Replacement 26M daggerboard

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  • Member Discussions:Technical

The attached article describes the process of fabricating a 26M dagger board using a damaged dagger board as a former for a mould.

The mould used is available for anyone who wants to use it on the proviso that they store it and make it available to others if required.

2 Comments

 

Very professional job, congratulations. (Can you do an X centreboard next please).

Can I just add emphasis to the warning about MEKP (Catalyst):
If you do splash it in your eyes it will almost certainly BLIND YOU !!!!
Once diluted in the resin mix it's nowhere near as dangerous.

Dave Newton Sailbadthesinner

Thanks for the comment Dave -

Thanks for the comment Dave -

Re safety when using glass fibre materials you are quite correct that the MEKP catalyst is not good for you - there should always be a bucket of clean water close at hand and/or an eyewash bottle to dilute spills or if you need to rinse eyes or face. The catalyst can also be absorbed through the skin as well as being irritant so I always use overalls, lots of disposable nitrile gloves, safety glasses and a carbon (VOC) respirator before starting to mix up the resin. Its smelly so you need a well ventilated space when laying up (my wife insists I keep the door from the garage to the house closed!) and you definitely need a P2 or P3 dust respirator, safety glasses and gloves when using a grinder to trim the edges. I would also strongly advise using riggers gloves or similar heavy duty gloves when cutting up the glass matting to prevent blood from your fingers marking the matting and removes the need to pick glass strands out of your fingers!

You also need lots of paper towelling and a floor covering (cardboard is good) to prevent drips when mixing and put tools down on.

I'm used to handling chemicals and didn't have any spills but you do need to have materials ready to mop up if you have a spill on the floor or yourself. A clean process is a safe process and a lot more fun.

Interestingly although the styrene in the resin is smelly it's actually quite a lot less toxic than the less smelly fumes from epoxy resins!

Mike

Tarka 26M