For what it's worth, epoxy and wood could not be further from being good bedmates when coating wood with a thin layer of epoxy with no cloth. Wood is indifferent to temperature changes but changes volume due to changes in humidity. Epoxy is indifferent to humidity but happily changes hardness with temperature. Cracks can begin to develop in the epoxy coat during periods of high temperature and humidity.
Once the epoxy coat is broken moisture enters the wood causing it to swell further causing further cracking. It becomes a vicious cycle that ends when there is less wood in contact with the epoxy than not. Rot will develop in the wet wood long before this lifting has occured. Epoxy, with cloth or not, is not an impenetrable moisture barrier, it's close, but it's not 100%. Coat the outside of your boat with epoxy and cloth. The cloth will stabilize and strengthen the epoxy and the layup will only break where it's been sanded excessively or moisture has penetrated the wood from the opposite side. Coat the interior of the boat with an oil or log house finish. There are a number of such products on the market. Clear Wood Preservative is a product that would work well in this application and is carried by all hardware/lumber stores. These products are cheaper, lighter, and easier to apply than epoxy. The one problem with using oil or similar is that you cannot bond anything to the wood once it's coated. On surfaces that are already coated with just epoxy, keep an eye out for the development of fine cracks parallel with the wood grain. If they develop, keep wetting the crack with gasline antifreeze/water remover (the cheap alcohol) for a number of days, allow the wood to dry for a couple of days, and treat the area with a thin product such as Clear Wood Preservative. Inspect closely to determine if the epoxy coat has lifted on either side of the crack. Cheers! Netters I remember Dana Overall recently asked the KRnet what could be used to thin t-88 that he was planning to use to seal the wood on a boat that he was going to build. What was the answer? I think I remember someone saying that acetone was what could be used? Am I correct or is there something else that can be used? I tried a search of the KRnet archive, but it came back with no matches. I need to thin epoxy to coat the interior of my fuselage. Thanks in advance for any info Pete Klapp, building KR-2S N729PK, Canton, Ohio The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Get started. _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail accounts with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multiaccount&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_4 _______________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html
