Would appreciate hearing experiences and opinions on the following(trying to avoid mistakes): 1. How well does epoxy freelap? In your experience is the cloth line more or less visible than with poly? Would it be better to use cut lines and pinlines? 2.Will the fin cloths of glass-on fins blend well with the bottem cloth if they are set more than a few hours later? 3.Should an epoxy seal coat be applied to cedar and balsa before laminating with epoxy? Boat builders say no but glassing standards appear different. 4. How well do poly pigments work with epoxy? Thanks Patrick
- Epoxy freelaps fine. Very similar to polyester except that the first side laps sand better so we usually get a real good transistion over the first side lap. 2. There is little difference in setting glass ons. Having Additive F in your laminate mixture will make the fin bond to the laminate better, but I usually sand a bit as well. I do add a little xylene when wetting the fin rope which generally has a lot of sizing. The xylene breaks down the sizing much the same way styrene does. The new fast hardener makes trim times similar to poly. 3. With epoxy I’ve never had to seal wood the way you have to with polyester. I’ve always gotten excellent results. 4. All the tints and opaque colors I’ve used with polyester I’ve used with epoxy and all have worked fine. I usually tell people to try a small test batch first if they have question about it working
Greg: Thank you very much. Patrick