TotalBoat 5:1 Epoxy Kit (Gallon, Slow Hardener)

Rather than replacing more than a dozen rotted deck boards. I decided to try to fill the "ravines." I tried many wood putties: n'yet . Bondo? n'yet (Became unworkable too fast for my application). This kit with its slow hardening was perfect. Beyond being simple to use, with the two attached pumps pre-measuring the correct amounts of the resin and hardener. I decided to WILDLY experiment with "additives." First, I added a couple of scoops of Durham's Water Bingo! Mixed easily and perfectly increased the amount of the glop and was easy to spread into the ravines. Dried hard as a rock but it must be abraded hard for painting. Next, I stuffed steel wool into craters, which are deeper than ravines. Then I infused the steel wool with the mixed epoxy. Why? Epoxy bonds with steel and throws off heat to boot. The gaps I filled with steel wool and epoxy are clearly stronger than the original wood fibers because solid steel....Btw: you can perform microsurgery on the "treated" steel wool if you have a competent grinder with attachments. Finally, I mixed grout with sand into the epoxy. Why? Because the sand in this concoction, when used to fill shallower gaps, provided a surface onto which coating would better adhere. Success. Moral of the story: I would have been far, far better off, prying up the deck boards, purchasing new ones, and installing them. Why didn't I do it? I am a retired desk jockey and when I started the project more than a year ago, I did not have the carpentry skills to cut and replace the boards. I have them now. Absolutely no regrets even though the filled-in boards are less than cosmetically perfect. Two warnings: you should absolutely not experiments with epoxy additives. Use only those that the manufacturer prescribes. My outcomes were fine but yours may be disastrous. Second, I could care less about bubbles in the epoxy. Accordingly, my recommendations are expressly limited to the use to which I put the product.

WORKS JUST LIKE WEST AT LOWER COST

I am building a wooden boat and I chose to use the TotalBoat Epoxy Resin Kit (Gallon size, Slow Hardener) to fiberglass the wooden hull. This is a 5 part epoxy to 1 part hardener. The kit includes pumps for the epoxy and the hardener along with some disposable gloves and two mixing/graduated plastic cups. The cups have markings for several mixing ratios. I used the 5 to 1. Fill the cup up to the level you think you need and add the hardener up to the hardener line. Stir for at least one minute to 2 minutes and go to work. When it is properly mixed it will look clear as water. I have been pleased with the working time of the epoxy. If you are working in direct sun and/or hot weather, you may find that it starts to set/harden quicker. I am working outside in the shade and I have plenty of time to apply epoxy, fiberglass and more epoxy over the fiberglass before it even begins to harden...hardens overnight.

So I'll start by saying I am a 20+ year composite tech in aviation. I have built 2 other boats. I have never used this stuff before, but I have known about it for a while and heard it's the best stuff for boats. I am restoring a 1960's fiberglass canoe that is 18'. I have completely sanded the boat to bare fiberglass and three days ago (11/7/22) I put 4 plys of 6oz fiberglass weave over it to reinforce the keel. That night it was about 45 degrees F. When I woke up the next morning it had been setting up for about 7 hours and it was still tacky. I just figured it was tacky because it was so cold. Most epoxy primers don't cure well or at all under 50 degrees F and lower so it wasn't a that big a shock (just disappointment). I decided I'd give it a few days to cure since it was supposed to be in the 70's F the next 2 days. So the day I noticed it was still tacky was 72 degrees all day. I even had my wife open the garage up to get a warm air flow through the garage to see if I could warm the boat up. I got home from work and it was still tacky. It got down to about 50 degrees F that night. Today is the 3rd day and I just got off work. I had my wife do the same thing as yesterday and open and close the garage doors to get the warm air to flow through as it was 79 degrees F at around 2pm today. The boat is still tacky. Now the only thing I can think it could be is that I mixed it wrong, the product is defective, or it just hasn't gotten hot enough to cure it. The 2 jugs I got said mix to a 5:1 ratio. I used paint measuring cups with measurements printed on the sides so when I mixed it, it was 5 pumps on the big one (which sucks by the way. Really thin plastic and it crushed as I pushed down on it) and 1 on the small one. I also looked at the measurements on the cup and made sure it was putting out at a 5:1 ratio. I use 95% pre preg at work so maybe I messed this up as I rarely have to actually mix epoxy, but 5:1 for a 127 oz big bottle and a 25 oz small bottle to me is 5 pumps from big and 1 pump from small. Could the product be defective? Maybe, but I've only heard good things about True Boat so I would hope their quality department is better than this mistake. It could be something got through though. This could be a real possibility though. The last one about temp is not very likely because the nights might be too cold, but two days above 70 degrees F should have done the trick and they haven't. I am at a lose at the moment and now I have a boat I am restoring and the entire 18 foot bottom is covered in super tacky epoxy and I don't trust the product enough to either try and apply a hot batch of epoxy (more hardener than catalyst is a hot batch) to try and cook off what's on there. If that doesn't do it all I can try to do is paint it a bit with acetone or something to see if I can harden it that way. This should always be a last resort because it messes up the catalyst and wrinkles and cracks it when it hardens. Then I have to sand it all off and do it again. But it's all I can do if it stays tacky. I'm not very happy at the moment with True Boat, but I don't know if it's their fault or mine. I really don't think its me as I described how I mixed it and I double checked it. Feel free to let me know if you think I did, but I am pretty confident in my measurements. I'm just shocked how I have never heard 1 bad comment about True Boat and the first one I get is defective? I don't know. This is my first attempt to reach the company so I will update if anything changes.

I had never used Total Boat fiberglass epoxy before. I usually use the West System. I bought the kit that had a gallon of epoxy because I needed sufficient quantity to do 4 crowder/herding boards. My spouse and I volunteer at the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay, MA. I was requested by NMLC' animal care team to produce 4 additional crowder boards because we were to release 6 seals at Scusset Beach the following week. We had only released a maximum of 3 seals at one time previously. NMLC rehabs injured and stranded seals and endangered Kemps Ridley Sea Turtles. The boards are used to move the seals towards a crate or in this case to encourage the rehabbed seals to go towards the ocean instead of towards the bystanders or the parking lot. NMLC is a non-profit so cost is very critical. I bought the gallon size kit because then NMLC could use what remained to fix the two fiberglass pods we have that are always in need of repair. I used the pump system included in the kit to measure out epoxy. Product worked well and the seals have been released without incident. I mixed the product in the deep part of roller pan, applied the epoxy and used a small squeegee to return the excess to the roller pan. I then repeated the process on the remaining 3 crowder/herding boards. I used the slow hardener because of concern that I needed to do four sides of the 24" x 44" boards and did not want it to cure while applying it. It was extremely humid the week I used the epoxy and it required about 30 hours to fully cure. Worked great and product was delivered the day after I ordered it.