Saturday, April 16, 2011

Cockpit Coaming Again

This is the assembled cockpit coaming glued on. I decided to use wood flour rather than silica to thicken the epoxy, in order to get a better color match.
Oops, I did it again! I knew that thin coats of epoxy would take longer to cure, but after two days, I began to suspect that I'd screwed up again (Scene Of The Goof). After a suitable tantrum, I thought that this and the other time, the problem wasn't the mix ratio, but temperature. The leftover 1/2" of epoxy in the mixing cup hasn't cured yet, either. My basement averages about 58 degrees. They're really serious about that business of not leaving the epoxy on the concrete floor! I think that if the stuff is mixed at too low a temperature, the reaction will never take place.
I decided to try another tip: using lights to raise the temperature of the surface. I placed two work lights with 100-watt bulbs about three feet away from the boat. After two hours, the lamps have raised the temperature to 68 degrees.

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