saturation point

[john the pom]

Just a thought, given that OldSparkey sez

From what I have found out , epoxy saturating the wood will increase the strength of it up to four times , depending on how well it is saturated.

in another part of the forum, begs the question: would it be worthwhile saturating panels etc prior to stitching them together or otherwise working them?? Would the wood (sorry) be stiffer or more pliable and able to be "manouvered" a little more? My total lack of experience means I can ask this question even if it turns out to be one of them dumb ones

 

[JEM]

Some perspective:

If you work with thin ply, thinner than prescribed, one danger you'll run into is the plywood not having good stiffness and losing it's taught bend between frames/molds/stations. In this case, some stiffening via epoxy would be helpful.

But if you're working with, we'll call it "normal" thickness plywood, then you don't want to add any stiffness until it's formed to the hull shape.

Some things to keep in mind. If you apply it flat then bend the board, you're putting the outer side of of the ply in a pulling tension along with the epoxy. Good epoxy will accpet that bend but cheap epoxy or polyester could form small cracks if left uncovered for a while (like if you have to pause building for a couple weeks) on more severe bends.

Also be aware of amine blush issues.

To summarize: Unless the ply is flopping around too much while you're trying to stitch it together, I'd say best to wait until after everything is stitched together.

Just my opinion....

 

[john the pom]

Matt, thanks for the quick reply! So quick I was still thinking about the question myself... I perhaps should have added that I was thinking of a
Primer type coat that would probably have at least two or more coats before it could be considered finished. Would the faults be eliminated by further coats or, just "hidden" till it became important?

 

[JEM]

Well there's no garuntee you getting any small crack. It's just a possibility depending and your choosen materials. IF you did get any cracking, the cracks would likely be hairline and just look like thin scratches. They would probably fill in with a thin coat of epoxy and no extra effort.

But let's say to be safe, you'd want to either get the next coat on right away after stitching, or do a light sanding if it's cured for a couple days and then apply the next coat.

Again, what I'm saying is worse-case. Not an absolute that will happen.