Epoxy coating and varnishing plywood - which epoxy/varnish

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Trevelyan

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Hi all,
I have made a new hatch top, hatchway doors (hinged) and board to line the bottom of the cockpit (long story, sits on-top of the fibre-glass for comfort) out of ply. I am thinking about epoxy treating the ply before varnishing it. Does anyone have any advice on which combination of epoxy and varnish to use please?

Epoxy products I have found are:
West 105/205 (the standard type)
West 105/207 (UV resistant)
SP Eposeal 300 (or use the 320 epoxy)?
CPES

If I use something like standard epoxy, should I thin the first coat? I have seen somewhere about using meths!

Any tips on which varnish to go over? Polyurethane or not?

After cutting up wood, I thought this would be the easy bit!!
Cheers,
Trev
 
If it is marine ply and you want minimum maintenance and ease of application then use a woodstain type finish such as International Woodskin. Far less work than any type of varnish and easy to tough up to keep looking fresh. Should get 5 years between major recoating.

Epoxy and 2 pack are way OTT for wood bits on a GRP boat.
 
Trevelyan said:
Hi all,
I have made a new hatch top, hatchway doors (hinged) and board to line the bottom of the cockpit (long story, sits on-top of the fibre-glass for comfort) out of ply. I am thinking about epoxy treating the ply before varnishing it. Does anyone have any advice on which combination of epoxy and varnish to use please?

Epoxy products I have found are:
West 105/205 (the standard type)
West 105/207 (UV resistant)
SP Eposeal 300 (or use the 320 epoxy)?
CPES

If I use something like standard epoxy, should I thin the first coat? I have seen somewhere about using meths!

Any tips on which varnish to go over? Polyurethane or not?

After cutting up wood, I thought this would be the easy bit!!
Cheers,
Trev
Click to expand...
It's not easy to apply epoxy and get it flat. I would do it with the pieces stood up vertically to avoid pooling applying by roller probably 3 coats wet on wet ie the next coat after the first has gone tacky. Any decent epoxy should be ok, though I tend to use West for certainty and I did some training with them. West do not recommend using maths and I've never found it necessary. Then sand -I would start at 120 grit and sand gently finishing with 240. If doing ply make sure all edges are fully coated as that's where moisture can do most damage
For finishing you can use yacht varnish, but for outside pieces I much prefer to use a 2 pot varnish. Standard yacht varnish will need scraping and replacing every year or so and will flake. 2 pot will not flake, though an extra coat every couple of years is a good idea. I have a wooden dinghy finished this way and the varnish takes everything apart from heavy rubbing.
The uv protection comes from the varnish- don't rely on a uv resistant epoxy or you will have to clean it all off if it discolours-not easy with epoxy. Good luck!
 
If going eposeal, should I use the eposeal 300 universal primer, or just go straight for putting the eposeal 320 epoxy coating? Trev
 
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