Salty Cracker

Thanks Weezer for the encouragement. You sound like my older son; He's busy with many interests and hobbies.

Happy new year. Yes they did. I stood the crate upright in the the garage and wrapped it with Christmas paper. It looked like the monolith from 2001: Space Odyssey except red, white and green instead of black. I asked them to take garbage out so they could "discover" it. We plan on beginning the build middle of April and will certainly start a build log and thread for it.

Thank you for that Ken. I've bookmarked into in my dinghy folder.

Thank you Dave for your insight and wealth of knowledge. And point taken. Please notice that I did in fact do what you suggest...I asked a question. And somebody was kind enough to offer their personal experience. No unfounded technical opinions were presented. Just personal experience with the responsible advice to investigate it for myself. As credible as Ken, you or anybody else around here sounds, anybody should be well advised to remember that this is still just an internet hobby forum and any advice given is just the personal experiences of those offering it. I'll take your advise and please take mine; Remember that we're all adults here so please keep the scolding to yourself. I hope we can let this little sidetrack end here but if you want the last word, be my guest.

Dave, with all due respect (and I mean that), please let grown men have a back-and-forth without the scolding okay? Ken was nice enough to offer a gentle opinion with the advice to investigate for myself if I was interested. I didn't take it as gospel so no need to worry. And I have been told by those I trust that 5:1 is more prone to amine blush. It was advised to use warm soap and water or better yet, peel ply.

I think that's a threat. ?

I drove out to the B & B shop yesterday and picked up my crate! I had the chance to look around at their operation and pick their brains for info. I got some good tips and even got to spy a sneak-peak at a prototype for a new kit. Now the dinghy coffin is in the garage tucked behind folding tables and ladders just waiting for for me to send my boys out there Christmas morning to "discover" it.

Thank you.

More prone to amine blush too... right? I don't remember where I read/heard that.

Hello. I have a B & B Spindrift 11 build planned for early spring and have been doing a lot of reading and watching. I'm figuring out my epoxy options and of course I have choices of 5:1, 3:1 and 2:1. In any case, I'll likely be using the slow hardener but what questions should I be asking myself and what should I know about the ratio options before choosing one?

This is what I see myself doing. I have a bad habit of putting my body mechanics on auto-pilot if I give my mind an opportunity to wander thinking about the next several steps ahead. I used to load my own ammo and one year I was given a nice progressive reloading machine for Christmas. I couldn't get comfortable just yanking on the lever like it was a slot machine. I would catch myself looking around the shed thinking about other projects. I felt much better focusing on each step by weighing grains and setting each individual bullet in it's shell by hand. I had to go back to my manual Rock Chucker press that only held one die at a time.

Yeah, I'm on board. Thanks for the advice!

Losing count has crossed my mind every time I watch an epoxy how-to video. I know damn well I'm gonna be throwing out batches because I'll have to ask myself "did he fire 6 pumps or only 5... do I feel lucky, well do ya punk?". With two kids asking me questions and music going, I could see it happening. I really do feel like this is they way I wanna go. So you use that chart for B&B epoxy even though it's for a different brand? I guess I could always set up my own weight ratios pretty easy too.

Oh, I got a call from Allen today that my kit will be ready for pick up next week!

Yes, thank you for that. I've seen references to volume vs weight. If using B&B epoxy, I suppose I'd have to hope they could give me the weight ratios because I haven't been able to find out who manufactures their product. Would it though if it were just a matter of bringing cold epoxy up to working temp? I thought the kicking off was instigated by a chemical reaction. This isn't a challenge to your advice. I don't know enough to do that. Rather just an honest question.

Thank you.

Ha ha... yeah, now all I need to do is get the kit. I'll be honest, I'm so excited to get to work on this that I need to busy myself with studying the details. I'm also a little intimidated by it so I really want to be sure I have the details down so I don't lessen the experience for us when the project begins. I do feel better about it though knowing that I have a team of advisors here to back me up. Thanks guys. The videos at Off Center Harbor are also very helpful. There are a couple of projects there that have my mind wandering. I watch the videos in bed. So I end up going to sleep thinking about fillets and fill coats.

I saw Russel Brown using a heat gun on his mixing container while stirring A & B together. He said it thinned it out and makes it easier to mix. He did mention that he had to heat his shop up to 80° so I doubt it was Summer on the East coast where he was. I'll be waiting until Spring before we get going on it just for this reason.

Thank you all for being so cool with me. This all helps a lot.

Yes, Japanese pull saw... that's another thing I'll add to my list. Every build I've watched used one and it seemed to help with the work. It will help to know what router bits and sizes I should have on hand. I've never used a router so don't have experience with this. I'll certainly be practicing on scrap wood first. So they did this for you?! Man, that would be awesome if they would do this for me. I'll send an email to see if they'll be kind enough to charge me for this service. I'm picking up my order too and will be bringing a 6x10 utility trailer. Though I was considering upgrading the wood I used for the gunnels to something a little nicer.

That's the one I'll get then. It'll only ever be used for home-owner craft type projects anyway. That and a home-owner quality table saw. I picked up an extra long HDMI cable so I can watch the Off Center Harbor videos on TV. And my Epoxy Basics book arrived today. Oh yeah, I'll also need a good disc sander with vacuum attachment. So just glass tape and no matting? I've seen builds done both ways. Thank you. I'm gonna be looking for all of the tips and advice that will be offered. I just hope people won't get upset if I decide not to employ every bit of advice I get. I'll throw it all in the hopper and will have to decide what is gonna work for my particular situation. I'll readily admit when I realize ignored advice that should have been taken. If nothing else, for the sake of future builders.

Okay then, I won't care either. Cost is a factor but so isn't quality. I was reading up more on their epoxy and it seems they buy it in bulk and use it themselves. That's good enough for me.

Thank you Don for that great info! As far as tools go, I'll get some basic epoxy application tools, a block plane and basic table saw. I'm gonna keep it simple. I sold my table saw when we moved recently so I'll have to replace that. It was just a home-owner style 10" saw and I feel like something similar would be fine. No way on a power planer... I'd do so much damage with one of those! I'll also get an inexpensive router and good quality respirators for my build team. Thanks for the note on cartridges specifically for organic vapors. I bookmarked the build library for future reference. That's gonna be a great resource. That's exactly what I was looking for when I started this post. What a coincidence that you mention the epoxy videos at Off Center Harbor. I came across one of Russell Brown's videos last week while scouring youtube for Spindrift builds and epoxy advice. I was frustrated that only a couple of the videos from the series were posted there so I tracked down offcenterharbor.com and bought a membership. My "free" hat should be arriving soon. I ordered his book and that should be arriving tomorrow. I also like to watch the Boatworks Today channel on youtube. I've learned a lot from Andy there. And of course I've watched the Core Sound 15 Build. Allen has been super helpful so far with email answers to my several questions. There is also an 11N build video series by a channel called Essence of Sailing. He bumbles through it a little which is actually kind of helpful. Learning from somebody else's mistakes is better than making them myself. I live in Hampton Va. At the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. We moved here this year for my oldest sons wish to pursue collage dinghy racing (his Olympic class coach lives here) and his studies for a career in marine biology. I'm not a big fan of Hampton overall and am looking forward to moving up the Va. coast closer to Deltaville once the nest is empty. P.S. Does anybody know what brand of epoxy that B&B sells? I doubt it's their own formulation. I'm also considering West Systems and Total Boat.

Just what I was looking for! My 11S kit should be ready to pick up soon and I'm looking for any info I can get my hands on.

Thank you Paul for your advice.