Marty,

I thought about testing epoxy earlier, but decided against it. I am using coatings that I have read about on the Baidarka Mailing List. Epoxy has not been discussed much on that list. One drawback that I see with epoxy is a need to add UV protection. All of the products that I tested have UV protection built in. I still thought about using the Raka epoxy that I have on hand, but decided to save it for another project. I may still test it at a later date. I doubt this will be my last skin kayak.

I started to do some abrasion tests, but decided to wait until the coatings have a chance to cure more. The roof coating takes a month to get to full strength. I may try to hasten that by exposure to heat. I will do the abrasion tests later, and post them when completed.

Mike

: Hey Mike Don't you think you should also try epoxy as your coating since you
: are testing these other materials. It also might be worthwhile to try an
: abrasion type test to mimic what might happen if your moving kayak scraped
: across a rock or hard surface. This is where you might see the coating
: separated from the polyester if the initial bond is not strong enough and
: that seems like a priorty in this situation. Epoxy may form a stronger
: bond and it should exceed the other coatings in abrasion resistance but
: you would need to find one of the more flexible epoxies to optimize the
: skin coating combo.

: What weight polyester are you using? Marty H