Hi, After some careful deliberation I've decided to go with a rebuild of the same setup Jerry originally built, with a new oak block. It's been hot here and I was worried about pouring all that epoxy. I also think I can see why I've had issues with this area: the holes for mounting the u bolt we're at least 1/16" too big. I've opened them up to a half inch and filled with epoxy thickened with more silica. Having trouble getting the epoxy in place before setting - it's been hot here! As for the colloidal silica, I'm speaking of West system 406, "colloidal silica" epoxy thickener. Probably synonymous. Dan Farrell M17 #301 John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:

My question would be, why was there a chunk of wood used there in the first place? Rather than just bolting it to the fiberglass, maybe with some kind of resin-based stiffener.

If there was a good reason why the wood was used - flexibility? Shock absorption? spreading the stress load? etc., I'd consider that when repairing.

If no functional reason - maybe it was just quicker and cheaper as a spacer - then your idea might be fine.

I think you mean fumed silica or amorphous silica though (the powdery forms)...'colloidal' means a suspension in a liquid, which probably wouldn't mix well with the epoxy... :-)

cheers, John S.

On 07/11/2017 03:48 PM, Dan Farrell wrote:

...

I recently discovered that the wood used to reinforce the bow ring if my '79 m-17 had been ruined by water intrusion. The fiberglass over it's top had collapsed.

I've removed the damaged fiberglass and the wood pulp, and was planning to glass over the area little by little from the bottom up, filling in the space formerly filled by wood with epoxy thickened with colloidal silica.

Does this seem like a poor plan to anyone?

Dan Farrell M17 #301

-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com