Thread: Quick Canoe - Clinton's build in Sydney

I started mine yesterday.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/q...-155-a-118846/

Cool! I just find it fun... 3 sheets ply, battens and glue, go canoeing. A fun concept.

Wow ... two quick canoes - This one is part built by Clinton and part a group build project for the Sydney Division of the Ubeaut wood group. He is being more relaxed than Cliff and pal who have a deadline of next weekend!!

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/q...-155-a-118846/

Nah, the Ubeaut Wooden Boat Squadron - Sydney Division came to my place... had a BBQ and just sat around telling lies and looking at my tools... this one will be the 'teaser' for the next meeing of the "UBWBS-SD"...

Seriously Michael... I'm keeping a clock on this one... determined to stuff this one - I mean, make it quick and allow others to learn from the few minor , but deliberate, 'errors'.
It will be in the water on Saturday.

If I do it well enough, it will be on display soonish, which is scary.

Stuffed up on the time sheet last night... it was 1 hour and 5 minutes. Tonight is 3 coats of epoxy on the inside... yet another 15 minutes work along with too many minutes of waiting for the epoxy to dry.

Originally Posted by Clinton1

Nah, the Ubeaut Wooden Boat Squadron - Sydney Division came to my place... had a BBQ and just sat around telling lies and looking at my tools... this one will be the 'teaser' for the next meeing of the "UBWBS-SD"...

Seriously Michael... I'm keeping a clock on this one... determined to stuff this one - I mean, make it quick and allow others to learn from the few minor , but deliberate, 'errors'.
It will be in the water on Saturday.

If I do it well enough, it will be on display soonish, which is scary.

Stuffed up on the time sheet last night... it was 1 hour and 5 minutes. Tonight is 3 coats of epoxy on the inside... yet another 15 minutes work along with too many minutes of waiting for the epoxy to dry.

I used polyester resin, but was building in temps between -3c and +1c. Using lots of catalyst and a heat gun, I could get it to kick off, but ended up bringing the whole, stinky project into the garage where it was a balmy 10c. I, too was spending a lot of time waiting for glass to dry.

Rick.

Guess what I did!

Was feeling so chuffed about getting the sides and base taped together on my own that I forgot to put on the tape around the fillet lines... and combined it with way too runny glue mix, on one side.

Guess who's been hanging around waiting for the glue to get to 'just right' stage for shaping with the fillet stick?

Lesson learnt.

So, forgot the tape around the fillet joins, adn I didn't mix the epoxy thick enough... so I spent too much time checking on the eoxy and waiting till I could push it into place. Then I redid it. What should have been 10 minutes turned into an hour.
Lesson learnt for the next one.
It did give me the time to think through changes to my process for the next one though, so not a wasted effort.

Pics for Cliff... who I may be sneaking up on.

We worked til 11:30pm last night so we are a bit further along now.

Howdy, you should use the gunwales clamped in position temporarily to fair up the sheerline.

It is good to do that when the glass goes in too. Good progress.

MIK

Mik (or whoever is 'qualified):

I've never used epoxy to cover large surfaces like in this canoe, or the wet on wet method.
How much is the right amount?
With my spreader (or a tongue depressor) I can lay on the epoxy very thin (press hard and the topof the grain is almost 'dry'), or so thick it runs.

I'd imagine there is a 'right amount'... ?

Normally I'd put epoxy in joints, thin to soak into timber fibeers, then a thicker coat 'a'la wet on wet' to fill any voids and/or with filler for greatest strength. Thats the end of my experience with epoxy.

Thanks...

Mik will be along, but the best way I can describe what I do is that each coat ends up being similar to rolling on a thick coat of exterior acrylic paint.
I use a plastic spreader to almost rub the first coat on as you describe then for the second and third coats spread out as evenly as you can then roll out with foam roller then tip off using the roller held so it wipes the surface removing any lumps or bubbles.

For smaller areas and vertical surfaces that are hard to roll a bush and credit card work reasonably well, guess at the end of the day the thickness is whatever you need to allow for sanding while maintaining a sealed surface.

Have fun...now that is an oxymoron.

yep, I've ben following the very detailed descriptions/instructions on applying the wet on wet... but I'm more 'visual' and learn best from seeing once.

Hi Clint, I used MIK's advised method of rolling on the epoxy and then putting a finger on the roller and dragging the non-rolling roller across the surface lightly to give a final finish.

Did three coats wet on wet in the day by starting early.

No problems with epoxy running as it goes off or blooming or anything. Excellent method.

Where I used a brush on the epoxy coating for the spars I had lots of running as it went off.

So, in summary MIK's method easily the best I have tried.

Brian

Originally Posted by Clinton1

Mik (or whoever is 'qualified):

I've never used epoxy to cover large surfaces like in this canoe, or the wet on wet method.
How much is the right amount?
With my spreader (or a tongue depressor) I can lay on the epoxy very thin (press hard and the topof the grain is almost 'dry'), or so thick it runs.

I'd imagine there is a 'right amount'... ?

Normally I'd put epoxy in joints, thin to soak into timber fibeers, then a thicker coat 'a'la wet on wet' to fill any voids and/or with filler for greatest strength. Thats the end of my experience with epoxy.

Thanks...

Howdy,

Using a squeegee to spread epoxy is really fast for an initial coat. But the film thickness is not controllable enough - it is always too thick or too thin. However I do sometimes use a squeegee to do an initial quick spread of the first coat before finishing it with a roller.

You can't use the squeegee for further coats when doing wet on wet because

• the corners of the squeegee inevitably leave tracks in the half gelled first layer
• when you pour the epoxy on to the first coated surface from the container the new epoxy tends to dissolve the layer under to some extent - at least where the new layer pools - before you spread it with the squeegee

So can use the sqeegee for the first coat but after that you should stick to the rollers. That way you can work methodically along the hull.

The purpose made epoxy rollers are quite good at monitoring the amount of epoxy going onto the surface. You should have to roll it out a bit with the roller - probably what you initially apply in the first three or four seconds (which is quite a long time) of a particular rollerfull needs to be spread out to about 2 times the initial area with more careful rolling.

You shouldn't get the feeling that you are rolling with a dry roller - if you try to cover too much area it will seem to take forever to wet the surface, rolling and rerolling over the surface many times to get rid of the dry spots.

If it is too wet there will be a sort of heavy sticky gluiness to the roller movement.

While you get the hang of it don't make up big mixes of epoxy. Just enough to handle comfortably while you are taking your time. If you start at one end and work methodically to the other there is no rush at all. When you have run out of epoxy in the tray you have 15 t0 20 minutes (in Australian winter weather) to mix up a new batch and continue moving the same wet edge towards the other end of the boat.

You can see how a rush system is hardly necessary. In summer you probably have a good 5 or so minutes to mix a new batch.

So just take it nice and easy.

The epoxy sometimes tends to kick off, releasing lots of heat if it sits in the tray too long, so if that happens pour it out into a tin can - put the can somewhere where it won't set anything on fire and make up a new batch. Once the heat is there it tends to get out of hand quickly - so if this happens make a smaller batch up next time and rough roll it out on the surface first, before following up in the slower more methodical way.

But keep the amount of epoxy you are mixing low and gradually increase the amounts as you gain confidence. Gradually!!

Best wishes
MIK