West System 105/205 is fantastic*. Surface, cure, ease… all A+, 5star. Pumps are the best (D.L. has said so.)
Latex gloves are worn but inevitably I get epoxy on my hands. GOJO Professional Paint & Stain Hand Cleaner (5oz., pumice in it?) works amazingly well.
yar
its good stuff… i love using it, it is so much nicer to work with than resin…
3M 5200. Comes in two flavors, fast (24hr) and slow (7 Day) cure. The 7 day stuff, once set, is there forever. Seals and glues. I put my Soling 1M together with it instead of the MEK. The slight flex makes for a much more durable deck/hull joint. Also use as insulating/waterproofing at solder joints on switches and connectors, better than heat-shrink. Just remember, the operative word is forever 
Cheers,
Earl
Please don’t wear latex gloves - they are permeable and therefore do not give your skin the protection from epoxy it deserves. Buy the non latex variety from any hardware store. They look the same but smell different.
Muzza, I got VINYL gloves. Thanks for the advice.
MPI Charge Switch with LED Battery Checker. Easy way to switch on/off your yacht and to check battery life. My favorite feature is the jack (sliding door to cover it when not in use) to charge the battery in the boat.
Nice trim design. $14-no LEDs or $24-with.
5170 - Futaba J, 5470 - Hitec/JR/Airt. Z.
yar
Here are a couple of products that will give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. The first one is an on-board RX battery monitor made by Hobbico called VoltWatch2. It’s a little circuit board with 7 colored LEDs (four green, two amber & one red) that actively display the current state of charge of your RX battery. It’s got a little slide switch to select either 4.8 volt & 6.0 volt battery packs. The unit itself is 16mm wide X 42mm long X 4mm thick, weighs 4.9 grams, draws about 4-32mA, comes with a male Futaba style plug & retails for about $12 USD. I plug it along with the output from the battery switch into a Y harness that in turn plugs into the RX battery port. It’s a real sense of peace of mind to actually know the condition of your RX battery rather than relying on the traditional “by guess & by golly” method. With a clear radio hatch & proper placement you can even do “sail bys” to check your battery condition. When checking at pond side, tug on your mainsheet a little to put the sail winch servo under load to give you a more accurate reading. The other handy dandy item is a mini cut-off saw (SKU#42307) offered by Harbor Freight Tools. It uses a two-inch diameter metal saw blade. There’s a built in adjustable miter clamp. It’s not real powerful but it will cut brass or aluminum rod & tube along with wood stock. Just take it slow & try not to stall the blade. It makes a nice clean cut that requires little if any clean up. The unit retails for about $25 USD.
Happy Yachting - Kip
I second the volt watch 2. just ordered one.
:zbeer:
Yar:
The GoJo stuff does a fair job of removing epoxy from your hide. There are some warnings about using products such as GoJo for that purpose. The rationale is that the GoJo has a component that penetrates the outer layer of skin and leaves the skin softer. The pentration part is the problem because it may carry some epoxy residue with it. This may be a disclaimer to keep one or more of the parties out of tort courtrooms. Even so, there may be some substance to the idea. I think that I read this in someones epoxy manual. Sysyem three maybe ?
A most effective epoxy cleaner is simple household variety vinegar. Just pour some on your hands and use as if it were soap. Rinse hands and then wash with ordinary soap. Epoxy hardeners are the culprits in promoting residual toxicity, so it is said. The hardeners (catalysts if you prefer), are basic. The vinegar is acidic and the combination produces a neutralizing reaction. Photograpy buffs can use stop bath solution because that is ascetic acid and so is vinegar. Vinegar is cheaper. Best practice is to avoid getting epoxy on yourself in the first place. For me that is a “fat chance” even when I am using gloves and practicing sobriety.
I have used WD-40 standard spray can to clean hands. Paper towel to wipe off and the Gojo to make them smell good (orange).
It turns out that WD-40 makes hand cleaner products which I was not aware of.
Other uses here:
www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/wd-40-top-10-tips.html
FastFrank
I second WD-40.
So many “wonder-stuff” on the markets. WD-40 equals and betters for mere pennies. (well maybe not pennies, but cheap non the less).
Ok, I’ll stop this “I"ll second” business, but even in the bike shop I part time in, nothing in the bike market of cleaners rival WD-40. For cleaning, disolving, protecting, light lubing, cost, and yes, washing your hands. Spray it on yer hands, rub together under water, then it turns into a white slime that cleans everything off yer hands, then wash that mess of with soap.
As for what’s safe, everything seams ta kill ya these days, so just do and use what works and what makes ya happy.
:zbeer:
3M craft spray (not the heavy duty permanent stuff) will allow you to place one or more layers of cloth on a plug, and the glass won’t move about as you stipple, then squeegee resin onto the glass. Works really great when laying glass over foam, that has had plastic packaging tape used to allow the epoxy/glass removal from the male plug if more than a one-off is wanted.
