Sealing The Deck Core From Moisture (how to)

[sailingdog]

Building a sailing dinghy allowed me to work with WEST epoxy over an extended period and in all types of weather conditions. If you have a freezer available you can mix larger batches and then freeze the stuff. At very cold temperature the reaction slows to almost zero so you can pull it out and use it as needed. Also NEVER MIX TOO MUCH AT ONCE. On a hot day a large batch with exothermically react and be so hot it will burn your hand and solidify almost instantly. And I mean HOT. So only mix what you will use in ten minutes or so otherwise you will waste it. West epoxy and hardner is probably 100 bucks a gallon now.

Don't recommend freezing the stuff to slow the reaction down, unless you live in a very dry climate. The near-frozen epoxy will have atmospheric moisture condense out onto it...which can royally screw it up. Also, if you leave it in the freezer too long, it may freeze—which can disrupt the catalyzation process.

Just a thought on hole location. Why not take a piece of plastic PVC tubing and slice it lengthwise and wrap it in on itself to give a spring load to the diameter. Put SARAN wrap over it (not sure if the epoxy will stick to pvc?) and stick it in the hole after putting in the epoxy. when it is cured, pull out the plastic plug peel off the saran wrap and you should only have to "chase" the hole to remove a little epoxy residue so you don't risk cutting off center? Just an idea, never tried it.

Epoxy sticks to PVC just fine. Why would you make what is otherwise a relatively simple process so complicated for absolutely no gain??

 

[jibes138]

Frozen epoxy

If you put it in a sealed container with minimal air then the condensation problem isn't muc if any issue at all. I used to use a rubbermade container with a snap fit lid and never had any problem with the material not reacting afterward. I'm not a chemist but experience would say no problem. You may be perfectly correct in your comment.