prv
Well-known member
Probably the "104 junior pack", which makes 600g. If that might not be enough, you'd have to go up to the standard "105/205", which is the same stuff but twice as much of it. I guess if you're right on the borderline you could buy two junior packs and plan to take one back if you don't need it (assuming they'll accept it).
You need some means of neatly measuring out specific amounts either by weight or volume. West sell pumps which screw onto the cans but they're somewhat wasteful in my opinion. For the junior pack, my preferred method is to pour the resin directly from the bottle into a graduated cup and then use a syringe for the hardener. Force 4 sell both of these items, but eBay are much cheaper if you can wait a few days for delivery. An alternative approach which might even be better is to sit your mixing cup on an accurate kitchen scale and use the "tare" button, then simply pour the stuff in.
You need mixing pots (disposable plastic cups from the supermarket will do nicely - but don't try using polystyrene ones!) and mixing sticks - pros use "tongue depressers", but any scrap wood will do. Plastic cutlery bought along with the cups will mix straight epoxy, but are usually too flimsy if you're using microfibres. You also need gloves - I buy bulk boxes of single-use vinyl gloves (ebay again) but some people actually prefer to use washing-up gloves and reuse them.
For the coating job, all you need on top of the above is a brush (or possibly several), absolute bargain-basement quality is fine. I buy them in bulk (guess where?) at 19p each and don't for a moment contemplate cleaning and reusing them.
If you want to use epoxy to stick your stern panel in place (I would) then you also need the 403 microfibres from that Force 4 page. You mix up a batch of epoxy as normal, then add these fibres to turn it from a liquid into a paste. It takes a surprising amount, so don't be shy in adding them, but do it a couple of big spoonfuls at a time and stir in well before adding more. The traditional instruction is that you want "peanut butter consistency". I would err on the thicker side of that - you want to be able to apply it to the vertical bulkhead without it running down. You can either scoop it into place with mixing sticks etc, or I have sometimes used a plastic bag with a corner cut off to pipe it like cake icing.
Pete
