesive minicell... sick.
hope all is well.
Skaal
-Isaac

[billcanoes]

I drilled a .25" hole in mine and use a .25" stainless steel panhead screw- for the upper anchor

screw- 1" washer- 1" rubber washer- deck - 1" washer- nylon nut

I think I have the same layup in my acrobat- the wheelboy saddles plastice hulls- have used for thigh anchors AND lapbelt- never had a problem and I'm pushing 200 and am upside down as much as I am upright

Bill

[John Coraor]

Issac:

Jeremy is correct in guessing that the reason for largest first is avoiding the bubble in the resin around the edge of the smaller patch that will often occur when you cover it with a larger one.

When patching, you can cover everything with peel-ply or even a transparent or semi-transparent layer of plastic (I often use sections of white garbage bags, because they're cheap) and then smooth out the patch, working any air bubbles to the outside of the patch. If the patched area is appropriately convex (e.g. repairing an outside seam) you can use some masking tape to stretch the plastic tight in all directions and get a super smooth finish. (This technique is often used in the initial layup of outside seams.) However, this technique won't work very well for adhering anchors as the topography of the work area is too varied and complex.

John

[bearboater]

makes sense, I guess that I just started using release cloth, and so I never really had an air-bubble problem, but I have started with the plastic bag thing on the outside of hulls, most of them have been single layer repairs. and I have used the plastic, and when I do seams I use saran wrap or plastic bags, it's weird how much epoxy you can put in a single layer of seam tape...
cheers
-isaac

[clt_capt]

The frayed rope method works well, but if you are worried about the hull flexing under it, there is another method we used.


Required Items -
1) A couple of plastic soda straws - McDonalds preferred (a bit bigger than others.
2) 3 - 5 strips of kevlar tape (2" width is plenty)

3) epoxy
4) Plastic Wrap (ziplock bag material is better)

Mark the correct area as above. Lightly sand the area. Place the straw in the center of the preferred area. Wet out the strips of kevlar with epoxy and lay over the straw. Cover wit plastic and work out the bubbles.

When it has cured, peel of the plastic pull out the straw, lightly sand the edges of the hump to smooth out. then take a piece of nylon or perlon rope and slide it through the hump and tie the ends. Now you have strap anchors

[DaveM]

If you are worried about the stresses the anchors may have because the layup is thin below them, just add in another layer or two of cloth. might want to use carbon or kevlar carbon so you get the most rigidity..

DM