Hi Ed,

Epoxy is permanent stuff and it is not unusual to be nervous at this stage - after all you have a lot of time and effort at stake. Epoxy is actually quite pleasant to work with. Take a bit of time, do some reading, do a trial run on some scrape. Wait for good weather. Nothing to it - really.

Visit the West System web site (http://www.westsystem.com/) they have all kinds of information about epoxy and fiberglassing - just make sure that you follow the mixing instructions for your brand of epoxy.

My biggest concern was that the epoxy would set before I was ready, this was from bad experiences with polyester resin. I use a slow set harder and have not made any "hockey pucks" in spite of the weather being too hot. The metering pumps available from most vendors are highly recommended - it makes the mixing fast and fool proof. TROUGH mixing is very important - most problems with curing result from poor mixing. I use yogurt containers (about 6 oz capacity) for my mixing. Set-up in the containers is caused by heat build up - get the epoxy out of the containers as quick as possible. No need to panic - just don't dally. Heat in the mixing container is the difference between "pot life" and "working time". I have lots of mixing containers and use a fresh one for every batch to avoid the possibility of getting lumps of gelling epoxy. Later, for cleaning, gently flexing the bottom of the container will pop out the skim of set epoxy.

Epoxy DOES give off fumes (even if they don't seem strong) so make sure that you have adequate ventilation. Protective gloves are a good idea.

Rollers, brushes and spreaders all have their place. I use brushes on tape, rollers and spreaders while saturating the cloth or filling the weave. I make my own spreaders from 1/16 plastic sheet - size and shape to suit.

I hope this has been of some help.

Go for it and good luck! You are getting close to paddling!

Hank