I’m a boat builder currently working on the Oxford Shell II, and I have just installed the seat cleats. The epoxy has had over a week to cure; however, it is not curing. The texture is gummy, and I can peel the splatter along the bottom of the hull clean off with my bare hands, and it’s perfectly malleable, similar to the consistency of playdough. I considered this a result of an insufficient fluid ratio, either in the resin or the hardener, and that’s when I observed a buildup of crust over the hardener spout, which severely limited the pump’s ability to dispense the material. I have since cleaned my pumps and spouts in denatured alcohol and they are working well, however, I still have it that the seat cleats are held onto the stringers by a compromised batch of epoxy and given that this is the most critical component of the design being that this is where one places their body weight I was wondering if there were an strategies out there for dealing with related issues. My thought was that since this is entirely internal, I could reinforce the adhesive with some more sturdy hardware, such as screws, and this type of redundancy would become invisible once the product is entirely assembled. But I welcome some more professional advice. If not during this step of construction, I bet this mistake of applying an off batch of epoxy has occurred before. With that said, I wholly appreciate your time and attention, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Just remove the cleats, scrape off the improperly mixed epoxy, clean off the surface and try again with your now-clean pumps.
Laszlo
heed lazlo. uncured epoxy should be removed, even if you think you can address the structural issue with screws.
epoxy also plays a role in encapsulating the wood and keeping everything waterproof…and uncured epoxy does not perform that task well…so you want it all removed and rebuild with properly cured epoxy.
fwiw, every now and then (fortunately more then than now), when i have had epoxy not cure, once i think i have addressed or understand the underlying issue, i will always do a little test batch in a cup to confirm whatever i did to solve the problem actually works.
in your case, a single pump from each of the newly cleaned pumps could be done in a cup and stirred properly to confirm it cures.
it would be a shame to do it all over again wasting a lot of epoxy and have it not cure again becuase you potentially misdiagnosed the problem.
from the school of hard knocks…howard