Safety Factor (SF)

By Jeff Wright – GBI VP of Technical Services

At Gougeon Brothers, Inc. we are always measuring the ultimate strength of our epoxy products, their adhesive strength, and the strength of the resulting composite laminates (The values measured are often impressive, and the numbers for real-world applications may seem unbelievable). For example, the tensile strength on our Technical Datasheet (TDS) for 105 Epoxy Resin® and 205 Fast Hardener® is 7,900 psi. This means I could easily hang my Chevrolet® Silverado with a full payload using a 1″ x 1″ casting of epoxy! This is true in a perfect application, but our common sense tells us that it is risky. That common sense may be because we understand the need for a safety factor (Sf) in our calculations. Continue reading

Building a Soaking Tub

By James Thomas

After a long time in the planning stage, my son Adam and I began work on a tiny house in 2022. While it was possible to purchase small, modular shower pans and enclosures, small soaking tubs were virtually impossible to find. I’ve built several small boats using wood and WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy, so it occurred to me that building a small tub might be possible.

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Readers’ Projects, Issue 56

Craig Bjarnason built an 8dinghy. It is a cold molded, cedar hull with mahogany keelson seats and transom. All the laminating was done with thickened WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. The hull was sheathed with 6 oz. fiberglass/epoxy on the outside and was epoxy coated on the inside. This boat is used as a tender for our 34cold molded cutter on Lake of the Woods (Kenora, Ontario). It was also built using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy.

Take a look at some of the other awesome Readers’ Projects our fans sent in!

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Bond Girl’s New Custom Rudder Support

By Jenessa Hilger – GBI Marketing

The weekend before our wedding, my husband and I bought our S2 7.9 meter sailboat. She was exactly what we were looking for, a trailerable racer/cruiser that was a diamond in the rough. Over the past nine years, we’ve made many improvements, the latest of which was building a custom fiberglass and carbon fiber rudder support, or as I nicknamed it, a rudder hook. Read on to see how (and why) we made it.

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Calculating Laminate Thickness

By Rachael Geerts – GBI Composite Materials Engineer

Have you ever wondered how laminate thickness can be determined without breaking out the epoxy and reinforcement fabric? The answer is simple—use math. While some of you may have just lost interest because you think math is too difficult, I can assure you that this math requires nothing more than some basic multiplication, addition, and division. Let’s get to it.

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Jacques Coon’s Drift Boat Build

Jacques Coon’s Drift Boat Build By Josh Coon

After seeing the clean lines and flowing curves of a Jason Cajune drift boat near Yellowstone River in the summer of 2018, Jacques Coon excitedly agreed to lead a build six months into the pandemic lockdown with his son and grandson. Read on and drift away...

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