This is the first time I've ever used epoxy that didn't come out of a small tube. The plans just call for a water based glue but after looking on the message boards, epoxy is really the way to go. It's incredibly strong when it's correctly applied and cured. The wood will fail before the epoxy does. It can be used as a glue, coating, fairing compound and to apply the fiberglass. I mix hardener into the resin and apply this to the wood to protect it. I also use this mixture to wet out the fiberglass. I mix silica and wood flour into it to make glue. The silica keeps it from running and the wood flour thickens it up. I mix microballoons and wood flour into it to make a faring compound. The microballoons make it easy to sand to get a smooth finish. Besides, water based glue on a BOAT? They say that it's only water soluble until it hardens but it just doesn't seem right.
It does have it's drawbacks though. It's toxic for one thing! I have to wear gloves to apply it and a dust mask to sand it. You can actually have an allergic reaction if it gets on your skin. I may even get a jumpsuit to keep it off of me. It can get really hot...... I mean really hot. The chemical reaction between the resin and the hardener creates a lot of heat. After mixing it up it's best to spread it out in a paint tray or some such container. That helps to dissipate the heat. To give you an idea of how hot it gets, I ordered these pumps that dispense an ounce of liquid every time you press the plunger all the way down. One ounce of hardener for every two ounces of resin. I primed the pumps by holding a plastic cup under the spigot and depressing the plunger until liquid came out. I only let a few drops of the resin and harder fall into the cup and I set it down to start mixing up some glue. Well when I went back to throw the cup away after gluing up the keel, the bottom of the cup was melted. Jeeezz! Imagine if you dropped a big glob of it on your arm. I don't mix up more than a few ounces at a time when I am gluing. The "pot life" is about half an hour before it starts to harden up and become useless. Nothing like a little pressure on a novice boat builder. It's also extremely sticky. I have to be careful about how I pick stuff up when I am using it. I glued my rubber glove to my power drill the other day. It's also very hard to get off of the furniture if you have a little on you when you sit down. Don't ask me how I know. Oh yea, it costs $100 for a gallon of resin and a half gallon of hardener. That's almost as much as a week's worth of booze.... Almost.
It's kind of intimidating to get started with it. But I was determined not to let it beat me. So I had Debbie spread it while I fit the pieces together and screwed them up. Hey, the pieces were too heavy for her and she couldn't put enough push behind the drill. At least I mixed it up for her. And she offered to help. I didn't want to disappoint her. She had her heart set on helping.
All of the joints on the boat are both glued and screwed - that's just fun to say. I laugh every time I say it, try it, I bet you laugh too. The first pieces I put together were the keel. I don't have any pictures of us glueing up the keel because...well....we were busy gluing up the keel. Here is what it looked like after it was glued and the screwed. Hehe.
 |
| Keel Screwed and Glued |
I waited to do the gluing until in the early evening. One of the reasons for doing the boat now is because it's supposed to start getting cooler. Yea right! It's been like 95 friggin degrees and 60% humidity here in north Florida all September. I guess that's a little cooler than August when we were over 100 degrees but it is still too hot to epoxy. How Meteorologists get away with being wrong half the time and still keep their jobs I'll never know.......but I digress. It'll set up over night but it takes a good week or two to fully cure. I made a little stand for it from some scrap wood.
 |
| Keel |
Looks like a big lizard doesn't it? The bottom of the hull goes on it's "back", the deck is above that starting at the top of the "head" parallel to the hull bottom and the bowsprit will stick out on top of it's "nose". I'll steer the boat from back there on it's "tail".
So, I put my first parts of the boat together. Just like that, I'm a boat builder!
No comments:
Post a Comment