recomended Epoxy???

Hello, I have been researching epoxies on the web and getting lost. I need it for the woven roving (roving woven ) to be used to seal and hold the new stringers and deck. Nothing fancy here probably going to put rhino lining on top of the glass on the deck cause she's going to be a fishing boat. Thanks

 

Why epoxy?

 

www.raka.com

Best value I've found.

 

What do you recommend?

 

Ortho polyester resin. If it is good enough to built your boat out of it,should be good enough to repair your boat with. Its also easier to work with.

 

Tried to find general info about ortho and where to get it on the web. Any leads would be appreciated.

 

Easier to work with? I disagree with that.

 

Hello JEM, what would you recommend?

 

Give Larry at www.raka.com a call. He has years upon years of experience with your sort projects.

 

Thanks. Just one more Question, What kind of resin is that usc stuff that the auto parts stores sell?polyester?Anyone ever worked with Progressive Epoxies basic?http://www.epoxyproducts.com/
?

 

I would be comfortable using a polyester (or GP, DCPD) resin fixing the stringers in a boat that was built using the same basic kind of resin. Epoxy is great stuff but its expensive and if you use the polyester right: prep the surface, know your working times, and have the skills to do it, then you won't gain anything by using epoxy over polyester.

If the stringers were wrapped with epoxy, then you need to stay with epoxy tho.

either way is fine, just depends on how much $ you want to spend. Polyester is 1/2 (or less) the cost of epoxy.

 

Have you heard the cliche " you get what you pay for". So it is with epoxy vs. polyester. Polyester is far more widely used because it is cheap and fibreglass boats use huge quantities of it in their construction. Epoxy is more water resistant, ultimately stronger, less brittle, has greater adhesive properties just for starters. Polyester would work but the repair will ultimately last longer using epoxy. Check with your suppliers which epoxies are suited to marine use as some are not.

 

LOL The roving are the strands. Once they have been woven and made into cloth, it is called woven roving. If you use polyester on your project, you will have to use mat (chopped strand mat) as your first layer of fiberglass and in between layers of woven roving. I'm not sure about mat and epoxy, I've never used epoxy. Hopefully Rhino Lining comes in other colors, as black would make a hot deck. Sam

 

Black decks make you learn to dance fast...

When using woven roving with polyester, you need to start with chopped strand mat, and alternate between WR and CSM. Otherwise you get resin rich areas between the WR layers which impair the interlaminair bonding strength. (due to shrinkage and brittleness of polyester)

With epoxy, you can use WR throughout, without impairing interlaminair strength.

You could also use a multiaxial in +/- 45 direction, but you need a source for that. (www.vectorply.com)

About polyester vs epoxy: there are several threads about that. I will not dive into that.

Woven roving:



CSM (the middle one on the picture)

 

Mat and epoxy don't mix well. The silane coating on mat needs to be disolved by the styrene in polyester resin. It will set up and cure but I have seen delamination problems. I only use epoxy for small repairs and for sealing primers. Waste of money.