TotalBoat Traditional 5:1 Epoxy Resin

Rather than replacing more than a dozen rotted deck boards. I decided to try to fill the "ravines." I tried many wood putties: n'yet . Bondo? n'yet (Became unworkable too fast for my application). This kit with its slow hardening was perfect. Beyond being simple to use, with the two attached pumps pre-measuring the correct amounts of the resin and hardener. I decided to WILDLY experiment with "additives." First, I added a couple of scoops of Durham's Water Bingo! Mixed easily and perfectly increased the amount of the glop and was easy to spread into the ravines. Dried hard as a rock but it must be abraded hard for painting. Next, I stuffed steel wool into craters, which are deeper than ravines. Then I infused the steel wool with the mixed epoxy. Why? Epoxy bonds with steel and throws off heat to boot. The gaps I filled with steel wool and epoxy are clearly stronger than the original wood fibers because solid steel....Btw: you can perform microsurgery on the "treated" steel wool if you have a competent grinder with attachments. Finally, I mixed grout with sand into the epoxy. Why? Because the sand in this concoction, when used to fill shallower gaps, provided a surface onto which coating would better adhere. Success. Moral of the story: I would have been far, far better off, prying up the deck boards, purchasing new ones, and installing them. Why didn't I do it? I am a retired desk jockey and when I started the project more than a year ago, I did not have the carpentry skills to cut and replace the boards. I have them now. Absolutely no regrets even though the filled-in boards are less than cosmetically perfect. Two warnings: you should absolutely not experiments with epoxy additives. Use only those that the manufacturer prescribes. My outcomes were fine but yours may be disastrous. Second, I could care less about bubbles in the epoxy. Accordingly, my recommendations are expressly limited to the use to which I put the product.

I am building a wooden boat and I chose to use the TotalBoat Epoxy Resin Kit (Gallon size, Slow Hardener) to fiberglass the wooden hull. This is a 5 part epoxy to 1 part hardener. The kit includes pumps for the epoxy and the hardener along with some disposable gloves and two mixing/graduated plastic cups. The cups have markings for several mixing ratios. I used the 5 to 1. Fill the cup up to the level you think you need and add the hardener up to the hardener line. Stir for at least one minute to 2 minutes and go to work. When it is properly mixed it will look clear as water. I have been pleased with the working time of the epoxy. If you are working in direct sun and/or hot weather, you may find that it starts to set/harden quicker. I am working outside in the shade and I have plenty of time to apply epoxy, fiberglass and more epoxy over the fiberglass before it even begins to harden...hardens overnight.

Total Boat is the best!

WORKS JUST LIKE WEST AT LOWER COST

Our travel trailer had bad delamination spots on the side walls from our roof leaking. I watched a bunch of videos of others using total boat to fix the areas. We ended up using clamps and a spray gun to spray the total boat into the bad spots and let them sit overnight. If I did it again I would just use a syringe and inject the total boat into the area as the spray goes everywhere and you cant build it up in the real bad areas. Some spots we used a brush to get a good coat on. It worked very well and when looking at the areas they look just as good as when we bought the trailer. Next I want to try and use it and do a flood coat on a table of some sort.

plenty of pot life to lay this up into a mold and vacuum bag it. after 3 hours, excess resin in my cup was hardened solid. no issues with cutting the length for the spout supply tube. temp in my shop was 70°F.

I have used many epoxy kits before but this was great. I got the kit with the pumpers and the cups as well as enough resin and hardener to the do the project. Really easy to use. Made a miserable job a pleasure.

First, I'll discuss mix ratio - advertised as 5:1. That's confusing, because the bottles say 2:1 -- Here's the answer: Each stroke of the plunger in the hardener bottle will dispense one "unit" of hardener. The plunger in the resin bottle is larger - it dispenses 2 1/2 times as much per stroke. So 2 strokes from the resin bottle is 5 units, while one stroke from the hardener is one unit -- result: 5:1. Now to the performance issues I have: First, the hardener bottle is for "FAST" hardening, although the description on the Amazon posting shows and says "SLOW" hardener. I prefer FAST, so no complaint - but it doesn't match the advertisement. I"m repairing the engine hatch on my boat, which has edge damage due to water intrusion into the plywood around the edges. I removed the old gelcoat and the rotted plywood, applied a coat of mixed "Total Boat" epoxy to both the original fiberglass edge of the hatch and to the surface of the replacement new 1/8" marine plywood, which i had rough sanded to get good adhesion. I clamped the plywood against the original fiberglass edge using multiple clamps (see attached photos), and waited. The next step would be to cover the plywood strips with fiberglass cloth, then sand, add a fairing compound, smooth, and gelcoat. I haven't gotten that far. After 4 days at 70 degrees, the epoxy was still tacky, so I heated the area with two space heaters, to accelerate the hardening. 30 minutes later, the resin started dripping out onto the table! Removed the heaters. Now it has been 5 days, and the epoxy has returned to the tacky stage. The overall repair of my hatch will require a lot more epoxy, since i will be replacing all of the original plywood in the rest of the hatch. That will require 4 layers of fiberglass cloth, so I bought two "Total Boat" epoxy kits -- neither of them returnable. I've used a very small amount of the first kit. I cannot afford to wait a week or more between coats (assuming this stuff ever hardens) - so it's going on the shelf and I'll order a name brand replacement kit.