Question for Maine Sail - Sealing the Deck Core

[TejasSailer]

Maine Sail,

Thanks again for your excellent how-to on the subject. I followed your instructions today, and without your guidance, I'm quite sure that the result would not be anywhere near as good. Moreover, without the tutorial I might never have gotten the nerve to drill holes in the deck.

The question is when injecting un-thickened epoxy to wet the balsa, is balsa very porous and will absorb quite a bit of the epoxy? So much was required that for a while I thought that there might be avoid.

[mangomadness]

Ill reply while you wait. No, the balsa shouldn't suck up alot of epoxy. Check out my blog for pics and links to deck recoring.

[DwayneSpeer]

YES Balsa is a very light wood as a result of lots of micro sized cell voids and if the epoxy is thin enough it will absorb quite a bit of the liquid. Now exactly how much is quite a bit I couldn't tell you. If course any rot will cause extra absorption. If not there would be no need for products such as Git Rot.

[sailingdog]

If your deck's balsa core is wet, injecting epoxy isn't really going to help at all. You're really better off re-coring the deck, rather than wasting your time and money on injecting epoxy. Epoxy won't bond to wet wood.

Originally Posted by TejasSailer

Maine Sail,

Thanks again for your excellent how-to on the subject. I followed your instructions today, and without your guidance, I'm quite sure that the result would not be anywhere near as good. Moreover, without the tutorial I might never have gotten the nerve to drill holes in the deck.

The question is when injecting un-thickened epoxy to wet the balsa, is balsa very porous and will absorb quite a bit of the epoxy? So much was required that for a while I thought that there might be avoid.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by TejasSailer

The question is when injecting un-thickened epoxy to wet the balsa, is balsa very porous and will absorb quite a bit of the epoxy? So much was required that for a while I thought that there might be avoid.

No balsa will not absorb that much at all. Even products like CPES or GitRot, which are nothing more than thinned out epoxies, won't absorb that much. If you fill the hole flush with the deck you may see it a 1/16th of an inch lower after about three minutes. Souds like you have a void and this is not uncommon. You'll need a thicker batch..

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

If your deck's balsa core is wet, injecting epoxy isn't really going to help at all. You're really better off re-coring the deck, rather than wasting your time and money on injecting epoxy. Epoxy won't bond to wet wood.

What he meant was he is injecting unthickened epoxy to wet out and penetrate the surface of the dry balsa better so that when he injects a thicker batch he will have a better final bond.. From the way I read it he is not injecting into an already wet core but injecting into a dry core..