The Beast is back in the water

JasonJ

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 20, 2001
Messages
4,163
Roughly 24 hours after pulling the boat out and diagnosing, the repair has been made and she is back in action. Epoxy is a Godsend. I learned a harsh bitter lesson, but it was kinda fun. First I whipped up a peanut-butter thick epoxy concoction with epoxy thickener, and filled the living snot out of the hole. The leftover batch heated my plastic measuring bucket to approximatly 7000 degrees, promptly melting it, with a brush sticking straight up. Now it is a concrete hard lump on my work table. I then whipped up a batch of epoxy and did the repair, using five layers of cloth, each layer larger than the last. With the repair completed, I noticed that, you guessed it, I now had two melted rock-hard plastic buckets with brushes sticking straight up. I had a few minor areas I sanded and wanted to just put a nice layer of epoxy just for peace of mind, so I whipped up a third very small batch and used all that up, no destroyed bucket. I loves me some epoxy, no smell, but it is spendy.<br /><br />Put her back in the water this morning, blasted around, no water. Here is a before and after shot of the gouge action.<br /><br />
gouge.jpg
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repairgouge.jpg
 

SeaMasterZ@aol.com

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
1,924
Re: The Beast is back in the water

so ....<br /><br />does that mean its best to get a metal bucket for that sorta fix, or was it just too much hardener?<br /><br />guess you looked a little "pail" when you saw yer bucket get all wishy washy, like frosty the snowman on a balmy august noon ... lol<br /><br /> :p
 

JasonJ

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 20, 2001
Messages
4,163
Re: The Beast is back in the water

The mix ratio was fine, its just that epoxy cures slow when it is spread out, but when it is in a small container and allowed to have depth, it cures super quick. Just one of those epoxy laws of physics. All I know is its been over a week and not a single drop of water has shown up in the bilge, I could not be happier.
 
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