The Half-Arsed Skid Plate Experiment Begins

[Guest]

(Already long, and the real shop fun is just getting started)

I didn’t feel like waiting to find Royalex or composite stems to chop saw off of junk canoes for a skid plate materials test, so I am again using leftover vinyl siding as the test bed. Should at least replicate RX vinyl skin.

I cut out (Scot’s frugal) three inch squares of test materials (and overlapping squares of peel ply). One benefit already, I squared up some oddly Tetris-cut odds and ends left on lengths of material. I even taped out the perimeters on the test bed, but did not paper between for sloppy loaded brush drips.

I used my usual mix of West System 105/206 and G/flex epoxy. Well, not my usual; I was hesitant to use up G/flex for an experiment, and didn’t go the usual 50/50 mix. More like 25/75.

I meant to photograph the appearance of the raw test materials, but already had the epoxy going and gloves on before I remembered.

P3130003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Materials left to right, now epoxy-coated on the vinyl siding panel.

#1, Kevlar felt with graphite powder and black pigment, for future peel ply compression. I just want to see how kev felt compresses and takes color. I still believe it is crap material, but at least it would look better if colored, and should stand less tall and cure less rough with just hand compressed peel ply

#2, Kevlar felt, resin rich, no peel ply. To replicate the way too many skid plate kits were installed, using every ounce of epoxy in a $100 skid plate kit. I predict raspy rough.

#3, Kevlar felt, slightly resin starved, no peel ply. Not really “starved”, but I believe a little light on the epoxy is better than over saturated.

#4, Carbon fiber under layer, Dynel over, peel ply. What the heck, I had some (thick, wide-weave?) carbon fiber. The carbon fiber black under the Dynel looked hideously shadowed in dry layup, so graphite powder and black pigment in the epoxy mix to hide the fugly.

#5, S-glass under layer, Dynel over, peel ply. The S-glass under layer should be invisible, but epoxied Dynel turns out kinda cloudy with epoxy (and G/flex), so graphite powder and black pigment.

#6, Kevlar tape under layer, Dynel over, peel ply. The yellow kevlar tape (thick, woven fabric) was ugly visible dry, so graphite powder and black pigment.

#7, E-glass under layer, Dynel over, peel ply. Only because I had leftover E-glass I never use. I still had enough graphite powder and pigment epoxy mix, so it got blacked out as well.

#8, single layer Dynel, graphite powder, black pigment, peel ply, because that’s my usual skid plate practice.

Installation note: In the sandwiched fabric layup, once everything was prep-work cut to size and taped, adding a single piece of under layer fabric took all of seconds, as long as to lay another piece of fabric in place, brush on some epoxy and lay some Dynel overtop.

I usually wait several+ hours for the slow hardener to begin to set up before pulling the perimeter tape and hand-compressing the peel ply. I know I can achieve cleaner epoxy edges doing that, but how much do I care on a test panel? Not enough.

I didn’t wait for clean edges and pulled the tape barely an hour later with the epoxy still oozey, laid on the peel ply and hand compressed each fabric piece. And used a tongue depressor to feather out the edges of the two pieces of un-peel-plied kevlar felt, so the felt transition wouldn’t stand as abruptly proud.

P3130006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The peel ply is release treated, so I pulled it the next morning; well after the epoxy had fully up. Gotta love release treated peel ply.

The three kevlar felt pads are the most different in visual inspection and feel.

P3130009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P3130010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P3130011 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The kevlar felt with graphite powder, black pigment and peel ply is, unsurprisingly, by far the best of the felt lot. As expected the smoothest, and the edges are feathered down beautifully for felt. It is less thick than the un-peel ply’ed pieces, although not by a tremendous amount, it’s still much thicker than any of the vanishingly thin composite sandwiches.

