Tag Archives: G/flex

Michael at Breck before the snowboard was damaged

Snowboard Repair

By Michael Marquis

At the end of the season this year while riding in a local terrain park, I misjudged the approach to a pipe and ended up crashing the nose of my snowboard into the end of the pipe. Fortunately, I was able to ride away from the impact. Later in the day, I noticed that the nose of the snowboard had been deformed. When I got home, I studied the damaged area closely and determined that it was not safe to ride the board in that condition. The entire nose area had become soft and flexible because much of the wood core in that area had been broken. In addition to the bent nose edge, the top sheet had cracked. Left as is, this would have allowed water to penetrate to the core of the snowboard which would have made it unrepairable. The technicians at my local snowboard shop told me it could be repaired but cautioned that I needed to use an epoxy that remains flexible after it cures to prevent the repair from breaking. Continue reading →

Aluminum Adhesion

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Because a newer epoxy formulation we offer is great for aluminum adhesion, we stopped offering the 860 Aluminum Etch Kit in the WEST SYSTEM product line in 2015. Before making that decision we ran a series of tests that compared bond strength of 105 Resin/206 Hardener and G/flex 650 Epoxy on aluminum surfaces prepared a variety of ways. As usual, we used the PATTI (Pneumatic Adhesion Tensile Test Instrument) to test aluminum adhesion. Continue reading →

Rough Rider

Smiles All Around

Repairing the ballast-hull crack

By Mike Barnard

For some sailors, there is a common maintenance ritual that occurs every spring—repairing the ballast-hull crack or cracks where the leading edge of the ballast keel meets the hull. This annually reoccurring crack is sometimes referred to as a “Catalina Smile” because it often occurs on Catalina sailboats. But we’re not here to pick on Catalinas because ballast-hull cracks are hardly exclusive to them.

The crack can form due to a number of causes but probably the most common reason is the hull isn’t as stiff as when it was new.  Continue reading →

Repairing an Edison Concert Phonograph

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Ronnie Janowicz, a good friend of mine, called to say the wooden horn on his antique Edison Concert phonograph was cracked. I had Ronnie bring it by so I could take a look.

I told him it could be repaired very nicely with epoxy if that is what he wanted to do. “Why wouldn’t I want it repaired that way?” he asked. I explained that repairing an antique with epoxy may affect its resale value if the potential purchaser objects to the repair. Some collectors take a dim view of wooden antiques being repaired with epoxy because repairs are not easily reversible like they would be if hide glue was used for repair instead.

Continue reading →

Wooden Goblet Rx

By Tom Pawlak — Retired GBI Technical Advisor

Vern, a good friend of mine, turned the exterior of a wooden goblet made from a nice piece of spalted sycamore. Unfortunately, the blank was not as dry as he thought and it cracked along one edge as it sat uncovered on his lathe overnight. He called to see if there was anything available for gluing it back together. I said I had some ideas and asked him to drop it off at work so I could take a stab at the repair. Continue reading →

Repairing a Keel with G/flex Epoxy

By Don Gutzmer – GBI Technical Advisor

The advantage of repairing a keel with G/flex Epoxy is that it is a toughened system that has a tensile elongation of more than 30 percent, which would prevent cracks from reappearing in the fairing compound. A local boat owner called our technical line and asked about repairing his cast-iron wing keel with WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. He asked if a technical advisor would be willing to take a look at the cracks on his keel and recommend the best way to repair it. After looking at the boat I gave the customer a callback and recommended using G/flex® Epoxy. He asked if I knew of anyone in the area that could do the repair. I told him that I would be willing to take on the job and thought it would be a good opportunity to write an article about repairing a keel with G/flex Epoxy. Continue reading →

Improve Wooden Paddles with G/flex

By Tom Pawlak — Retired GBI Technical Advisor

Wooden paddles and boat oars are known for getting dented in service. While G/flex 650 is not optimized for use as a coating, we found it was worth the extra effort it takes to apply to wooden canoe paddles and boat oars to deflect impact and prevent cracking the wood beneath.

G/flex epoxies weren’t developed with coating in mind, but early on in applications testing, we discovered they were excellent at dealing with impact. This became evident when we used G/flex 650 (the unthickened version) as a coating and when we used G/flex 655 (the thickened version) as a protective buildup. Continue reading →

Mother of Invention

Spring-loaded wire cutters

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

In 2011, our Technical Advisors Bruce Niederer and Don Gutzmer were packing tools for a trip to Mystic Seaport where they would once again provide guidance and instruction to families participating in the WoodenBoat Show’s Family Boatbuilding event. They recalled from the previous summer that spring-loaded wire cutters were very helpful for removing the twisted copper wire used to temporarily hold stitch and glue boats together after the joints cured. Unfortunately, none that were spring-loaded could be found. Continue reading →

What you can do if you don’t want epoxy to stick

By Bruce Niederer — GBI Technical Advisor

We spend a good amount of time doing everything we can to inform our customers how best to make WEST SYSTEM® epoxy stick to wood, metal, and even plastic, or underwater with the introduction of  G/flex 650 and 655.  Still, there are many instances when you don’t want the epoxy to stick to one surface or another. This is where mold release agents come in very handy.

Continue reading →

Squeezing the Most Out of G/flex®

By Julie Jezowski

Are you the kind of person who just can’t get enough of a good thing? Looking for a better way to squeeze out that last little bit of G/flex 655 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive from your tube rather than resorting to pliers, a vise, or maybe even Grandma’s rolling pin? Maybe you’d like to get a fatter bead of adhesive or your tube is a bit clogged. Boy, do we have some easy and inexpensive tricks for you! Continue reading →