: I used a hooked utility knife to cut as much of the glass/epoxy as
: I could reach from the cockpit and hatches. Wood wedges lightly
: driven down the length of the boat then allowed a straight
: utility knife to get a little more. There were some spots where
: the epoxy set properly, in those areas the wedges allowed the
: use of the Tokutaro saw. A little with the saw a little with the
: wedge and the first part of the job completed.

: The heat gun worked well allowing the glass to be pulled off
: easily. The hardest part is the epoxy. The easiest way I have
: found is a window glazing tool with a sharpened flat side (it is
: stiffer than a putty knife). Scraping with the glazing tool,
: followed by 50 grit sanding, followed by scraping, you get the
: picture. The hull is finished with a little more work on the
: deck I should be ready to (try) put it back together. I'm
: planning to wipe it down with acetone, does anyone see any
: problem in doing this?

As Bill suggests, don't use acetone. MAS epoxies recommends isopropyl alcohol, which I have used with success for general cleanup of surfaces before glassing. If there are traces of epoxy that you want to remove, vinegar works well, but I would test on scrap before using vinegar where it could soak into wood. You could wipe wood treated with vinegar with a couple applications of water to remove the vinegar residue before letting the wood dry. Again, I would try this on scrap before assuming that it will work on the boat.

Re. mixing epoxy, I use the calibrated cup method described earlier. If you calibrate an outer cup as illustrated, you needn't mark the inside cup, just put the mixing cup inside the marked one, fill to the lines, and remove the inside cup before mixing. Plastic beer cups from the grocery store are what I use. I calibrated them with a large syringe purchased from the drug store. Extremely accurate, and difficult to screw up. Note carefully that you calibrate the marked cup by putting water into a second cup inside the cup being marked, not by putting water into the cup being marked.

The west pumps work, and I have used them for years without failures in the things I worked on. However, there is larger risk of miscounting than there is of screwing up filling to a mark on a cup. Further, you can see very clearly whether you have filled to the mark; if you are using pumps alone, once the counting is done, there is no evidence confirming that you did it right. I have lost more than one batch of epoxy because something distracted me and I lost count (think cat sneaking into shop, jumping up onto the bench unexpectedly etc. etc.) and had to toss the batch. Also, I have had a couple batches destroyed when a pump stroke came up with a bubble burp. I find calibrated cups to be easy and more or less idiot proof as long as you are very careful to mix very thoroughly.

Congratulations on getting the boat apart, and getting the cleanup mostly done. I think that you did the right thing.

Best regards,

Allan Edie