Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.8/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA17677; Tue, 15 Aug 1995 12:04:58 -0700 Return-Path: <jrunge@netcom.com-DeleteThis> Received: from netcom16.netcom.com by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP ($Revision: 1.36.108.11 $/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA116063554; Tue, 15 Aug 1995 12:05:54 -0700 Received: by netcom16.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id LAA27130; Tue, 15 Aug 1995 11:59:01 -0700 From: jrunge@netcom.com-DeleteThis (Jay Runge) Message-Id: <199508151859.LAA27130@netcom16.netcom.com-DeleteThis> Subject: Re: Board Repair Question To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995 11:59:00 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <9508151624.AA07943@booza.mcm.com-DeleteThis> from "Justin Gordon" at Aug 15, 95 09:56:58 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 2594
I am an expert in fixing dings. That is no suprise to anyone who
has seen me sail, since I am an expert in creating dings.
I repair small dings with epoxy resin and microballoons. Microballoons
are little white plastic spheres, also called microspheres or Qcel. I
got mine at Tap plastics, a lifetime supply. It sounds like that is
the stuff in the West kit that you have.
Mix the epoxy according to instructions - quantities are important! It
doesn't work with epoxy to put extra hardener to make it harden faster, that
just means it will never get very hard. Measure carefully! Put enough
balloons to make it a paste, like cake icing. More balloons is better than
not enough.
Clean the paint from around the ding with a knife and sandpaper. Make sure
the spot is clean and dry. Push the stuff in the hole and put extra on the
outside (you will fair it off later). Now you are in the don't-mess-with-it
stage. So don't! Let it kick until it is hard, I wait until the next
morning. If after 12 or 14 hours the repair is still rubbery, you probably
mixed the epoxy incorrectly. Kicks a little faster if it is warm (sun).
Next day you can scrape and sand the repair to the correct contours. Some
people say that you can paint it now, but I just go sailing. November is
the time to paint boards, dings.
If the ding is big (bigger than a book of matches, maybe??), you might need
some glass for strength. You just have to make a logical guess about that.
Depends on the shape of the ding, and where on the board it happens to be.
I have used other methods. 5 min epoxy is for temp fixes only, because it
isn't very waterproof (better than duct tape, I bet). I scrape the 5 min
epoxy fixes out after sailing and do the real job. I have used Marine tex,
it works great but gets pretty hard, therefore is tough to sand. I have used
their trick, heat lamp on the marine tex, and it will cure in about an hour.
In the boatyard we used some stuff we called 'green death', a yellow and
black putty that we mixed together to make a olive green filler that would
kick under water, handy for big boats, but I have never used it on a board.
Plumbers use this stuff to fix dead or dying pipes.
Polyester resin will melt styrofoam! Unless you are sure your board is
polyester, don't use polyester resin. Too bad really, because it is very much
cheaper than epoxy resin.
The big advantage to fixing your own dings:
when you see the ding, and if you can keep the water out of the board, you can
put the repair in at 9pm and the board can be sailed the next day.
Jay
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