Hi,
I’m Zach.
I am a boat builder in Eastern North Carolina. I’ve run through a few drums of epoxy and rolls of glass doing varying degrees of wood, cold molded plywood, and fiberglass boat repairs and modification.
I’ve got very little hands on experience with polyester resin and open molding, vacuum bagging. I’m here to learn more about it…
Sometimes making things with foam cores (xxxxpits, shower stalls, seats and hatch lids…) I’ve in the past pondered the strength difference of polyester vs epoxy with my biaxial glass.
I’ve also wondered how long polyester needs to wait, before I can grind it and lay epoxy tabbing on top of it to integrate it into a boat.
I’ve wondered when recoring decks, why one couldn’t bond the coring in place with an epoxy bedding compound, glass the top skin with polyester, wait for it to kick… then grind the bevel around it and tab it in to the surrounding area with epoxy to save on material cost…
I did a bit of body work on old corvettes before getting into boats as a hobby, and remember the speed which polyester putties cured with envy after a few years of waiting for epoxy products…