The two pieces of felt uncovered with peel ply are much alike. Both are rough to the touch and the heavier epoxied one is noticeably rougher. The edges, despite being feathered down with a tongue depressor as the epoxy began to set, are still abrupt. I should have continued feathering down the edges ‘til the epoxy was nearly firm, but that takes hours of tongue depressor attention with kev felt.

The felt patches do at least answer the question about whether graphite powder and black pigment will deeply saturate kevlar felt. I may never do another kevlar felt skid plate, but if I do, once you go black . . . .

That also brings up another easy test. Next time I have some epoxy mixed up I’ll lay out some felt squares and try using just color agent pigmented epoxy to see what kind of green or red I can achieve over yellow felt. Anything is better than Baby crap yellow.

The other peel ply compressed test patches are all capped withDynel, and all are visually similar, with nicely feathered fabric edges, and are similarly smooth (with one exception).

The carbon fiber & Dynel may have been just a touch under saturated, I don’t often work with carbon fiber and epoxy. A UV top coat of black paint, which I do anyway, would hide/fill any faint fabric weave. (The sharp line is a fold crease in the peel ply scrap)

P3130012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The S-glass pad and kevlar tape patches are all but identical, which is surprising. The 1 ½” wide kevlar “tape” was thick, and the selvage edge was thicker. That raised sewn edge vanished under peel ply compression, lying as flush as the S-glass. Some (?) composite tape as an under layer might work well for impact resistance on a sharp vee stem. Handling and epoxying a skinny 3’ long piece of cloth seamed edge tape can be a no-frays boon.

P3130013 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P3130014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The E-glass was under saturated with epoxy; I had forgotten how thirstily E-glass drinks resin. Old E-glass at that, I should probably trash what E-glass I have left, it is ancient and may have degraded.

P3130015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The single layer of Dynel looks the same as it always does, smooth and easy and durable. But it doesn’t appear noticeably thinner than the ones underlaid with carbon fiber, S-glass or even Kevlar tape.

P3130016 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

And that lay up day isn’t the funnest part. In a few days (A week? How long?) I can do some half-arsed impact and abrasion testing.

I’m going to replicate Epoxyworks impact test, using a piece of pipe affixed vertically as a center aiming device, and dropping a 2’ length of rebar (1lb, 4oz) through it from height, or higher heights, until I see some damage.

That may be a body and soul shattering experience, definitely needing some PPE, maybe a full face shield. And leather chaps. Maybe standing chap-crotchless on a ladder beneath the shop twinkle lights.

That’s Mr. July to you, on next year’s Limited-edition “Men & Women of CanoeTrippping” calendar. Rob may appear several times (hide the children). Karin and Christine as well. I know I have a photograph of Doug flipping me off moments after he intoned “I haven’t swum in 6 years”. He is quite wet in the photo.

Back to future testing, just needed to blackmail Doug for a minute. The impact results should at least be more revealing than some half-arsed abrasion test.

I’m thinking various RO and belt sanders with different grits, touched down briefly (or not so briefly). That sounds like a less fun day, all gowned with respirator and goggles, making microscopic graphite powder dust. Best done outside the shop. Ask me how I know.

For what; grinding away at five test patches, all with a Dynel outer? I know how abrasion resistant Dynel is. There might be some value if I ground down into the under layer. That sounds like an even less fun day.

I’m kinda at a loss on any shop-rudimentary abrasion test with even pseudo-measureable results

 

[pblanc]

Glass fibers in fiberglass fabrics must be treated with sizing when the fabric is produced. Among other things, sizing helps to promote uniform resin uptake. Sizing varies in stability, but no sizing material lasts indefinitely. One reason why old fiberglass fabric may not wet out fully and uniformly.

 

[Guest]

Glass fibers in fiberglass fabrics must be treated with sizing when the fabric is produced. Among other things, sizing helps to promote uniform resin uptake. Sizing varies in stability, but no sizing material lasts indefinitely. One reason why old fiberglass fabric may not wet out fully and uniformly.

