Luxury Narrowboat | Why Fiberglass Hatches | How to Make Them

Описание: Making a fibreglass hatch

Mothership Marine are an innovative boat building company with much expertees in a range of materials. Each of these materials have their own properties. The majority of our hatches are made out of fibreglass and are both lightweight and durable.

Fibreglass is an excellent material to make hatches and moulds for those hatches can be very easily made using melamine-faced chipboard. Fibreglass is a reinforced plastic material composed of glass fibres in a resin matrix. For most constructions polyester resin is suitable along with chopped strand mat (CSM).

A good weight ratio for resin versus chopped strand mat is 2 to 2.5 resin: 1 chopped strand mat. It's a good idea to weigh the chopped strand mat for the next step before mixing the resin.

Use cheap throw-away brushes.

Moulds can be made using any material that has a good release surface but melamine faced chipboard is probably a favourite because of its low cost and good release properties.

If you would like to soften the corners with a radius, plasticine can be used to create a smooth radius. Use a round object for this purpose, professionals will use a metal bar with two different sized spheres on each end to undertake this task.

To help the hatch get released from the mould use a wax substance like Honey Wax release agent. Apply the wax according to instructions.

The fibreglass resin is coated either side with gelcoat or topcoat/flowcoat. Both can be ordered in a colour of your choice or painted to your preferred colour as required. The difference between gelcoat and topcoat is that the gelcoat is applied next to the mould where it picks up the wax. Apply the topcoat as a last coat, this contains wax and leaves a smooth finish. This too can be coloured but most people choose a generic colour like white as this is the internal face.

Steps to make a fibreglass hatch:
Make melamine mould.
Put in radiuses if required with plasticine.
Apply release agent.
Apply gelcoat. (Prudent to apply two coats).
Apply Surface Tissue layer of fibreglass and Backing cloth with resin.
Apply two layers of CSM and resin.
Repeat Step 5.
Apply flowcoat/topcoat.
Take hatch out of mould and trim.
If required put a rubber edging strip or hatch seal on edge. Alternatively use more flowcoat to seal.

We buy a lot of material from East Coast Fibreglass. Please make sure that you adhere to the safety instructions relating to each product used.
https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/

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