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I am about to build an extension deck for my boat and am very confused on what epoxy to get. All I am looking for is water proofing can someone let me know which one I should get from the link below? Also, how much do I need? The deck will be about 24" X 40". I know nothing about this stuff. Thanks.
http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html
3:1 medium epoxy resin is what I used and should work for the majority of the applications. It is some good stuff http://xs-s.com/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif . Put one coat on the wood and let it dry. Wipe the finished wood down with acetone (cleans the oily residue off of the cured epoxy resin), scuff it up a bit, clean the wood again and lay down a second coat. Make sure you wipe the epoxy resin down with acetone, before adding carpet and such. Any hardware store carries acetone. It's a pretty common cleaner.
Modified by ProcraftMike at 7:54 AM 9/25/2006
Thanks for you insight!!!!!
thin the first coat with 10-15% toluene [hardware store]. if you use the slow resin you can recoat it within 24 hours with out sanding, but its still a very good idea to do it. for the first coat you could use the rot resin[cant think of the trade name], it really pentrates the wood, but will increase the cost.
i used west systems from west marine when i replaced my transom and it works great and easy to work with. they have slow.med. and fast hardners to choose from and best of all it was odorless but not cheap.
I used the west systems from west marine with the pumps and followed the instructions. It was simple and is working great. Their hotline is helpful too
West Marine epoxy is good, but I think it is way over priced. I did some research one day and someone had done a test on 6 different epoxy resins, 1 being West Marine brand. It really did not fair any better than some of the other brands. In fact, it did worse in many of the category's tested.
Unfortunately, the US Composites epoxy was not part of the test, but I have used it and it works just fine, for a fraction of the price if West Marine.
I ended up using the US Composites epoxy and it worked great and the price was the by far the best.
I made up a list of all the things I needed for my project, and went e-shopping. I ended up getting some things from US Composites, but my epoxies from Progressive-Epoxy-Polymers. By far the best prices on resins, he makes it apparently. More info on epoxy on his site than anywhere else (although somewhat cluttered), he's some kind of epoxy freakazoid..... Plus he responds to email questions almost before you can hit the "send" button http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif
I found that as far as price is concerned, US Composites, Greer(?), and Progressive are lowest. The guy at progressive seems to know his s*** though.
Stephen,
For what you are looking to do, normal polyester resin will give you the same results, and it is much cheaper. Use MEPK 45% and use it 5-8% of the volume of resin you want to use.
Example.
There are 30 C.C. (or M.L.)'s per ounce.
Take the number of ounces of resin you want to mix and multiply it by 30. That will give you the number of CC's of resin in your cup.
Now multiply the number of CC's of resin, by .05 (that is 5%), and it will give you the number of C.C.'s of hardner you need to use.
If you are going to mix one quart of resin, 32 ounces.
Multiply 32 ounces by 30. That gives you 960 CC's of resin.
Multiply 960 X .05 = 48 CC's of MEKP hardner
Add 48 CC's of hardner to your 32 ounces of Resin, stir, and brush on, you are done! be sure to add real heavy coats since the wood will actually absorb a lot of the resin.
With this cooler weather down here, 5% of MEKP 45%, should give you 8-12 minutes cup time. If you need to slow the hardening time down, go to 3-4% by volume, and if you need to speed up the hardning time, you can go to around 8%.
Give me a call if you have any questions.
Welcome to the BBC Michael.........glad to have you join us.
I've sent you an IM. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/glasses.gif
Thanks for the welcome Al!