building fibre glass hulls

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

Hi – I have a thought at the back of my mind about building another Clyde paddle steamer at some future point… i was wondering if anyone had views on moulding a fibre glass hull as a method of construction? I like the water-tightness of the hull I was able to purchase for my present project, but suspect trying to build a hull like this from a home made mould might be a masive task. Views welcome!

[Stephen GarradParticipant @stephengarrad28964]

Have a look at the start of Neil Howard-Pritchards last build of Barnett Lifeboats, he started by building the plug, to make the mould, to build the hull, and ended up doing two at once.

Perhaps someone could do a link, its beyond me I’m afraid.

Stephen

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I’ve never done it but I’ve followed someone else doing it on forum threads.  Have a look at Neil’s lifeboat thread he did last year when he built two lifeboats.

You do end up with a strong, well sealed and sound hull but there is a lot of work to get you there.  If you think about it you basically have to build a wooden hull first to make your plug, then make the mould from the plug, then use the mould to lay the glass fibre.  It is a lengthy process and a lot of work.  The advantage though is that you can then use the mould to make other fibre glass hulls to sell on, thereby recouperating some funds to offset the extra work.

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

thanks – will consider, but as you say it sounds a lot of work! I suppose I probably just need to reassure myself that I can make a traditional scratch-built wooden hull waterproof instead!

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Link to Neil’s topic here:

61′ Barnett class lifeboat

The hull construction starts quite a way in.

As Richard says, it is a heck of a lot of work, much easier to build plank on frame and sheath the hull in glass cloth.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Go along with that. A nice smooth hull only needs one layer of very fine glass cloth and resin to do the job.

Neil is a bit of an expert and makes it look easy.

I have made a fibreglass hull by shaping a solid hull from foam, painting it with a release agent, covering it with fibreglass and then scooping out the foam. The foam should come out fairly easily. There’s always loads of that silver backed yellow stuff in skips, in large blocks. It is useless for most things as its too soft….however for this purpose it great. Free and very easy to sand.

Ashley

[Author]

Posts