Boat hull holes repair upside-down


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hannu
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Hello.
I would like order your Resin Infusion Starter Kit with Vacuum Pump EC.4 + needed fabrics, but I do not sure if it works and could solve my problem.
Just asking how infusion/vacuum works if the material is upside-down? Please see enclosed attachment of the problem and how I think repair it step by step, but problem is this upside-down. There is two possible page 3 (Step 5 and 6 Example 1) and page 4 (Step 5 and 6 Example 2). Which one is best solutions or something else?
The fabrics (cloths) weight to be quite heavy and problem is how I could keep these up on the boat hull.
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Boat hull repair.pdf (325 views, 371.00 KB)
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Chris Rogers
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What you have drawn is totally doable but probably more complicated than necessary.  Orientation of the job makes no difference to the infusion part - but overhead is always a pain.  It looks like a solid single skin laminate without core.  What is the material the boat is built from?  E-glass/polyester, e-glass/epoxy, carbon/epoxy?   

If this job came my way I'd go first to vacuum bagged wet-layup with epoxy - or open molded vinylester - but probably epoxy unless a gelcoat repair too.  Its less demanding of perfect vacuum and easier to use - and you could do multiple holes with one resin mix and wet-out.  Structurally, bagged wet layup is very similar to infusion and its easier to control.  If there is no core, you could (in theory) do the whole thing from one side.  A piece of hard-ish (depending on curvature) plastic stuck over the back (inside usually - because access is harder) and secured with tape and covered with a vacuum bag stuck to the hull can be a good former.  Then you can do the whole thing from the outside (drill a few tiny holes near the edge of the repair through the hull to tie the bags together or connect the bag to the pump inside and outside) - then cure and fair.  You can wet out a big sheet of material between plastic sheet and cut staggered stacks to your pattern.  A 15:1-30:1 scarf is common - or whatever your engineer says - for smaller holes, the scarf slope can be less especially if its in a low-load area. 

Doing it from both sides is better - but not by a ton if there is no core - it just feels neater mostly!  Sometimes avoiding inside grinding is a big deal. Your only real reason to consider infusion is that doing a bagged wet layup of 12mm of material is not ideal - its hard to get air out and lots of layers!  You can of course break it up into two cure cycles and do 6mm at a time.  If it were a much larger repair and the boat was built using infusion - then an infused repair with matching materials would be a much more attractive idea. So I guess it totally depends on the boat, the location on the hull, access, engineering, materials, etc...

If you have never done infusion before, you will be more likely to get a good result with bagged wet-layup - its just easier to get right. 

Do you have any pictures of the holes?




hannu
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Chris Rogers - 7/6/2020 2:36:36 AM
What you have drawn is totally doable but probably more complicated than necessary.  Orientation of the job makes no difference to the infusion part - but overhead is always a pain.  It looks like a solid single skin laminate without core.  What is the material the boat is built from?  E-glass/polyester, e-glass/epoxy, carbon/epoxy?   

If this job came my way I'd go first to vacuum bagged wet-layup with epoxy - or open molded vinylester - but probably epoxy unless a gelcoat repair too.  Its less demanding of perfect vacuum and easier to use - and you could do multiple holes with one resin mix and wet-out.  Structurally, bagged wet layup is very similar to infusion and its easier to control.  If there is no core, you could (in theory) do the whole thing from one side.  A piece of hard-ish (depending on curvature) plastic stuck over the back (inside usually - because access is harder) and secured with tape and covered with a vacuum bag stuck to the hull can be a good former.  Then you can do the whole thing from the outside (drill a few tiny holes near the edge of the repair through the hull to tie the bags together or connect the bag to the pump inside and outside) - then cure and fair.  You can wet out a big sheet of material between plastic sheet and cut staggered stacks to your pattern.  A 15:1-30:1 scarf is common - or whatever your engineer says - for smaller holes, the scarf slope can be less especially if its in a low-load area. 

Doing it from both sides is better - but not by a ton if there is no core - it just feels neater mostly!  Sometimes avoiding inside grinding is a big deal. Your only real reason to consider infusion is that doing a bagged wet layup of 12mm of material is not ideal - its hard to get air out and lots of layers!  You can of course break it up into two cure cycles and do 6mm at a time.  If it were a much larger repair and the boat was built using infusion - then an infused repair with matching materials would be a much more attractive idea. So I guess it totally depends on the boat, the location on the hull, access, engineering, materials, etc...

If you have never done infusion before, you will be more likely to get a good result with bagged wet-layup - its just easier to get right. 

Do you have any pictures of the holes?

Thanks Chris.
The boat hull is solid single skin laminated, E-glass/polyester, without core. The biggest hole is critical place, just behind keel. Please see photo of the biggest hole which not fixed yet as small too. Inside have keel support (could see on the photo, a little) what have to cut and build again after hole repair.
This is possible repair also without vacuum, as following. Set epoxy to hull, waiting when it is sticky -> laminate first layer, waiting when it is sticky -> laminate second layer, waiting when it is sticky -> and so on.... I have done this before on boat where the hole was much biggest which wasn't possible repair inside. This wasn't critical place. Course this take a time, but next layers to be faster because first one start cure and temperature increase, so the waiting time to be shorter every next layers. However, I'm still worry of the critical place just behind keel where normally using direction way fiber. Unknown if used with this boat. So, I do not 100% sure if this method is usable using so critical place. Also I'm anyway interesting to start use vacuum/resin infusion with boats repair (my hobby).

GO

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