White oak and epoxy

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jbo_c
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White oak and epoxy

Post by jbo_c »

I was planning on making my barge runners out of white oak, but just stumbled on a discussion on another forum that it doesn't play well with epoxy. According to that discussion it doesn’t take epoxy well and epoxy glued joints with it are undependable.

Is there anything to that?

Do I need to re-evaluate my choice?

Thanks.

Jbo

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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by TomW1 »

jbo here is an article on oak and epoxy by West Systems that explains why not the twain shall meet: https://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/ep ... ex%20Epoxy. They recommen Ash or if you can get it some good oldgrowth Southern Yellow Pineg from one one of your lumber yards down there.

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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by jonnymac »

if you are coating the wood with epoxy, you don’t need a rot resistant wood anyway. White oak was used in ships where the wood was unprotected or like in war ships where the strength was needed.

I would use douglas fir as its as strong, but lighter than southern yellow pine. what ever you get, don’t get construction lumber, its kiln dried to a higher moisture content and lower temp and as a result the resins aren’t set. this can cause bonding problems, as well as when it dries it will change more dimensionally.

fallguy1000
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by fallguy1000 »

White oak runners would typically be bonded to the hull with 5200 so they can be cut off when the get bad. But he warned; it takes a good 7 days for the cure.
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jbo_c
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by jbo_c »

Dang. I just thought it would be good because it’s hard. Wish I’d known bonding wasn’t good before I ordered.

Guess somebody will get a nice white oak something for Christmas. :)

Mill didn’t have ash or cypress. May just make the runners out of ply. Seems expensive, though.

Jbo

fallguy1000
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by fallguy1000 »

Just use the wo for the runners, but glue them on with 5200. Plywood will delam if you leave it in at all. It puffs on the edges. Even marine ply is not really made for full time immersion.
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VT_Jeff
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by VT_Jeff »

fallguy1000 wrote: Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:36 pm Just use the wo for the runners, but glue them on with 5200. Plywood will delam if you leave it in at all. It puffs on the edges. Even marine ply is not really made for full time immersion.
Agree with Dan here: use the oak, either with 5200 or with g-flex. Mark up the bonding surface considerably for a good mechanical bond.
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fallguy1000
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by fallguy1000 »

VT_Jeff wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:07 am
fallguy1000 wrote: Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:36 pm Just use the wo for the runners, but glue them on with 5200. Plywood will delam if you leave it in at all. It puffs on the edges. Even marine ply is not really made for full time immersion.
Agree with Dan here: use the oak, either with 5200 or with g-flex. Mark up the bonding surface considerably for a good mechanical bond.
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by Jaysen »

maybe i'm lucky, but I've not had issues with epoxy on white oak. The key things I did
1. clean clean clean
2. don't sand too smooth (stop at 80)
3. build thin layers of neat before glue
4. glue with dowels/screws for alignment but leave them in. :)

That said, I've only epoxied a small strip on a sailboat and a pile of furniture. No issues yet.

If you use ply, be ready to maintain. It will expand at the end (marine wood from BBC has not delamed but it looks like it wants to).

also... my race boat specifies white oak epoxied several places. No one has reported any failures. They are in the first transat now.
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Re: White oak and epoxy

Post by fallguy1000 »

But why would you epoxy on a wear strip anyhow?
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