Boat Building Forum

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

Filling Gaps with Epoxy
By:Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks
Date: 5/6/2017, 7:10 pm
In Response To: Strip: Gaps inside hull (Aaronpotter)

I often fill gaps with sanding-dust thickened epoxy. As stated elsewhere, cured epoxy is hard to sand and will create staining of the surrounding wood. The solution to this is to do the filling immediately before glassing and wetting out the glass with epoxy.

I will mask often mask around the gap with masking tape to keep the epoxy filler off of the strip faces. When the gaps are filled, I peel the tape, lay the glass and wet it out. Since the filler is still soft, it doesn't cause rough spots or present bonding issues. If resin does get on the strips, it is followed by more wet resin and staining does not occur.

For sanding dust, I clean out my vacuum before starting the sanding so there is nothing else in it. After sanding the outside, I have a good pile of fine, clean dust well suited for filler. When mixed with epoxy it will be darker than the sam wood it was sanded from. Adding silica or cellulose to it will lighten it up a bit.

Obviously, this only works if you are working fairly fast. If you want to take your time, some of the other solutions are probably better.

Messages In This Thread

Strip: Gaps inside hull
Aaronpotter -- 5/5/2017, 11:14 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Tmh -- 5/6/2017, 1:38 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/6/2017, 10:50 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
John R -- 5/6/2017, 11:33 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/6/2017, 12:21 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Olli -- 5/6/2017, 12:48 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/6/2017, 1:43 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
scottbaxter -- 5/6/2017, 5:01 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull *PIC*
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/6/2017, 8:23 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/6/2017, 1:42 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/6/2017, 2:09 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
JohnAbercrombie -- 5/6/2017, 2:13 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/6/2017, 4:10 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Aaronpotter -- 5/6/2017, 5:47 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 5/6/2017, 4:17 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Nick R. -- 5/6/2017, 10:53 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Tmh -- 5/6/2017, 1:06 pm
Filling Gaps with Epoxy
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 5/6/2017, 7:10 pm
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
John Messinger -- 5/7/2017, 7:12 am
Re: Strip: Gaps inside hull
Bill Hamm -- 5/9/2017, 12:51 am