This sucks !

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Tony Reinolds
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:30 pm

This sucks !

Post by Tony Reinolds »

Red bird is ready for epoxy and I cant afford to purchase right now. This is killing me. :crying
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Glen Smith
Posts: 3719
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Post by Glen Smith »

Well Tony, I still have some epoxy left so maybe you should just send the Redbird to me and forget about it. :twisted evil
Tom in MN
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:42 am
Location: Eagan, MN

Raka

Post by Tom in MN »

Maybe you should try cheaper epoxy. Raka is about as inexpensive as it comes. Their five ounce cloth is also pretty cheap. Your only talking $200 or so for resin, hardener and cloth.

Get a piece of cardboard and string, write on the cardboard "Will work for fiberglass and epoxy" and stand out on a busy intersection. Maybe someone will be so intrigued and ask what your talking about and give you the money!
AlanWS
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:30 pm
Location: Shorewood, WI

Post by AlanWS »

Either I'm blind, or Raka hasn't listed their 5 oz cloth on their site for a while. Their epoxy has a low price and has tested out to be excellent, but there are even cheaper options.

http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html has a slow-cure non-blushing epoxy that costs about half as much as the Raka. I think you need to do the glassing at 80 degrees F or warmer though. A few people do still use polyester resin rather than epoxy. It is substantially cheaper than epoxy (ca. $20/gal) and will work, though epoxy has enough advantages that most builders use it.

30 years ago, when the total cost of wood, glass, hardware and resin to make a canoe was about $100, the price difference seemed more important than it does today. Some polyesters apparently stick to the wood a lot better than others, so if you do go that route, getting the resin from someplace like Ketter, that has been making canoes with both polyester and epoxy for many years, might be worth it. http://www.kettercanoeing.com/html/buildingsupps.html
Alan
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Glen Smith
Posts: 3719
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Post by Glen Smith »

I believe Raka withdrew the 5 oz cloth because they were getting too many complaints about fibers not wetting out completely.
cedar stroker
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 12:56 pm
Location: Minnesota

epoxy

Post by cedar stroker »

Try a website by the name of "soller paddles". They sell West system epoxy the cheapest I've found on the net. Have made 4 perchases from them. Excellent company to buy from,and plus if they over charge on your shipping they refund your amount you were overcharged ASAP. I believe the only way to pay for it over the net is by PayPal. But you could probabley call them at there shop and do it by cedit card. I give them a A+++. I have another batch of epoxy and hardener coming as we speak.
Best of luck,and if you would send me your canoe,i'll surely epoxy it myself.And send it back after a couple of years,just to make sure I did a great job.
Take Care,
"CEDAR STROKER" :twisted evil
Snowman
Posts: 233
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:21 pm
Location: Gatineau, QC

Post by Snowman »

I have used the US Composites on my Endeavour. Since it is my first boat, I have nothing to compare it with, but I will give you my comments, nonetheless. Overall, I was very happy with the products. I used 6 oz e-glass and their medium hardener. The cloth came rolled on a bolt - in good condition. I got a good wet-out and nice transparency over most of the surface. I have two areas (approx 1.5' dia each) where if you look really close and in the right light, you can see the weave pattern, very lightly as a "white" weave. It is hardley noticeable. I glassed at 65-70 deg F and approx 70% humidity and was able to re-apply after approx 3.5-4 hours.

Sorry if this post has turned into a products evaluation page, but I wanted to post my comments when I saw the ref to US Composites. I was not sure when I was selecting my products so I figured I would share my experience to let you know how it turned out. The price was certainly right!
Snowman back East
Tony Reinolds
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:30 pm

Post by Tony Reinolds »

Thanks I feel better now. :laughing
Shuswap Pat
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 10:33 pm
Location: Salmon Arm, BC.

Inexpensive Epoxy

Post by Shuswap Pat »

If you want something cheaper, try Aquaset - I am using it, and it seems to work well.

Pat
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