#Chopper gun fiberglass skin#

At Bonadeo Boatworks, a custom manufacturer of outboard-powered fishing boats like its flagship 45, the entire hull is hand-laid with woven roving but for the skin coat, they use chopped mat that comes in a wide roll and is laid out by hand. Some companies handle the issue of woven roving print-through differently. Vacuum Infusion Technology In Boat Building To make sure the proper amount of chop is being delivered, manufacturers like Sea Ray have a digital display that shows the weight of the chop that is being dispensed to allow the operator to meter it to the correct specifications for that particular hull. Hand-laid cloth is typically cut by an automated CNC machine to exacting standards and in the aforementioned hard-to-cover spots, workers can sometimes have too much overlap, wrinkled fabric or not enough coverage, which necessitates a patch. Chop is easier to apply in areas like corners and intricate contours in the mold. Additional layers of chop can be added in addition to coring material to build up the desired thickness of a hull. Subsequent layers of woven roving cloth are laid into place and impregnated with resin and hardening agents to build up the hull to its desired thickness. The deck cap is then put on and is put under vacuum for 24 hours, creating a one-piece hull that is incredibly strong.īuilders like Sea-Ray, Ranger and Malibu use the chopper gun to lay down the first layer of fiberglass to avoid the pattern of woven roving from showing under the layer of gelcoat. The chopper gun is then used to seal it and bond fiberglass to the foam.

The foam they use weights a hefty 6 pounds per cubic foot instead of the more common 2-pound material typically used and becomes an integral part of the hull’s structure. Instead of the usual method of pumping liquid foam into voids after the deck is in place for flotation and acoustical dampening, Everglades creates precision foam components in their own molds and places them on top of a wet bed of fiberglass chop that is sprayed evenly into the mold. High-end builders like Sea Ray, Everglades, Malibu and Ranger, to name a few, all use chop in varying degrees.Įverglades Boats, founded by the late Bob Daugherty, an industry-innovator best known for his decades-long work at Boston Whaler, pioneered a unique boat-building process called RAMCAP. This isn’t just done on entry-level boats either. Manufacturers who produce large numbers of boats love the chopper gun because it’s a fast way to apply fiberglass and resin in one step. If the chop mixture is sprayed on too thick, the hull will weigh too much and can adversely affect handling and performance. If the chopped mix is applied too thin, the hull is weaker and subsequent layers of woven roving can “print-through” or show up under the gelcoat, which is usually one of the first things sprayed into the hull mold as boat hulls are build from the outside in. Typically, its operator is one of the most skilled workers in the factory for a good reason. Operating a chopper gun is not a job a builder would give to a new-hire. Those using a vacuum process to deliver the resin skip this step since the vacuum squeezes any bubbles out. In both processes, workers use small rollers to make the material lay flat and eliminate any bubbles that might form.

Many builders swear by it, while others eschew its use and instead, hand-lay layers of carefully cut sheets of woven roving fiberglass cloth down and wet it with resin. Perhaps the biggest dividing line in the boat-building world centers around the chopper gun, which feeds strands of fiberglass, Kevlar or carbon fiber roving through a device, chops it into manageable pieces, mixes it with resin and catalysts and allows the operator to spray it into a mold to build up what will become the boat’s hull. Some boat builders use a fiberglass chopper gun to help build a hull while others just say no. Discover how the Graco RS Resin Spray Gun’s revolutionary design and industry-first features can help boost your company’s bottom line.Every modern boat builder has their own unique approach and process to manufacturing vessels. It’s available in internal and external mixing gelcoat spray guns. It's lightweight, ergonomic, designed for tool-less operation and fast, easy maintenance as well. Innovations engineered into the Graco RS Gel Coat Gun are sure to make a difference in your production uptime.

Chopper gun fiberglass