Mixing Fiberglass Resin/Hardener

I am in the middle of a fiberglass jon boat restoration and have been laying a good bit of fiberglass cloth. The instructions for mixing the resin and the hardener say, “14 drops of resin for every 1 oz of resin” . Needless to say, it is a bit of a pain to count say 84 drops when mixing 6 oz. of resin. Does anyone know of an easier way to mix the two without having to count drops.?

Thanks

If you buy the larger cans from West Systems they come with a metered push button spout. Spout is way larger on resin can than hardner can. Just one:one pump off each can. With by the quart you just have to count from what I have seen.

J Ford

Google tells me that one drop is approx 1/20th of a ml. Maybe measure 84 drops in a small vial once, mark it on the side, then just squeeze and fill to the line next time?

Baker
Old, beat up 17’ McKee

at 60-70 degrees, 17cc per quart or 18 drops per OZ
or what rebel17 said

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I used Clark Craft epoxy instead of polyester resin on a boat project a while back and they have it as a 50/50 mixture. Very easy to work with. Good stuff and tough as woodpecker lips.

Being superstitious is bad luck.

Good info guys, thanks. I looked at West Marine’s product, they think rather highly of it…$96.00 per gallon. Too rich for my blood considering it is going on a 20 year old jon boat.

SCSuperfly
Sometimes epoxy turns loose from polyester without warning. Different chemistry.

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Too Busy, per my understanding, you can apply epoxy over cured polyester with good results, but not the opposite, so if you’re going to be using a polyester-based gelcoat over the repair, you need to stick with polyester resin for the repair; otherwise, epoxy is used quite a bit to do repairs over polyester and works well. I’m pretty sure that’s what the fibgerglass guys I’ve known have told me, anyway.

Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862

Nah, not doing anything fancy with gelcoat. It is just an old jon boat I am trying to spruce up. I’ll put a coat of non-skid on the deck and a coat of paint on the rest and let it go at that.

Polyester will do fine. Most boats are made with polyester resin, anyway. Just try to do your layups on warm, dry days or in a heated garage, and you should be fine. Don’t be trying to layup on 40-degree rainy days. If you don’t want to go with an easy-as-pie pump system, like West Systems, then I’d do like Rebel said–just get some measuring cups and/or syringes, and measure out how much 84 drops is, and then go by the graduation on the cylinder instead of the drops. Personally, I find myself doing little resin projects every now and then, anyway, so I started buying the West Systems a long time ago, and I’ve found it to be a great, easy-to-use, reliable product.

Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862

gotchacovered
You’re right, you can use epoxy over polyester; never the other way around. Good prep work is key as it’s a straight mechanical bond. I’ve built several boats and I’m not a fan of mixing chemistries. I’ve seen nice looking repairs just turn loose at the most inopportune times.

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