STICKY WARS

My battle with sticky things continues, namely epoxy-resin. Whilst I have chosen the new techniques of modern wooden boat building in Seagull's build, I still have the traditionalist's fear of using new techniques based on 'glue'. Which is why I have gone to the extent of belt & braces (belt and suspenders in the US: of men's pants?). I have put extra 'glue' on what I thought were areas of potential weakness. 

In the picture below you can see how I have gone around most joints with a (dark brown) fillet of epoxy resin.

Which sounds great but, as with anything sticky, the fillets are the result of a saga.

   I had kept the epoxy components in a warm dry place over the winter, yet, despite this, the hardener was discoloured. Not wanting to risk materials that might be 'off', I spent, too much, money replacing all the components.

From the photograph above you can see I replaced the Epoxy resin (105 on the tin/can), the Hardener (205), the 5:1 dispensers (bagged), the fillet powder (cylinder) and for good measure to rolls of fibre glass material (at the back).

I started by filling the internal gap between the planks and the stem

Although the planks are glued and screwed to the stem I wasn't totally happy with (a) the strength (b) the integrity to keep moisture out of the joint. I decided to fill the gap with a epoxy resin fillet (see below)

To make the fillet I thoroughly mixed the resin and hardener together and then added the fillet powder and continued to mix. I kept adding and mixing powder until the mixture had peanut butter constituency. Next I scooped the mixture into a cake icing (frosting) bag, below:

I cut the tip off the bag and 'piped' the mixture into the joints.

The fillet compound is really strong, bringing great strength to the joint and sealing the joint from any water sloshing around the inside of the boat