Re: [Paddlewise] New boat

aburton1_at_maine.rr.com wrote:

> Are you building (did you build) inside in a basement or shop, in a 
> garage, or where?  What
> is the ambient temperature?  Did you need to be concerned with it
> being too low for the epoxy to cure properly?
> 
> I'm thinking I will go for it (eventually), but need to figure out
> these environment basics - is the
> basement big enough, warm enough, humid (or not) enough, and is the
> Bilco door at the
> right angle to get it out....or is the garage an option, with nighttime
> temperatures anywhere from -10 to 30...Something to think about while
> waiting for kayaking season...

I built a Pygmy kit in a buddy's shop, and tried to use fast hardener and
spot heating of the work area to contend with cold temps (40 F).  I
eventually abandoned that concept and moved to a smaller, heated area (top
of his pool table in a craft room).  It was not heated all the time, but I
could turn on the heat and warm the surfaces up for an hour or so before
commencing with epoxy work.

I **strongly** recommend working in an area which can be heated **before**
and during the time you are working with resin and glass.  It is not so
critical it be heated during cure time, because the only effect is
prolonged curing times.  Why preheat, you ask?  It's due to the fact that
wood "breathes," so that when it is being warmed up, it out-gasses.  If the
wood is still in its warm-up phase when you lay on the resin, the wood will
continue to out-gas as the resin cures, blowing a bunch of really nice
pinholes, which are a real pain in the patooty to deal with later.

The procedure I eventually developed involved preheating the room to 65 F
for an hour, preparing the resin (kept in an 80 - 90 F heated plywood box
[60 - 100 W light bulb] so it would be nicely fluid for good spreading and
wetting of the glass), and then *turning off the heat* as I laid on resin. 
This caused the gases in the wood to slowly contract, sucking the resin
*into* any potential pinhole areas, while maintaining a warm enough
temperature for good resin flow.  With the "fast" hardener (System 3), this
gave 24 hour cures, even when the room dropped to 40 F overnight.

If this sounds like a lot of hassle, then you have never had to deal with
thick epoxy in the spreading stage.  Think molasses on denim in winter and
you'll know why I abandoned my "cold shop" epoxy work.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR


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