Peter,

Just a word of caution. Be very careful if you plan to use a heat gun to dry the wood for your repair. Another hobby of mine is building golf clubs and to break the epoxy bond between a metal golf club head and a graphite shaft I use a heat gun. At 185 degrees F. the epoxy breaks down and the shaft comes out easily. I don't know for sure what temp. the epoxy that we are using for our kayaks breaks down at but I would expect it is not much different. A hand held hair drier might be a safer bet.

Good luck!

Ken