I've been fraying the ends of my Werner Player on some rough concrete and rebar in local boney water. It's time to smooth out the ends and clean up the edges. What do I use to take off the rough fibers without losing too much surface or getting too crazy? Is there a product out there to coat, cover, or fill the irregular edge? I'm a woodworker, not a fiberglass guy, so translate for me.
Wetsand w/ 320, done.
Done?
Besides getting away from those craggy paddling locations, is there a way to further protect the edges? A sealer or some kind or a reinforcement layer that could be applied without looking like junk? Would some kind of resin or epoxy do the trick? I’ve never used either.
Done
Unless you’ve taken big chunks out.
Light sanding and
brush on a thin coat of epoxy.
or
clear acrylic for better uv protection
and
some folks apply a layer of epoxy with graphite filler right on the edge for better bashing resistance
If black is not your color, silica filler will be quite effective
West G-flex is thicker, tougher than
regular West 105/205 or similar epoxies. G-flex mixes 1:1 and proportions can be a teensy bit less than precise.
The thicker quality means that you can spread it along the edge and it will form a more robust bead. If it drools the wrong way, just sand off what you don’t want.
Try not to bash and scrape against rocks…
o.k. if you want to go nuts … go here
www.surfskiracing.com
Scroll down to contributors on lower right and click on Patrick
Done it this way 2x already - works well
I’ve done this kind of repair with a technique similar to what Pat describes - works really good and is easy to do. I used regular epoxy mixed with chopped carbon strands for thickness/filler (had some small pieces of carbon laying around that I just chopped into about 1mm long pieces with simple kitchen scisors). Used 2 halves of a single plastic lid from a disposable food container. Once dry, the plastic just peels off and a bit of filing with a metal file or a sandpaper block to bring the shape back to where it was and it’s done. Very easy, actually, and pretty much can’t tell where the repair was on my carbon blades… Since it’s going to get chipped again some day, and because the rest of the blade already has plenty of scratches, absolute perfection is not needed, so 600 grit sand paper is more than enough to make it disappear to the touch.
Can’t give up the rocks…
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I’m going to give it a try between outings. The Chain of Rocks on the Mississippi and Dead Carp Drop are at really low levels, so scraping is not an option. Maybe I’ll get good at repairing paddles so I can boat more!
My point on the 320 was …
Just use the paddle, its not gonna self destruct for a little bit of hard use.
G-Flex again
Another vote for G-Flex. My old Werner Ikelos was pretty chipped on the blade ends. I sanded and cleaned the ends with acetone, then ran some painter’s tape along the edges to make a dam. Next, I applied G-Flex along the edges.
After curing for a day, I removed the tape and sanded down the epoxy to form a new edge. It’s been staying on there just fine, and protects the edge from new dings. Give it a try.
Alan
auto parts store
Door edge trim tape. You’ll have to re-glue it with epoxy at some point but the tape lasts and lasts. I notice those that don’t use it get smaller blades over the years. Some of them are more than an inch shorter than when new. The rubber tape does not wear much as far as I can tell.
low bony water is
perfect for poling. No paddle wear that way.
Is tthis it?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B00650NY6G/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_2?ie=UTF8&index=2&isremote=0
I’ve seen door guard trim, which looks like a U-channel plastic piece. These work well on flat thin blades, but don’t fit blades like the AT2 for instance.
The above link seems to be to a real “tape” as opposed to a plastic trim piece. Is that what you are referring to?