Side panel fillets

[Dmksails]

I was getting ready to apply fillets to the hull side panels and made a tool with a 1-inch radius as suggested in the book. As you can see in this pic, this tool is going to result in a pretty thin fillet. Now I'm wondering just how thick should I make the fillets?

FilletTool.jpg (92.54 KiB) Viewed 3332 times

[dbeck]

Dave,

we have also used a 1” radius tool. When doing the fillet, I used it an angle of about 45 degrees and the fillet becomes thicker. We have also used the alcohol finger trick (described in the manual) and immediately glassed onto the not yet cured fillet.

Dietrich

[SMHolmans]

Dave,

As Dietrich says, you can vary the depth and width of the fillet by varying the tool's angle of inclination. The smaller the angle, the fatter the fillet. I can't recall making these fillets but I just took a look in my boat and they look fine to me!

I think the 1" tool was fine for this purpose, although I did make one with a really wide and shallow curve for the bottom panels.

Steve