plywood paludarium
- Thread starter jereosbou
- Start date
From all of that, the best practices from what i gather are to sand the top layer of your fiberglass, clean, prep the gelcoat, apply, spray for cure, cover with wax paper or something similar and let cure... sand and buff as needed then seal. I would bet that your local marina can give you better instructions than i can and probably even show you on one of the boats they have in for repair.
well took a trip yesterday looking for gel coat. and im going to have to order something online. as while they do cary gelcoat here it is 45 dollars a quart. so at that i might as well get epoxy lol. they can order cheeper but like i told them ive got a computer too so no big deal.
i also went to a pool store that carried a two part epoxy pool paint even in a sandy tan color. 245.00 for two gallons. finaly said the heck with it im going to buy epoxy in austin. dorve the hour and a half . went to the shcerwin williams there. said im going to play it cool not mention my last experience at there other store. heres the dialogue
me: hello im looking for a two part marine epoxy.
jack a88 #1: what will you be doing with it?
Me : painting a container to hold water
jack a88 #2 : we dont have anything that will hold up under water.
jack a88#1: yeah our stuff is rated for sometimes immmersion not constant. i wouldnt want to sell you something that wont work.
me: so you dont have a two part marine epoxy? bath tub refinishing epoxy anything like that?
Jack a88 1 and 2 : it wouldnt be right to sell you something that wont work in the long run.
i turned around and left. didnt say another word. i even had rivermuds product in my pocket. had just been curious as to what other stuff they might have on hand. probably should have just been ugly to them or atleast said listen dummy i want to buy this and its none of your business what i do with it. but man i hate to supoort people that suck at there job. how hard would it be to say i dont know if we have soemthing thatd work for you or not.or for that matter if the skinny guy with the pony tail at the other store knew they had it why not these guys lol. so im getting on ebay later and ordering the stuff.
a side question though rivermud when you used the roof coating on the one you did do you remember how sticky the surface was when you first poured it my buddy was thinking i might pour that then rub sand on the top surface of it to get a better color than white.
i also went to a pool store that carried a two part epoxy pool paint even in a sandy tan color. 245.00 for two gallons. finaly said the heck with it im going to buy epoxy in austin. dorve the hour and a half . went to the shcerwin williams there. said im going to play it cool not mention my last experience at there other store. heres the dialogue
me: hello im looking for a two part marine epoxy.
jack a88 #1: what will you be doing with it?
Me : painting a container to hold water
jack a88 #2 : we dont have anything that will hold up under water.
jack a88#1: yeah our stuff is rated for sometimes immmersion not constant. i wouldnt want to sell you something that wont work.
me: so you dont have a two part marine epoxy? bath tub refinishing epoxy anything like that?
Jack a88 1 and 2 : it wouldnt be right to sell you something that wont work in the long run.
i turned around and left. didnt say another word. i even had rivermuds product in my pocket. had just been curious as to what other stuff they might have on hand. probably should have just been ugly to them or atleast said listen dummy i want to buy this and its none of your business what i do with it. but man i hate to supoort people that suck at there job. how hard would it be to say i dont know if we have soemthing thatd work for you or not.or for that matter if the skinny guy with the pony tail at the other store knew they had it why not these guys lol. so im getting on ebay later and ordering the stuff.
a side question though rivermud when you used the roof coating on the one you did do you remember how sticky the surface was when you first poured it my buddy was thinking i might pour that then rub sand on the top surface of it to get a better color than white.
The roof coating didn't go on thick enough for me.. it was plenty sticky though. The original roof coating tank was built in 2004 using Ames Sno-Seal and while it worked, it would not be something i recommend. If you are down to just ordering the product you might as well go with the new product specifically designed for what we do and go with Max ACR. http://stores.ebay.com/Polymer-Products
I would contact them directly and let them know the size of the tank you are working with and the overall application. That way you don't end up buying 1.5 gallons and using only one half.
I would contact them directly and let them know the size of the tank you are working with and the overall application. That way you don't end up buying 1.5 gallons and using only one half.
okay finally getting to do some more work today. made a couple decisions. one is that 2gpm ove rthe upper waterfalll is way to much. so im going to run it a little bit differently . im going to run my main return to the lower half and then run a second smaller pump to run the upper waterfall. this will also reducs the head height to my main pump making pump choice easier.
today im sanding all the resin to give it a good rough surface. and sanding all the exterior for a nice smooth surface. got some sealant in a nice sandy color. perhaps a little lighter than i initially intended but i wont know for sure itnil i get it all done and planted.
pictures to follow tonight.
today im sanding all the resin to give it a good rough surface. and sanding all the exterior for a nice smooth surface. got some sealant in a nice sandy color. perhaps a little lighter than i initially intended but i wont know for sure itnil i get it all done and planted.
pictures to follow tonight.
made some good progress. decided to devide and simplify my planters a little so made some pvc tubes then foamed them in place i will then clean the tubes back out as they over foamed slightly lol. this was some serious expanding foam. then i will fibreglass the bottoms so its a closed container. this will simplify planting i think and allow there to be some other substrate around the planters mulch gravel whatever. then got my sealant on most of aquarium. 2 coats on so far with some gritty additive insecond coat to give good appearance. ill let everyone know exactly what i used once it proves out
though so far signs are good it will hold as my test patch wouldnt scratch off with wooden scraper and required much force to come off with metal scraper. . i think the color came out pretty good anyway. and i took the opportunity to fill in the extra voids under the waterfall with foam aswell will enable me to divide my waterfalls fairly simply and still leave my bulkheads accessible if needed.
more coats of stuff tomorrow with any luck will be siliconing glass in friday and water test monday ???? anyone figure three days good enough cure time in 80 to 100 degree temps average? high humidity though.
