Newbie: Who's done Fiberglass work in Winter?

50 days to launch & counting....

I'm rebuilding the galley in a 26 ft sailboat and need to
glass in a couple of bulkheads, as well as a mounting base for a bilge pump.
Nothing fancy, in fact I'll leave rough resin exposed.


Question:
Can I do this safely by putting an electric heater in the cabin?
I experimented last week when the daytime highs were around -3 C
and got the temperature in the space 14 < T < 20
For sure, the temperature will not be stable, likely dropping off to under
10 at night.

I live in central Ontario and would really like to set the bulkheads now in
February, because there's
lots of woodwork to come later.

There's a gelcoat job planned for later, but that's another story.


Dieter

You are caught with 2 problems, you really need to keep the product warm and
you need ventilation, tough to ventilate to outside without loosing that
heat.

I've done glassing in confined spaces before and even with strong
ventilation, it was horrible. Worse, if you get the resin too warm, or mix
too much acid in it causing it to over heat itself, it will give off a great
deal of gases and may even smoke.

If you simply must do it, do small areas at a time in several steps and I
would suggest heat lamps over electric heaters. Warm an area for an hour or
so with a heat lamp first thing in the morning, then do the glassing. Keep
it warm for the rest of the day, you are probably safe to allow it to cool
after that. Keep an eye on it several times through the day, and be
patient. Doing it this early in the season you can afford to not shoot for
it all in one day!

Greg

"rdk" <rrddkk.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:lEpPd.34597$Ub4.1556412@news20.bellglobal.com...
 > 50 days to launch & counting....
 >
 > I'm rebuilding the galley in a 26 ft sailboat and need to
 > glass in a couple of bulkheads, as well as a mounting base for a bilge
pump.
 > Nothing fancy, in fact I'll leave rough resin exposed.
 >
 >
 > Question:
 > Can I do this safely by putting an electric heater in the cabin?
 > I experimented last week when the daytime highs were around -3 C
 > and got the temperature in the space 14 < T < 20
 > For sure, the temperature will not be stable, likely dropping off to under
 > 10 at night.
 >
 > I live in central Ontario and would really like to set the bulkheads now
in
 > February, because there's
 > lots of woodwork to come later.
 >
 > There's a gelcoat job planned for later, but that's another story.
 >
 >
 > Dieter
 >
 >
 >
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->