Trojan Boat Forum

The only this I am jealous of is Tony's platform .

and spellcheck.......

OK here's a real world opinion of Truck engines and my trucks do from 80-120k a yr.
Gas hands down the ford 5.4 best over all in maintenance and gas. The Chevy 6.0 has been good so far but I've only got 125k one it. The ford V10. Has been a good engine so far. The Chevy SB2 350 is a p.o.s.! Luck gets me 150k out of them.
Diesel engines ...the international 444E hand dowin the best thing ever made! I have one with 600k on it and has never had a head off it. Cummins have 2 both with 6b's and they work fine ..getting parts is a bitch! Benz I owned one and got rid of that darn thing as fast as I could. It broke down more than twice a month. It would eat injectors and also 3 turbos in 6 weeks needless to say that don't work in my biz. Well that's my opinion on engine's ...in TRUCKS..now back to my platform ....

Here is the issue of Epoxy vs Vinylester vs Polyester. Epoxy resins stick to other materials with 2000-psi vs 500-psi for vinylester resin and even less for Polyester resin. Cured Epoxy also is highly resistant to moisture absorption. It bonds to dissimilar already cured materials which makes repair work reliable and strong. Vinylester is kind of a Polyester hybrid. It's resistance to moisture is better than Polyester. It dosen't bond well to dissimllar materials. Vinylester also continues curing as it ages actually chaging it's resin make-up. It does bond well to fiberglass, but not to Kevlar or Carbon. As far as Polyester I would suggest not to go there. I've done a few projects over the years but I did do my homework.

good info on the psi of 2k vs 500 lbs, as well as the other factors. Now if I was making a small boat epoxy maybe. But lets price this out so far I've used 12 gallons vinyl that's $ 672.00 and bought 1 gallon of hardener $53.00. Defender sales 4 gallon jugs of West for 390.00 = $1170.00, hardener 12 qts at 45.00 $540.00 = $1710.00. So I'll stick with what I'm doing. Lets face it we're not working on boats that are starting life. Our boats are ending theirs, and my logic is make it safe and to last. If it was a new boat sure step up. But then I've stepped up from ploy...and not counting my time I don't have 1700 in my projects yet..

They both have their place , and cost maters of course . For tony project expoxy would be too $$$$ . And really not needed . But on some projects the extra "grip" of epoxy maybe a good idea .

[quote="prowlersfish"]They both have their place , and cost maters of course . For tony project expoxy would be too $$$$ . And really not needed . But on some projects the extra "grip" of epoxy maybe a good idea .[/quote]

Ok, now let's think about that. What's it holding on to ? 30 + yr. Poly ? ....not taking a shot, but think about the logic of. Your repair or thing you made is no stronger than what you attach it to.

alexander38 wrote:

prowlersfish wrote:They both have their place , and cost maters of course . For tony project expoxy would be too $$$$ . And really not needed . But on some projects the extra "grip" of epoxy maybe a good idea .

Ok, now let's think about that. What's it holding on to ? 30 + yr. Poly ? ....not taking a shot, but think about the logic of. Your repair or thing you made is no stronger than what you attach it to.

Now lets think about what I said . What I said was "Grip " Not the strenth of what you made . On some pojects thats very relavent . If what your doing is under high load you what the strongest bond you can get . Its not relavent to your platform poject at all . That why I said on some projects . If I was building a new platform would I use epoxy ? No . If i was bonding something to the hull that would be under high load or stress ? Yes I would .

But your grip is still only as strong as the base material will hold.

alexander38 wrote:But your grip is still only as strong as the base material will hold.

True BUT why would you what the bond to be weaker then the base material ? If you get a weaker bond thats will be where it will fail .


Would you use elmers to glue wood to the glass ? after all its stronger then the wood it self ??

Paul. You been sniffin' the Elmer's?

Just trying to make a point on bonding .

Yes the bond is stronger than the base (agreed) But if it fails it will fail just pass the bond, So to me I don't see the since in spending over twice the $ in epoxy to make something 4 times stronger then bond it to something 4 times weaker, that after 30 yrs of service it's on it's down hill slide of life....so now we'll just have to agree to disagree....

But why make it weaker ? ( if you were to use polyester to bond to polyester ) the joint would be weaker then the base . Rember I am talking about bonding not building something.

......................................................................................................

But going with your line of thought , why did you chose vinyl ester over polyester ?

WATER ! and Blisters, practice for hull work... The rest of the stuff I make will be Poly.....

And the whole platform is Vinyl the only poly is the the flange and that is wrapped in vinyl.....