Ron Thornton ) writes:
Come on William, I didn't say epoxy is necessary. I said that without
an informed opinion (in part the application testing you speak of, which
I did at GE for 10 years) you had a better bet (guess) with epoxy. Your
right, I don't know. That's why at todays prices I chose to go with
epoxy and increase my odds.

the original question was from a beginner who said the plan called for
polyester and was wondering if he should use epoxy.


You are the only one I'm hearing that says epoxy doubles the cost of a
small boat. In fact, so far the other builders seem to disagree. You
sure of that?

a quart of epoxy resin alone costs $32 without hardener or filler at
Candadian Tire. I'd probably only use a pint. however the most I've put
into one of my home made boats is $60. that was the expensive one. the
others were both under $25, including a tube of PL Preimuim at $3.99.

Lloyd Sumpter posted the same thing when he was costing out one of Gavin
Atkin's one sheet Mouse boats.

if you're a professional boatbuildier you have to include the cost of
labour, a boatbuilding yard, insuranace, tools, advertising, etc, etc,
which adds to the cost of the boat and lowers the proportional cost of the
adhesive. of course if all the customers want epxoy because they've been
conditioned by advertisign to expect epxoy, then one has to build with
epoxy. you're also likely to use epoxy to avoid any risk of lawsuits if
the customer runs his boat onto the rocks. since the customer pays for the
epxoy then why not use it? you get that mentality a lot with canoes.
ignorant people influenced by advertising want kevlar and expoy because
they think they can run survive bigger rapids, sigh.


I agree that epoxy has been overpromoted especially in the area of
encapsulating wood but we're not talking about that here. Allans
question was what to use to repair a boat of poly glass construction.
For that amount of material I believe epoxy wins hands down.

I've borrowed books and videos on boat repair from the public library
which adivse using polyester to repair polyester boats. I've used it
myself on the few small repairs I've done. If people are more comfortable
with epoxy I guess that's what they will use, if only for peace of mind. I
can't help wondering how much epoxy promotion has to do with peace
of mind. First you raise people's anxiety level, then you lower it again.
Advertising is beautiful.


Regards, Ron

I don't recieve e-mail at this address because of spam. E-mail me
at crtsrATmsnDOTcom.



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