I tried unsuccesfully to remove a stainless steel ferule from from a paddel that I made. I glued it on with System 3 epoxy with a mixture of cab-o-sil and micro ballons. I even tried heating it with a torch but it would not let go. It was almost to the point of turning the stainless steel blue. Do you know why the epoxy would not soften?

Jim

: I scarfed together the hull panels for my Cormorant 16 on Saturday, but I
: just noticed last night that I misaligned them. Drat!

: I'm putting a strip deck on a s&g hull, and I only had one sheet of 4mm
: plywood on hand. Rather than cutting out full rectangles of plywood and
: scarfing them, then cutting out hull panels, I optimized in a way similar
: to what I did with my Chesapeake 2 years ago.

: This time, I noticed that the bottom stern panels are 7/8" narrower than
: the bottom bow panels, so I cut the wood accordingly. Instead of aligning
: them with a 7/8" jog along the keel, where it would be cut away, I
: left the jog at the sheer, so it would make a really funny hull shape, to
: say the least!!!

: It's all good--everyone makes mistakes (but some of us should know
: better!)

: I plan to use a hot iron to loosen the epoxy, sand everything smooth again,
: and reglue the scarfs. Epoxy is wonderful for our purposes, but it has
: this little habit of letting go under high temperatures. None of us plan
: to ever paddle in 200*F+ temperatures, so it's not a boatbuilding problem.
: In other fields, this is a serious problem, but we can simply exploit it
: with boats. Just keep steady heat on the epoxy (make sure it's not so hot
: it scorches the wood) and it will slowly gel, and can be pulled apart.

: If that doesn't work, I'll just run a jigsaw right up next to the scarf and
: do a "Pygmy-style" butt-joint.

: Hopefully someone can learn from my mistake!!

: Happy building and a Merry Christmas to all,

: Shawn