The Fear of Fiberglassing

[MacG]

The whole issue of epoxy resins started for me somewhere late '60 s when I had an Italian racing car with a broken steering-housing that was almost pure magnesium.

A friend of mine worked already a few years with epoxy resins, making special formulations for the aircraft industry.

At Fokker Aircraft the housing was cleaned, glued and baked.

Since that time, there were only two types of glue for me: Aerodux (phenol-resorcinol formaldehyde) and the many formulations of Polymers called epoxy.

It was Ciba-Geigy who produced an industrial epoxy, called Araldite that was not available at that time for the public market.
Late 80' s the yachtmarket started to (finally) respond and in this field it was SP epoxy and WEST taking the lead.

In some cases, - as for making plywood - Aerodux is a better choice, it is in some particular applications stronger than epoxy. (ceramic to metal and metal to metal)

The problem with plywood is the technical inferior glue the plywood producers use for the bonding the several layers together.

Today, there are many easy-to-use formulations of epoxy, resin to harder 2:1, the more advanced epoxy's have more difficult to mix ratio's.

In any case, epoxy is a common article and nobody should be shy to use it.

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by dandrews

May I suggest that instead of a rag to cache the drips, use a piece of plastic. Once dry, the drip will pop right off the plastic and you can drop it in the trash and the plastic is ready to use again.

Originally Posted by bobofthenorth

Has somebody told you that the best cleanup material is plain white vinegar? Use it before the epoxy cures and it will wipe right up.

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

The one thing the manuals never say when working with epoxy is to never scratch your nose .

Originally Posted by Tony B

I generally always have a helper. One of us (me) gets really nasty and the other person (her) stays clean. That way, she can readily cut an unexpected needed shape/piece with clean scissors and pass the piece of fiberglass to me. The other (she), also keeps up with the mixing and timing.

Originally Posted by atoll

or light a cigarett when you still have the rag soaked in thinners in your other hand!

Noting all this in our copy of 'Fiberglassing for Dummies!' And especially highlighting the bit about smoking fer Himself!!

The team approach makes lots of sense, but as a backup when you don't have a partner handy, if you put on a couple of pairs of gloves when you start you can quick peel the top messy layer off and have clean hands when you need them!

Originally Posted by HopCar

Nicely done! Your next assignment is to build a stitch and glue dinghy. You're ready for it.

Oh you card you! Here I thought I was being adventurous considering making an enclosure for the ST50 displays next!

Originally Posted by slowshoes

sarafina,

Congrats on competing your project! I've also never fiberglassed before and have a couple areas where the tabbing needs to be repaired. How did you prep the areas where the tabbing has let go - can you place new tabbing right over the old stuff or should the old tabbing be ground away?

I feel just as intimidated as you were, but I would really like to know how to do this myself, so I don't want to pay someone to do it for me. Any advice would be appreciated.

OK, not an expert here, obviously, but the advice we got, and commonsense dictated, was to remove all loose material and paint before starting.

Figure this way; if the tabbing is damaged then you don't want to use it as the base for the new work. Paint can peel up and chip, so you want that gone too. Strong to strong makes a good bond ; -)

[slowshoes]

Thanks for the reply sarafina. Sounds like I'd be better off to grind away the old stuff before replacing with new. I'm going to put it on my to do list for spring. Thanks again.

[terminalcitygrl]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing and congrats!

[smj]

Don't ever prime your hardener pump into an empty beer can......while your drinking beer It was a memorable experiance.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by smj

Don't ever prime your hardener pump into an empty beer can......while your drinking beer It was a memorable experiance.

Eeeeww! The hardener is where all the really nasty chems are, that's cancer in a can!

Which brings me to my point; when glassing with epoxy remember that although it doesn't smell anywhere near as bad as poly resin, it is much more toxic. Use a decent respirator, you dont want to get sensitized or worse get cancer, seen way too many cases...

[Ex-Calif]

Well done, Sara!

Another skill in the bag.

The main thing for me is that fiberglassing is chemistry. Shortcutting and not measuring is a bad idea...

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by minaret

Eeeeww! The hardener is where all the really nasty chems are, that's cancer in a can!

Which brings me to my point; when glassing with epoxy remember that although it doesn't smell anywhere near as bad as poly resin, it is much more toxic. Use a decent respirator, you dont want to get sensitized or worse get cancer, seen way too many cases...

G'Day all,

I'd like to reinforce Minaret's point here! It isn't a joke... The chap who built our boat in Western Red Cedar and epoxy was young and immortal at that time. He only took minor precautions (he used gloves, but no respirator, etc) and became so sensitized to the epoxy that he can no longer work in that medium. As a consequence when he built his next boat he was forced to build in foam and vinylester which he hates. Further his lungs are so scarred that after a chest x-ray his Doc thought he had emphysema!

This is serious stuff, so pay attention to the protection issues when you use epoxies.

Cheers,

Jim

[DeepFrz]

Originally Posted by smj

Don't ever prime your hardener pump into an empty beer can......while your drinking beer It was a memorable experiance.

I'm glad you can still remember...

[smj]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

I'm glad you can still remember...

Not to worry. That took place years ago when I was young and a quick thinker. A quick gargle of acetone and all was fine:-)

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by smj

Not to worry. That took place years ago when I was young and a quick thinker. A quick gargle of acetone and all was fine:-)

I gather that you were not a smoker at the time!

Jim

[DeepFrz]

Originally Posted by smj

Not to worry. That took place years ago when I was young and a quick thinker. A quick gargle of acetone and all was fine:-)

LOL .

[minaret]

Originally Posted by smj

Not to worry. That took place years ago when I was young and a quick thinker. A quick gargle of acetone and all was fine:-)

Lol! I once drained a fuel filter into an empty Snapple Iced Tea bottle. The next morning early one of my thirsty crew decided to pick it up and drain it at a gulp. I felt really really bad. He learned an important lesson. It could have been worse, it was a very small boat with no head!

[Nicholson58]

Now that you've used the expensive and difficult stuff, try US Composites 635 Thin resin. Fiberglass , Epoxy , Composites, Carbon Fiber - U.S. Composites, Inc. You can clean up with GoJo and water untill it reacts and it reacts VERY slowly. They also sell all sorts of fillers and cloth and all for a lot less than West. US also has a wide variety of other useful resins and tools. They have the best price I've found for Microballoons, my preferred filler for replacement of balsa or foam in wet decks and rudders. I used it to make 15 gallons of filler for my rudder rebuild and its way stronger than balsa or foam. Check out my gallery photos for lots of different repairs. I experimented with the 635 as a top finish directly over my teak hatch bezzels instead of varnish. Still looks like new after three years.

Member Galleries - Cruisers & Sailing Photo Gallery

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

G'Day all,

I'd like to reinforce Minaret's point here! It isn't a joke... The chap who built our boat in Western Red Cedar and epoxy was young and immortal at that time. He only took minor precautions (he used gloves, but no respirator, etc) and became so sensitized to the epoxy that he can no longer work in that medium. As a consequence when he built his next boat he was forced to build in foam and vinylester which he hates. Further his lungs are so scarred that after a chest x-ray his Doc thought he had emphysema!

This is serious stuff, so pay attention to the protection issues when you use epoxies.

Cheers,

Jim

Too true. I have seen crew become skin sensitized in under six months. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was firing good crew I liked and respected because they didn't listen to the rules and weren't cautious enough, became sensitized and therefore unable to continue work in our environment. Has happened more than once, epoxy just seems so benign that people don't want to listen. Respiratory sensitization is really ugly, I know people who can't come within a hundred yards of wet epoxy without breaking out in hives all over their body...