How to not waste epoxy....

[Laszlo]

Another thing possibility is to get up real early (well before dawn the summer) and do your layups then. The coolmorning is good for longer pot life and the hot day will cure things enough so that you might even be able to sand before going to bed.

Then there's the usual tips about refrigerating your hardener, etc.

Laszlo

[rudar]

Do you want to lay fillets on wet precoat? I thought I wanted the precoat to set at least to the tacky stage, since its purpose in life is to prevent the resin from your putty from running into the wood and leaving too dry a fillet... I guess then fiberglassing the fillet you'd want to do before the fillet sets to tack stage, so you can shape it while glassing. Or do you want to shape the fillet with a popscicle stick/ tongue depressor/ plastic spoon, then let it cure partially so you can squeeze resin out of the fiberglass without denting the fillet? I guess I had understood wet-on-wet to mean not letting each part fully cure overnight, so the new layer bonds to the previous one, but letting each layer cure to tacky (about a half-hour?) before continuing...

Also, by 10' are we talking about 10 feet, or do we mean 10 yards? The plans for the Cheap Canoe suggest you should be able to lay all the fillets in about 5 minutes, and that'll be 14 feet for each side and another one at the bow and stern, so about 30 feet or 10 yards... So it sounds like that should be do-able in one swoop?

[Stripedbass-2]

Good suggestions all. Now I have a question.
Has anyone noticed whether the mixture sets up any faster when applied from a caulking tube? This of course puts the material under a lot more compression than just the pastry bag method. I found these at West Marine and they work great but I still do not have a lot of experience with them.
Mark

[PJPiercey]

I'm a big fan of the caulking tube. When doing the taping I mix a batch of epoxy for the precoat (medium hardener in my climate) and apply. Then a 10 oz batch of fillet (1/2 medium, 1/2 slow) to fill the tube. I can apply the fillet very fast and accurate with the tube. Then I smooth the fillet with a curved plastic scraper. Let this set for a bit while I take a break. When the fillet has just started to firm (kick) I lay the glass and wet it out.

Paul

[bug_power]

I did a 10'2 surfboard with 12oz glass on the bottom. Now here's the kicker Mix it up and QUICKLY pour it over the surface and start working. I tried to leave enough to laminate the 10' board in the pot and slowly work it in....BAD idea...I damn near had 3rd degree burns on my hands. However a week later I saw a guy mix up as much or more epoxy and pour it on the board the sqeegie it out and wrap the rails.

[bug_power]

When I was building surfboards this stuff was about as good as you could get. Greg Loher or something owned the company and had really good tech support. Has anyone used his resin for any of the boats. I know my epoxy surfboard I can ride over just about anything, or anyone with no worries.

[Pake]

Boy, I am learning something new each day. This is good as I am about to do stringers for the first time.

Questions:

1. Based on the previous posts, the filleting is done after rolling out a coating of epoxy to the stringer. Is this always the case? I saw a cutaway stringer template and was amazed that the filleting was basically a 1/4" cove. A popsicle stick should work well. How do I get caulking tubes to do this with?

2. When I bed the stringers,

a. What do I use to space it 1/4" off hull? How big/long? Do these spacers come out after the glue is set, and then filled in?

b. When I put glue (or whatever it's called...I'm a newb) in the stringer/hull gap if anything seeps out the sides do I scrape it off?

Also, I have a can of fiberglass "bondo." Can this be used for filleting? I've used it to patch a small hole on my upper hull (more of a large chip) and will probably have no use for the rest of the can.


Thanks a lot.

Pake

[tech_support]

Pake,

I will post these questions in a new thread in the repair section - its sort of a derail of this topic

Joel

[Mando-in-kingwood]

Joel, the guys at the Sherwin Williams store said that marine epoxy will "melt" or shred foam rollers. Is this true, or do I need a special foam roller? I am using SilverTip epoxy (from you).

Thanks.

[mechdave]

Use the west system rollers from this site or buy them from a local west marine store. They are less than 1/2 price bought in 12's from here. The main tip is don't keep rolling after the epoxy starts to kick. If you get bubbles tip with a brush, once again before it kicks. Tipping after it kicks works, you just won't get as smooth a finish. In higher temperature work areas refrigerating the epoxy jugs before mixing will give you a little more working time.