Well, I am still fiberglassing the bottom of my weekender (running out of good weather). I did a little fairing and mixed a bad batch of epoxy...paying the price! Scraped, going to try denatured alchohol then sand.
Anyway, back to the story...
I knew I would likely run out of fiberglass cloth and epoxy when I finally do the deck and cabin, so I ordered more materials. Well, I said to go ahead and give me a roll of 60" cloth. They had sent me a roll before, but I will likely not have enough left over from that roll to finish. Anyway, I certainly did get a roll! A 100 pound roll of 4 oz cloth at the tune of $1,300! I crapped myself, blurted out some four letter expletives, then regained my composure. The next day I called the company back and miraculously they are taking it back. They joking said a 25% restocking fee ($350), but I did not laugh. All is well that ends well I guess.
Wow 100 lb roll of 4 oz cloth, enough to fibreglass an entire fleet of Weekenders. You'd need about 2- 55 gal drums of epoxy that would be a real "CHA CHING" :lol: All kiddin aside, glad they took it back.
Greg
Ahhh Jeff....you conjure some of my more unsavory memories of boat building when you talk of sanding with denatured alcohol. You are not alone....Been there....done that. The cloth.....well that may be another story. I've not had that pleasure yet. Actually, for me, because I had so much trouble getting my hull right. I just brushed on a coat of epoxy on the deck and painted. I think it will likely hold up fine. I've often heard that glass really isn't critical on the deck. I suppose that would depend on things like if it were going to live in the water 24/7. I hope I'm right about that and ultimatley time will tell.
I wish I would have known about the denatured alchohol ahead of time. I sanded half the boat trying to sand off uncured epoxy (patch areas) and it took FOREVER! I used the denatured alchohol last night, and the uncured patch areas wiped completely off with zero effort! It was amazing! So back to it for me!
I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it bears well to repeat, vinegar. Yep, plane old, steal it out of the pantry, when she's not looking, vinegar. It will cut through uncured epoxy quite well, as will any particularly acidic liquid. I used orange juice once in a pinch, when I stuck my ungloved hand in some still quite fresh goo. I was drinking some orange juice, wiped off what I could with a paper towel and then soaked another with the OJ and wiped some more. It worked. Okay, there was a small amount of residue left, but I did pretty much finish off the OJ before the incident occurred. In a nut shell, epoxy is very alkaline in nature, so any very acidic liquid will stop the chemical reaction
I use white vinegar and get it by the gallon on the cheap. I clean up hands, tools and surfaces with it. I do also have a special epoxy solvent I use, which I get from my epoxy manufacture. This I use as a finial rinse on tools and me, though it's not recommended for skin contact (knowing the chemistry, it's understandable). This product leaves no trace, no residue, just clean, but it isn't cheap, so I do the bulk of clean up with the vinegar, then a quick wipe with a dampened towel of the costly epoxy solvent, which saves loads of money on clean up materials.
I do a lot of epoxy work, even having my own special formulation of laminating resin, so providing clean tools and surfaces is important or most everything I have, would be coated with layers of cured goo or be stuck to something pretty permanently. If you plan on a fair amount of epoxy work pick up some TA 661 (
www.epoxyproducts.com). It's water soluble, very low VOC, though I don't recommend you drink it if you're of child bearing age, it is less harmful then many household products we use.
Awesome. Thanks Paul. All makes sense. Fortunately, I sanded the whole boat down already this weekend, doing a little touchup fairing work then on with final coats of epoxy. In Michigan here, we are still in the 70's and expecting 80's with night time temps of 60's. That is unheard of this time of year....so let the epoxying begin!