: I've been looking around at the various epoxies available,
: and am wondering about that at US Composites, found at
: uscomposites.com/epoxy.html . It seems quite affordable,
: but I'm wondering about its quality. Does anyone have any
: experience using it?

Jase,
I too wondered about US Composite's epoxy and it's quality, so I ordered the 1.5 gal kit with the slow hardener. The next day they called me and verified that I really wanted their slow hardener because it is made to work best at high temps and they recommended that I used the medium because I'm on the west coast and it rarely gets into the 90's. I agreed even though their med. is a 3:1 mix, but I wish I would have told them to split it half/half.

My impression compared to Raka 127/350 was that it bubbles or froths alittle more than the Raka and it smells quite different (although that could just be the hardener). It has more of a rubber/plastic smell than Raka. On wetout of 6oz and 4oz. e-glass it seems to also be very thin, but some of the bubbles did not get fully brushed out and it left several tiny air bubbles under/in the glass. These bubbles are very small and you have to look close to see them. Otherwise it seemed great and at $46 plus shipping for 1.5 gal. that's hard to beat (or impossible).

Without sanding and varnish experience with this stuff, I can only guess that if given the choice between US Comp or Raka, I'll pay the extra for Raka. Partially because you can mix the hardeners with Raka to work best at current temps from fast to slow and anywhere in between (just got my Raka order as well). With US Comp each speed hardener is a different mix ratio from 1:2(slow) 1:3(med) and 1:4(fast). I'm one that likes to mark each mixing cup with a template cup on the outside. There's enough templ. cups already for just 2:1 for different amounts (from 1oz to 6oz).

From the little amount that I've used the US Comp epoxy, I'd say it probably would work fine on a kayak (especially the first one), but there are better epoxies out there. As schr/gerald suggested recently, their fillers are also a really good deal and they come packaged in nice buckets, as opposed to platic bags. Also a good price on s-glass. However, I still prefer Raka and couldn't be happier with their product. There's my two cents.
Smf

Pic of mixing cups:
http://www.nas.com/~csnw/tools/may20045.jpg