: I had bond failure on one of my kayaks and spoke to the MAS representative at
: the Wooden Boat Show last summer. he said that the best bonds are those
: done relatively quickly...mix fast cure epoxy and slow cure hardner to
: cure in several hours according to their mix-ratio/cure-rate chart. I had
: thought that the epoxy cured just fine, if slowly at reduced
: temperaturesbut this seems not to be the case (atleast for MAS brand)
There is a lot to consider with epoxy and temperature. You don't want to have the temperature rising when epoxying wood because the air pressure in the wood will increase and tend to keep the epoxy from absorbing. Some epoxy will never fully harden at cold temperatures, but they do partially set and if you warm them up days later, you still get a good cure. I have put mixed epoxy in the freezer to try to keep it overnight, but it set up on me (the condensation when you take it out of the freezer could also be a problem). The viscosity of epoxy will change with temperature. The warmer (thus thinner) the epoxy, the better it can soak into the wood, but the colder and slower it sets can help offset this advantage somewhat. Another advantage of having wood that is warmer than the surroundings is that condensation on the wood is less likely (from your hot breath while applying the coverings).