Re: Aluminum Powder

Posted by LeeG on May 18, 2004

I put some around a half oval brass strip under the notion it would help the ring nails hold it on. It didn't but it's hard stuff mixed in 'poxy. Looking for the silver bullet in hard ablative coatings can be put into perspective by considering that if you make a thin coating it won't hold up as well as a thick coating. Thin coats weigh less than thick coats. So you could put on one thin coat of X thickened epoxy that is opaque, hard to finish, complicate UV protective coatings or increase heat absobing qualities,,,and it won't provide as much long term protection as just laying on a couple more fill coats of unthickened epoxy. If you make an ablative layer that is ALSO structural you'll be limiting the kind of damage that occurs when landing or dragging over rocks where the wear is abrasion AND impacts. For example a couple yards of 4oz s-glass could be layed on the "football" area of the hull and covered with tinted epoxy fill coats which would provide more actual resistance to damage and dragging than a similar thickness/weight of X coating. A coating won't resist fractures that occure in a dragging impact as well as a similar "coating" made of a stronger and more abrasion resistant type of glass. All this is gilding the lily beyond 6oz e-glass but if you want to reduce having to re-coat the bottom with varnish then replace the varnish with another material,,like more epoxy that is tinted to not show the abrasion like a dark varnished hull does,,,just like white polyester gel coat that starts wearing away the moment someone buys/uses their new $2700 fiberglass kayak.

In Response to: Aluminum Powder by FShark on May 17, 2004

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