: With this said: If I have these seams with nearly hardened epoxy, what is the
: best way of removing it. I think that I could sand it, it just wouldn't be
: pretty. And of course I don't want to destroy the wood underneath.
: Fortunately, this work is on the inside of the boat and all the other
: seams are good. I will take you suggestion and get metering cups instead
: of using the system 3 pumps.

: Incidently, how this occured: In my first batch of epoxy I pumped out 2
: squirts of resin and tried to get 1 squirt of hardener. But because of the
: initial air in the tube and lack of adequate suction I didn't get that
: much hardener. I tried to make up for it by adding more hardener, but I
: apparently didn't add enough. live and learn...just need to fix the
: mistake first!

Using the pumps is fine, as long as: a) the air is burped out before metering, and b) volume is verified in a graduated cup.

As for removing the uncured epoxy, that's a tougher question. First try to remove it mechanically, with a paint scraper, putty knife, or similar tool. Heat softens epoxy, so you might try a heat gun or hair dryer as well. That should get most of the goo off. Then attack it with chemicals. Acetone, MEK, d-limonene, xylol, tuluol, these will all dissolve uncured epoxy. Use gloves and a respirator to avoid breathing the fumes. If solvent won't dissolve it, it's partially cured at least, and safe to go on to the next step. A cabinet scraper (see the recent post about these) probably is the most controllable way to remove the gelled epoxy without destroying the substrate wood. When you're down to bare wood, one more time with solvent to clean out the pores of the wood, give it overnight to evaporate, and then you can reapply the epoxy.

BTW, you have lots of company in this predicament, so don't get your dauber down. There is a fix for almost anything that can go wrong with building a boat, and the folks on this BBS have an amazing amount of experience and creativity. Go forth and sin no more.