: Well did something stupid and broke my yak. Well not too bad. I have crushed
: about 6 inches of my bow on the lower edge. It was just deep enough to go
: through the wood but not the inner layer of glass. I am planning to plane
: down through the damage and build back up using walnut. Here is my
: dilemma. I have RAKA no blush epoxy this takes about 12 hrs to set well. I
: want to build up almost 2 inches of walnut. At 1/8 inch thick this will
: take at least 8 days if I use the RAKA epoxy. If I use 5 min. epoxy the
: laminating will take less than one day. Then there is option 3 witch is
: buying epoxy just for the laminating.

If it is just 6 inches on the lower edge of the bow, why not just remove the crushed wood, straighten up the edges, and insert a neatly cut replacement.

A small patch should be all you need.

Once the hole is straightened, use clamps and a few drops of epoxy to hold in small blocks of wood which will serve as "lips" to hold the patch and keep it from falling into the boat. These "lips" can be 1/2 to 1 inch wide and an inch long of longer. If you are in a hurry, you can hold these in with a drop of hotmelt glue, and knock them free when done. Or, you can sealcoat these with a bit of resin, put a layer of Saran between the block and your clamp, (so you can get the clamp off later!) and let them seal as they get glued in place.

Glass the inside side of your wood patch while you wait for the lips the harden.

Paint a second coat of resin over the glass on the insde of the patch, drop it into place, and apply glass and resin over it to hold it in place. Then finish the patch as any other, with fill coats of resin, sanding, and varnish.
I'm completely unsure why you need to build up the 2 inch block of walnut. Please elaborate.

Assuming you really do need this, you can build it at one sitting from as many plys of wood, and glue joints, as you can handle. It is just like stacking buttered pancakes, except you would not want to put any clamps on pancakes.

If your block is small enough to fit in the house, and you insist on using Raka's epoxy as glue, let it set up overnight then place it in a very warm place for another day. by then it should be strong enough for light handling. most epoxies get stronger over a period of time, and this should be what happens. When epoxy is used as a glue, blush is not a consideration.

But why do you need to use an epoxy glue for your laminations? A white glue or a yellow carpenters glue would work fine, and the block could then be sealed with two coats of epoxy, and maybe covered in a layer of glass cloth for good measure. The working time with suceh glues would be just right, and the glue should set up in 4 to 6 hours. Clamping or weighting would be desired with this glue.

Just some thoughts here. Maybe I'm off track though as I'm still not sure about the nature of the problem. Oh well, if I'm out in left field, just ignore the above

PGJ