Steve 1
Contributor
That boat was built at Elswicks Hollywood shop by a guy he brought in from up north
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Thad Allen's Apache + The Birth of the Cheetah Cat
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Steve 1
Contributor
Problem was in those days they would initiate a entire 5 gallon pail with 30 cc of MEKP for the working time.
It was a good resin and a lot of boats were built out of it but at low levels of MEKP you just do not have the Mass to get a decent cure and the surface is designed to stay tacky for the secondary Bond when exposed to air. the Preferred practice was to inhibit some resin with Modifier "C" (wax) and roll it on after everything was completed.
I had a Hull by Eagle Marine they held the molds for Signature and Corsa in those days.
Anyway I lost the bottom in the Magnum Marine Bahamas 100 somewhere in the gulf between the concrete ship and Miami, I took it to Pedro (later of midnight express)he was doing the layup at cigarette in those days.
Anyway the long and short of it was he in a half second pointed out the roving was stacked without any shear Mat, so half the bottom simply came off in fact all that was left under the motors was the Glass we added to level it out for Paint and the Rules pumping their heart out keeping the thing up..
Things in life happen for a reason! That started me on the road to doing my own work.
It was a good resin and a lot of boats were built out of it but at low levels of MEKP you just do not have the Mass to get a decent cure and the surface is designed to stay tacky for the secondary Bond when exposed to air. the Preferred practice was to inhibit some resin with Modifier "C" (wax) and roll it on after everything was completed.
I had a Hull by Eagle Marine they held the molds for Signature and Corsa in those days.
Anyway I lost the bottom in the Magnum Marine Bahamas 100 somewhere in the gulf between the concrete ship and Miami, I took it to Pedro (later of midnight express)he was doing the layup at cigarette in those days.
Anyway the long and short of it was he in a half second pointed out the roving was stacked without any shear Mat, so half the bottom simply came off in fact all that was left under the motors was the Glass we added to level it out for Paint and the Rules pumping their heart out keeping the thing up..
Things in life happen for a reason! That started me on the road to doing my own work.
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THEJOKER
New member
I lost the bottom off my race boat in Sarasota and that was why I got in this crazy business. So much for drilling holes and pumping resin in the bottom for a quick fix on an already bad product!
Steve 1
Contributor
Yes coming back to the dock wet gets your attention big time.
THEJOKER
New member
Rammed the beach and they scurried like flies - haha!
glassdave
Founding Member / Competitor
thats just over one tenth of a percent, i get nervous under a half a percent (but its usually cold up here
). Whats the least you can go? And they stacked the roving with no mat, yikes.Great stuff Steve.
Steve 1
Contributor
thats just over one tenth of a percent, i get nervous under a half a percent (but its usually cold up here
The thing was I went into the office and tried getting a Vinylester used instead, the reply was" no one uses that!"
I saw the Path right then and there, the resin I was looking at had twice the Physicals as the Polyester they were using at the time.
Anyway we split, Three of us Anglo Meli, Donald Rossi and myself we opened a rigging shop on Ne 17 ave, now we were on our own,Pepe bought stuff from us (we also had a small Machine shop) and Gave us nice rigging work, Thanks Pepe!Cool days back then.
Offshore Ginger
New member
Steve the ones that Dave ran were for sissies .:willy_nilly:Dave this is a wing boat.
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: just kidding.
glassdave
Founding Member / Competitor
yep, i have seen those. Thats some low freeboard there
Steve 1
Contributor
I did one a little different.
glassdave
Founding Member / Competitor
ohh I'm sure you did :sifone:
Steve 1
Contributor
thats just over one tenth of a percent, i get nervous under a half a percent (but its usually cold up here
Great stuff Steve.
I deal with the Labs a lot and some these research chemists are funny and they like our business, anyway I never EVER low line the MEKP (another story)there are three inhibitors in my kit that I use,,, One on the cobalted Vinylester Resins Binds/hides the cobalt for a little while then goes away and the Cobalt naphanate reappears then the curing process begins, another I use is from the rubber manufacturing it is used as an accelerator there but works as a retarder in our business TBC It gives the Free radicals another target Like Hey we like this better But then it gets depleted and the curing process begins timed till after you have about 5K of the bosses material in place under the bag (I used that at Jaguar) another is Benzohydroquinone which works well in the highly reactive gelcoats I mix it's powder with acetone or styrene.. I watch the crews faces when pouring 250 CC's of MEKP in a 5 gallon bucket in 95 degree heat. then tell them we have an hour and a half (we have 2 and a half)
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THEJOKER
New member
The guaranteed kick off bucket system. Guaranteed results , no waste and self motivation!
Steve 1
Contributor
Yes Sir even when we use a pressure fed roller on the race stuff it is from scaled batch's that are poured in the pump one by one.
THEJOKER
New member
Yea I bought a fancy gelcoat / resin sprayer back in 2000. After flushing out red MEK and cleaning , etc ..it stays parked. My awesome talented partner has taught me alot....
Steve 1
Contributor
Smart man, why take a chance on a "O" ring going bad.
Offshore Ginger
New member
Steve thats frickin awsome and to have 2 hours , Steve just curious about the TBC that works as a retarder and where did you come up with the idea & configuration for something that was used in rubber manufacturing ? Steve when i do the gas tank's on Skaters i use a promotor ( COBALT ) and man do you have to work your a$$ off even in cooler temps when everything is mixed . I gotta say that no matter how fast you get it out of the bucket it just seems like it is not fast enough .
Steve 1
Contributor
When I was laying up the Cheetah by myself I was using a Dow 470-36 I set it for three and a half hours could go further still.
The open time is the killer here you lose Styrene so as I came down the sides I flipped the peel ply down behind me. I studied what they were dumping into it (Resin) for transport and got a clue on one.. The TBC came from Stanley Seer the research Chemist at ICI (Pearl Labs) I had his home phone number, he developed a resin called Atlac 580-05A it was a Acrylic Urethane Vinylester and the one Dupont certified for Kevlar use as the story goes. I used it for Boats, Molds everything in those days, I had two gel timers spinning and learned how to handle the florida heat and get what I wanted.
Steve 1
Contributor
That Yellow Boat was done in Elswicks shop in Hollywood By a Guy named lindsley (sp) If this is the one I am thinking of it had a aluminum wind screen built by Mike Britten.
Before Danny bought the Molds.
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