Makes me wonder if the other companies would possibly price match...
Boat building
- Thread starter SENC
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- #82
It's an interesting industry. From what I've read, there are only a couple manufacturers of the core epoxy resin and hardener chemicals/products. Three companies, WEST, MAS, and Progressive take these products and modify with additives in their own proprietary formulas to achieve the end product they feel is most desirable. The other "labels" are basically repackaging the core components into saleable units - any differences between them are related to specific resin/hardener components and manufacturer selection, but they're not doing any mixing to create something unique. At least this is how I've come to understand it.
WEST and MAS are big companies, and tend to command premium prices. They and System 3 sell through shops and storefronts - you'll see them in many hardware and marine stores. Those retailers are marking up the product 50-100%, and require vendors to have set pricing to they aren't undercut. Progressive, Raka, and many others only sellndirect to consumer... so their prices 30-50% lower (cutting out the middleman).
I looked up MAS this morning - similar non-blushing low viscosity marine epoxy is $185 for a 1.5 gallon kit - so about $120/gallon. A good deal cheaper than WEST.
The instructions book for my boat says 1 gallon is the bare minimum but they recommend buying 2 gallons. I'm hoping that 1.5 does the job, I don't mind a little extra but the stuff does not keep for ever.
The echo of Gilligan’s Island song theme keeps lingering in my head and the professor would want you to have these in your boat- better safe than sorry they say, especially for the doggie and the kitty kat…….and oh, Henry…..
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- #85
Mine calls for 9 gallons, so I'm a bit more price sensitive. Everything I've been told is that you should plan on roughly 25% waste factor - including the overuse of epoxy typical of most first-time boatbuilders. I think the biggest factor is how much glass you use, and how heavy a glass you use.
My plan is to start with what I think I need, then order more if it appears that I will need more. I'm working on a cabinet that my wife wants now, as soon as I finish that I'm free to start. Ice out usually happens on most of the lakes and ponds between April and mid-May, we've had a lot of below zero this winter so it may be a little on the late side.
I watched a good YouTube video this morning on using fiberglass for boat building, I wish I had coppied the link for you. One thing that really surprised me is they used NAPA fiberglass body filler for fillets, rather than thickened epoxy. The only downside I see is that it dries green so if you're not going to paint the surface it will look bad. I think that I will go that way as I will probably paint most of the boat. I've used it before and it's pretty easy to use, when I was a teenager we called it tiger hair and used it to fill massive rust holes in older cars. A gallon of tiger hair and a quart of body filler and you have brand new rocker panels
You can usually go into you watched history and find the video. If you were logged into your youtube account....
Link does not work.
works for me ? Just look for fish bump tv, he's got a bunch of boat building video's
Fish Bump TV
2nd Generation Boat Builder & Captain What's happening crew? I want to thank you personally for taking the time to check out our channel! Welcome! I'm a 8th generation local to the area, and have a long history of fisherman, captains, and boat builders in my heritage. I hope you enjoy our...
www.youtube.com
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- #93
Yes, I've been watching his videos and agree they are quite good.
You'll have to click in his post link, watch on youtube....
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- #95
Got a good bit done on my strongback, have a few more frames to add and can then start working on and adding bulkheads to finish the form on which the hull will be laid out and built.
Great to put the frame up on wheels! You sure have a roomy shop/garage to work in! Chuck
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- #97
A close friend, who is into working on Land Rovers, and I have this shop for working on our cars and for general storage. It will be a good space for this project, as I can roll the frame and boat outside when it comes time for sanding.
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- #98
Finished up the strongback and the temporary bulkheads 3 & 6. Clamped them up to get an idea of where this is headed.
Picked out some nice, straight-grained Phillipine Mahogany boards today - they and marine plywood should get delivered Friday or Saturday. I'm fortunate that the youngest son in a family I got to know well many years ago is running an offshoot of his dad's old exotic wood business - so he's planing and facing the mahogany for me and delivering it all, as well. That gives me a couple days to get a wall spot cleared for the wood, and to get some epoxy and glassing practice on some scrap I've put together.
Picked out some nice, straight-grained Phillipine Mahogany boards today - they and marine plywood should get delivered Friday or Saturday. I'm fortunate that the youngest son in a family I got to know well many years ago is running an offshoot of his dad's old exotic wood business - so he's planing and facing the mahogany for me and delivering it all, as well. That gives me a couple days to get a wall spot cleared for the wood, and to get some epoxy and glassing practice on some scrap I've put together.
I will be watching your epoxy and glassing practice; I've been reading and watching numerous videos. A lot of conflicting and I suspect poor information exists. I wanted to be working on my little drift boat before this, but nothing ever goes as planned, lots of snow and bitter cold weather lately with a week of the flue mixed in just to make things interesting. I'm hoping to get a couple of small projects finished up this week and hoe out the shop for boat building. My project is much smaller than yours but will still crowd the available floor space to the limit.
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- #100
I've screwed together a few scraps - I thought fishbump's demo piece was ideal so something similar. I've done very little glassing (a few minor repairs) and no real epoxy work, so just want to get a feel for how it works before doing the real thing.