Vinegar is the correct hand cleaner to use for epoxy. Check out the expensive West system cleaner.....vinegar or an industrial equivalent unless I'm mistaken. The bonus is that it's great on your fish and chips or mixed with peanut butter for a camping trip thai noodle sauce. A good habit to get into is the 'clean hand -dirty hand' working routine. It sure saves those smeared fingerprints on the deck of the boat when you inadvertently grab hold for support. Just make sure that one (gloved ) hand is used for the resin/glass application and the other isn't. I transport the wetted out glass, brush or whatever in my clean hand using a piece of cardboard or any other disposable material. I have moved away from epoxy for boat repair as it's just too expensive and is probably over specified for a simple repair job. Gel doesn't take over it and color pigment doesn't hold. What's the point? Polyester is half the cost and I have never as yet had a repair fail due to breakdown of the resin or mat. It's a matter of choice I guess or perceived ease of working, especially with the pre measured mixing ratio's on the West system. Keel strips can be done as easily by running a 2" strip of masking tape along the keel with additional strips either side. Remove the central one thus leaving a perfect 2" gap tailor made for a strip of 2 " woven cloth. Mix up some resin and wet out the little devil on to the keel. Next, using your original mix or preferably mixing up a new batch, add a generous amount of filler to a thick consistency. Best try for a suitable filler( Cabosil maybe) and not one intended for sanding or shaping as they tend to be softer. Spread it on before the original application gets too tacky. Judicious and immaculate timing is everything and when the mix starts to go off, remove the masking tape either side leaving a neat, clean line. You can use Gel, resin or a mixture of both but Gel stabilises quicker. Nigel Dennis of ASSC recommends using a contrasting color so one may discern when the keel line wears through. Yes, I can see it now; a bright fluorescent pink clashing wonderfully with the red an and yellow trim......Suit yerself ! All advice stems from experience gleaned from catastrophic repair screw ups. A good day on the water. Stroke clinic a.m. and rescues p.m. plus talking myself hoarse dispensing priceles nuggets of sea kayaking lore. Yep...that's what old paddlers do best......yakety kayak. Peace Phil *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:59 PDT