Spray lightly and lay glass on top while spray glue is a bit tacky/wet. Second layer of glass "should: remain in place, but if difficult hull design, give the first layer of cloth a light dusting of spray and it will stay in place as well.
Speaking of WD-40: Not sure how/if it will work for everyone, but a light spray of WD-40, or clear silicone spray on the plastic tape also helped me a bunch to remove the laid up glass after cure.
Don’t overlook Popsicle sticks or the wider tongue depressors. Usually made out of maple or birch, they are smooth and thin - yet strong. I use for wedging between glass and mold or plug to aid in hull removal. Also, with a single layer of glass (1/2 or 3/4 oz. ) they make quick winch arms. I usually keep a couple in my “Go-Box” in case I (or someone else) at the pond breaks their winch arm. Very inexpensive and you can get them by the box. Or, I suppose you could eat a lot of ice cream bars ! :scared: They also have found their way inside my new RG-65’s for cross hull stringers to which I can mount my servos, or rudder post.
Finally - if you don’t have ability, time or desire to learn airbrushing, but can find your way around a computer, here is a place to buy water-slide decal paper for either laser or ink-jet printers. Now you can use your own graphics program to design, print and make custom hull or sail graphics. If you are using close to waterline on hull, consider using a clear coat to help keep water away. Unless you fully submerge the decal for long periods, a bit of water splashing won’t hurt them - but better to be safe. It will work great for adding graphics - or even class numbers and logos - especially on Mylar sails (very little thickness). I haven’t yet tried it on rip-stop nylon though.
Link to company is here: http://www.decalpaper.com/ NOTE: They Don’t ship outside the U.S. !
Just a few scratch-build ideas and tips I have found useful. Not necessarily in line with purchased products, but perhaps helpful anyway.
Finally - if you don’t have ability, time or desire to learn airbrushing, but can find your way around a computer, here is a place to buy water-slide decal paper for either laser or ink-jet printers. Now you can use your own graphics program to design, print and make custom hull or sail graphics. If you are using close to waterline on hull, consider using a clear coat to help keep water away. Unless you fully submerge the decal for long periods, a bit of water splashing won’t hurt them - but better to be safe. It will work great for adding graphics - or even class numbers and logos - especially on Mylar sails (very little thickness). I haven’t yet tried it on rip-stop nylon though.
Link to company is here: http://www.decalpaper.com/ NOTE: They Don’t ship outside the U.S. !
VINYL Decal
I wanted a boat name in gold for a stern so I created a slightly arching text, that fit the transom, in Photoshop. I emailed the file (the image was exact size, no mod necessary by him) to customvinyldecals.com and for a couple of bucks he sent me a 6"x1" sticker in the mail. Preasure sensitive with peel away backing. I sealed under a thin coat of clear epoxy to match hull.
yar
Here’s another pretty sweet little item. The “Servo Stretcher” from ServoCity. It’s a little circuit board that plugs in between a servo & your receiver. It enables you to have 180 degrees of movement from a regular servo (you might get more or you might get less depending upon your equipment). The fiendish thingy itself is 54mm long X 22mm wide X 12mm thick (at the thickest point), weighs a hefty 14.9 grams & retails for $19.99 USD. There are 3 adjustment pots on one end to adjust max counter-clockwise rotation, center & max clockwise rotation. The other end has two heavy-duty (20 gauge?) twisted 3-wire leads with a male & a female Hi-tec style connector. These things are great for transforming El-Cheapo run of the mill servos into sailwinch servos without resorting to “servo surgery”. You can even adjust them “off center” to get better sheet resolution when close-hauled. If you don’t have a fancy radio with oodles of adjustments & digital servos, these are a great way to expand the possibilities of your cheap AM analog gear.
Happy Yachting - Kip
Yar
I have a Brother PT-Touch 2300 label maker and a 1" wide tape is available that is Gold Lettering on Black Background.
We used to spend from $6 to $8 US per trophe on plaques (times 15) at our Florida (Tanglewood) Model Yacht Club which eats up most of our annual budget. Now, I simply lay out the lettering on the PC and print them out in an hour or less. They are so inexpensive I just give them to the club.
Now, we can spend the money on beer and other fun things.
FastFrank
I was watching some guys with thier RC rock crawler trucks and noticed they had really nice rod ends. One of the airplane rod ends that I was using on my vang was popping apart so I thought I would give these a look. They are better than I hoped for. They are larger, stronger and looser than the old ones. They also fit perfectly in an arrow shaft. My main now swings as easily as my jib. They are made by TRAXXAS Part no 2742. Come in a package of 6 for $5
Don
Edit-Sorry for the blurry picture but it will do