Steve,
I work with both epoxy and resin. For larger repairs I tend to use resin.
If your repair isn't terribly structural, why not use resin? Resin is a
fraction of the cost of epoxy. The West System makes it easy with their
proportional pumps. But...resin is also easy if you go metric. Instead of
ounces, use milliliters or centiliters. Mix MEKP at about 2% and away you go.
200 ml resin : 4 ml MEKP. See how easy that is? And cheaper, too. If you
know anyone in the medical industry, have them bring you some of those small
dose cups marked with mls. I use one of these:
http://www.fibreglast.com/product/MEKP_Dispensers_166/Supplies_Tools_Dispensing
True, epoxy bonds better but strengthwise, there's not much difference. Much
of the strength is in the cloth.
I've put gelcoat over epoxy several times with no adverse problem. I clean the
area thoroughly with solvent and rough it slightly with extra fine sandpaper to
give it a little "tooth". As a practice, I tend to use resin if I'm applying
gelcoat over it.
Dennis C.
Touche' 35-1 #83
Mandeville, LA
>________________________________
> From: Steve Thomas <sthom...@sympatico.ca>
>To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com
>Sent: Monday, December 30, 2013 7:45 PM
>Subject: Stus-List C&C (1990) gelcoat epoxy adhesion
>
>
>
> All this talk about gelcoat matching has got me thinking about everyone's
>seemingly universal preference for using epoxy (West
>system in particular) for doing repairs. I am contemplating the purchase of a
>boat that I know has a couple of soft deck issues,
>and it seems to me that since this is an all too frequent repair, how does one
>get the gelcoat to stick? I don't want to use
>paint. Gelcoat manufacturers say don't do it. West says get rid of any amine
>blush, do everything by the book with the epoxy, and
>it should be ok. Anyone had problems with this, or is it just a bit of over
>caution on the part of gelcoat manufacturers as West
>claims?
>
>Steve Thomas
>C&C27 MKIII
>
>
>
>
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