The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

I also had the same problem, bow and stern. Being a 1st-timer, I thought I had messed up somewhere while cutting out my molds. I ended up planing the strips narrower on one side and adding "spacers" on the other to get the ends to line up. I wouldn't have worried about it except that I was...

Looks great !

From the results I'm seeing, I'm thinking the "paper towel" method may someday become standard practice.

I ended up sanding off several coats of epoxy and re-coating several days later because I didn't like the finish....(orange peel). I didn't sand all the way to the cloth however. After sanding and re-coating it looks real nice.
I didn't have the color variation problem though....

I also minimized the dust problem by hooking my shopvac hose to my RO sander. I also made myself a dust collection system by taping a furnace filter to the intake side of a 2ft x 2ft window fan and let it run during, and an hour or so after, I sand.. At the end of each day I vacuum off the filter......

I just bought some figured maple veneer to make my decks with. I was a bit hesitant, thinking that I might get severely chastised by the purists for using something other than solid wood but finally decided to go for it........should I reconsider ? Or should I simply lie and tell everyone that it's ...

I've come to the point in my Hiawatha build where it's time to build seats. I'm planning on hanging them from the gunwhales because that seems to be what most folks do. I'm looking at the different designs out there and I'm curious as to why the seating area is usually so small. It seems to me there...

OMG !! That deck is gorgeous !

I made the mistake of assuming that all epoxies would have the same basic chemical properties, as far as cure times are concerned. I finally gave the entire boat a real good sanding with my RO sander and laid on 2 more coats,( 3 hours apart this time).....it's looking pretty good. Thanks to all for ...

I have the book "Illustrated Guide to Wood Strip Canoe Building" in which the author says it's safe to reacoat up to 3 days later without sanding. She used System 3 brand epoxy. Here's what System 3 says on their blog... " When this first coat is cured to at least a soft set tack free...

I guess I should have phrased it differently..

The scraper removes the runs with only a few strokes, just as if I was scraping hardwood....nice curly shavings.

Thanks Fonz.. I was under the impression that the chemical bond would take place up to several days....and that the epoxy didn't cure completely until 5 or 7 days....(but then again...I'm a newbie). The scraper idea is great. I had one which I hadn't really used much and decided to give it a try.......

I know this is an old post but someone out there may be asking the same question. I used the Lepages wood fillers with quite a bit of success. At first, I mixed 2 of their colors together to get close to the shade I needed. It's really easy to sand. I also used the Lepages filler mixed with epoxy......

The time between the 1st and 2nd coat was about 24hrs...the 1st coat was no longer tacky. The 1st coat seemed to soak in well,(although it's my first attempt so I can't really compare to anything). I didn't sand between the 1st and 2nd coats,(the 1st coat didn't have any huge runs). I only sanded th...

My 15ft Hiawatha got to the fiberglass stage this w/e and the actual laying down of the fabric went quite well. I really surprised myself. I even managed to do the stems without having to cut out any creases. I'm using West Systems with the 207 hardener. The 2nd coat of resin left me with quite a fe...

I'm fairly new here so maybe this isn't "news" to anyone but I thought this would be an easy way to machine scuppers... Start with a board which is the width of 2 gunwales. Draw a line down the center. Mark on the line where you want your scuppers to start and finish. Using a 1" spade...