Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: cold weather
By:Paul Jacobson
Date: 12/21/1998, 8:23 pm
In Response To: cold weather (Matt)

> Hi, I only have 2 weeks to work on my boat before I have to head back to
> school. The problem is, Im in San Fran and the weather has been extremely
> cold (it snowed yesterday) I'm really confused as to what to do about the
> resin because it still hasnt cured and I applied it Friday night. I hae
> only a couple more coats to do and I just started glassing the coaming
> also - which is still sticky. Maybe I didnt mix the resin/catalyst enough,
> but I doubt that. I'm thinking of buying a portable heater and sticking it
> in the garage and returning it when Im done with it. Any suggestions of
> ways to warm up the area?

Instead of heating the entire garage -- which would take a pretty hefty heater, just heat the air around your boat. Wrap it in a cheap plastic dropcloth, seal the seams with duct tape.

If cheap plastic drop cloths are not avilable, get large plastic garbage ags, cut open the bottoms, and tape them together to form a long tube.

You may need to put a few wood scraps on top of the hull to keep the plastic bag from sticking to the tacky resin. a household thermometer would be a nice addition inside that plastic sack, too.

Use your heater to inflate that balloon-like sack. Be careful you don't get it so hot that the plastic cover melts. You may want to make a vent by leaving an opening on the end opposite your heater to let some of the air out. You can regulate the temperature to some degree by how big the vent is. Otherwise, you turn the heater on and off to keep the temperature where you want it.

I would not leave the heater running unattended. Maybe you can clean out the garage while you babysit the heater.

Hope this helps.

Paul Jacobson

Messages In This Thread

cold weather
Matt -- 12/21/1998, 7:47 pm
Spotlights
Mike -- 12/22/1998, 9:05 am
Re: cold weather
Rob Cochrane -- 12/22/1998, 8:46 am
Re: cold weather
Nolan Penney -- 12/22/1998, 8:45 am
Re: cold weather
Frank -- 12/22/1998, 8:02 am
Re: cold weather
Bruce Moulton -- 12/21/1998, 9:35 pm
Re: cold weather
Paul Jacobson -- 12/21/1998, 8:23 pm