New builder and a question about Epoxy Temperatures

[DanR]

Hi all:

My father-in-law (Terry) and I are going to build a Pocketship this winter (We'll share this single account for posting to this forum), hoping to have it ready to sail next fall. Both of us have very minimal sailing experience, and zero boat building experience, but we are both competent carpenters and Terry is a skilled finish carpenter. We've purchased the plans and are going to order either a full or partial kit this month.

Our shop (in Anchorage, AK) has a wood stove as the primary heat and we need to install a secondary heat source. Our question is, how warm do we need the secondary heater to maintain the shop. Reading the manual, it looks like listed cure times assume a shop temperature of 70°F. If our shop has a working temperature above 70°F, but has a standby temp of 55°F will that simply require a longer cure time, or do we risk irreversibly damaging the epoxy/fiberglass composite?

Thanks,
Dan R.

[Shudoman]

Dan,

As long as the epoxy can "kick" then the length of time that it takes to cure really doesn't matter. For MAS epoxy (the kind that comes with the PocketShip kit) the schedule can be found at:

http://www.masepoxies.com/Epoxy_School_ ... _FAQ.html##5

According to that schedule you shouldn't have any problems with any of the hardeners at 55 or above.

Bill

[DanR]

Bill:

Thanks for the MAS website info. It helped me answer some other minor questions I have as well.

-Dan