April 2018

Yes it's been awhile since I have posted updates on the boat.  Mostly since little has been done.   I'm still trying to procure another drum of epoxy so that I can encapsulate the hull.  I thought I had this issue solved when West Marine discounted a 55 gallon drum of 5:1 MAS epoxy and the associated mini-drum of hardener 70% off retail price.   I did some quick research on the product and jumped on the deal and ordered.  Some things that I found out:  5:1 epoxy is chemically superior to 3:1 epoxy.  MAS epoxy has much reduced amine blush eliminating wash-down between coats.  MAS epoxy is 3:1 currently.  So what was the 5:1 MAS epoxy that West Marine had?  The only negative feedback I got in my search was that MAS did not provide a temperature/curing chart nor was technical support helpful on the subject.  Well, at that price I can do quite a bit of my own research.  Most people agreed that the product was effectively equivalent to West System epoxy.  So I thought no issues and I'll make sure that I keep the products separate.  A week later and I received the email that I was dreading about 5 minutes before I was about to call them.  The MAS kit was no longer available.  Now I'm screaming bait and switch so I give them a call.  To my surprise they were pretty helpful.  It turns out that when they went to retrieve the drum in South Carolina, it was no longer in a condition to sell and the product was disposed of.  This particular product from MAS is discontinued and no longer available.   Well, that is the story that they told me so I'll have to accept it.  This might explain the 5:1 and 3:1 discrepancy.  I hear that MAS is always tweaking their products and improving them unlike West System which is more reluctant to modify their main epoxy product.  Their are benefits to both approaches.  With MAS you get the latest and greatest, with West System you get a proven product with tons of information and testing.  Without a huge price savings, I'll stick with what I know and use West System.

This is the add online for the epoxy.  It still (as of April 4, 2018) says that there is one unit available.  The on negative feedback complains of the poor technical support in regard to temperature vs curing times.  They actually liked the product.  I'm not sure that deserves a one star rating.  

I'm still on track to purchase a drum of West System epoxy this Spring.  The boat will be encapsulated by the end of Spring.  That is my promise to myself.  West System drum is $3100, hardener another $1500 but I do not need to by 10 gallons of hardener, 5 gallons ($750) is probably all I need.  The money is being saved and I'll soon be there.  The MAS kit was $2000 for epoxy and hardener, it would have been nice to be able to spend that extra money elsewhere on the boat.

I looked and realized that I have not posted in quite awhile.  You can't go by the dates necessarily, because I sometimes post updates on topic to older dates as I did with the last post.  I'll try to keep you guys a bit better abreast to the progress in the months to come.

April 24, 2018

Well, I've managed to make the order.  In a few days, West Marine will call me and tell me that my order has been shipped to the store near Nashville, Tn.  This time I called ahead to make sure the product was available.  There are 8 drums in their warehouse.  Hopefully they are not all 'bad.'

This is the receipt for the order.  It's official.  Soon it will be time to resume building the dream.

Unfortunately, I still will need a little more fiberglass and a few more gallons of hardener to get the bottom done.  I'm thinking I should get slow hardener as I move into spring.  I'd rather have it set up a bit too slow than run-away cure while I'm applying.  You can see from the price, and that is just the epoxy with no hardener, how excited I was to find the above deal.  Too bad it went sour.  I looked up on West Marine's sale website and that deal is still there although it is only 60% off.  Well 100% off something not available is no deal.

April 27, 2018

Hey hey hey.  It's a special day for me and my wife.  And... West Marine called me from Nashville Tn.  The drum of epoxy is in.  I just have to drive up there and get it.  Hopefully that will happen on Sunday which, coincidentally, happens to be my birthday.  Happy birthday to me.

In Nashville tying that big drum of epoxy onto the trailer.  Actually had a truck, but it is a lot easier to slide that drum off a trailer than out of a truck.  That thing weighs quite a bit.

Yep, I'm happy I finally was able to get that drum.  Now to get back on the project.

My wife is excited too.  Might also be because she scored a new pair of sun glasses from West Marine.  A nice thank you for driving up to Nashville with me on my birthday to pick it up.  It's around a 2 hour drive.  Of course we had to stop in a Cinco de Mayo's to have a pitcher of their margaritas and some of their awesome fajitas.

I think there is a drum of epoxy following us!  Nice sun glasses babe.