Pete, I have realized for some years that my ancient E-glass fabric (not much left) and 4” E-glass tape (still several yards) had aged out and should go in the trash.

It’s crapty E-glass, and just not worth it.

 

[memaquay]

Looking forward to the results!

 

[Odyssey]

I too am interested in the results. The "controlled abrasion" tests might be performed with a timed sander with say, 80-100 grit?? Just a guess.
Not my science lab. I'm keeping my clothes on.
Oh, and Mike, you're aiming too low. Who rams their canoe into rebar? No. For realism purposes get your hands on some good old fashioned chunky granite, with some flecks of quartzite thrown in. Something pointy. Now that some of us can relate to.
A control might be needed as well, say an unprotected skin of Kev, FG or whatever.
But all in all an interesting experiment in the works. I am intrigued and shall no doubt be entertained (if not prudely offended). And most definitely educated.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

In another thread we talked about shop decorations. I believe you deserve this one:

https://flic.kr/p/2e6nvVq https://www.flickr.com/photos/133956285@N05/

 

[Guest]

Who rams their canoe into rebar?

Rebar can be a damnable (pun intended) boat menace. Folks who run old broken out dams and mill races have caught some. Not that you are guaranteed to hit it with a skid plate, but better punctured through the boat than through some fleshy part of you. Eeeesh.

Impact bombing using lengths of rebar (and a longer, heavier steel post from a horseshoe pit) will do. I am psyched at least for the impact testing, and have built and tested the Mark I bombsight.

Built. A 4 foot length of 7/8” ID aluminum guide pipe, attached vertically to one of the extra tall sawhorses, fixed in place with the top end of the guide pipe 7 feet in the air. The aluminum tube is an old seat rail from a Pamlico kayak, considerately pre-drilled exactly where needed.

Tested. I stuck a ¼ inch thick piece of lauan paneling underneath the bombsight, and dropped each rod from 6 feet high to see what happened. The 9oz rebar dropped at the minimum 6 foot elevation barely made a dent in the lauan

At the six foot minimum drop the 1lb 4 oz rebar made a (by mechanical caliper estimation) 1/64” deep dent. The 3 lb 9 oz horseshoe stake left a perfectly circular 1/8” deep crater. The pointy end of the horseshoe stake punched a conical dent all the way through the ¼” thick lauan (and left a dent in the deck, don’t tell the missus). Both of the latter left dents went through onto the back of the lauan panel.

The other valuable part of the bomb sight test drops was the realization that this is a two person testing task. The bomb sight rig is too tall to fit in the shop, and the bombardier needs to be standing on a ladder to access the 7 foot tall top of the guide pipe.

I’m not climbing up a ladder 57 times doing test drops, coming down to find where the rebar bounced off to, inspecting the damage, taking notes and making Sharpie marks, climbing back up with a different weight bar (or the same weight at different heights, until I get damage), bombing away at nine different test materials half a dozen different ways

Up and down, and up and down and up and . . . . . .oh heck freaking no. One person staying perched high on the ladder, one person on the ground handing up the next rebar “bomb”, taking impact notes and moving the test panel along under the crosshairs.

I didn’t know how long to wait for the epoxy to cure, but I now have a helper necessity answer; at least until Monday or Tuesday of next week, when I have a ladder-perched son back home a trip to help.

A control might be needed as well, say an unprotected skin of Kev, FG or whatever.

I agree, but I got none such available. Best real-world test would be using the different skid plate materials epoxied to both composite and Royalex (T-formex). And, I dunno, some stitch and glue Okoume boats, and strippers too. If I could write it off on taxes maybe some tests with pole dancers.

The flimsy lauan panel will have to serve as my half-arsed control. I suspect that the skid plate test materials will all be easier to break, crack or shatter epoxied atop a thin (brittle) sheet of vinyl siding, rather than atop the thickest-part-of-the-hull stems.

The bombing runs will tell, and I’ll extrapolate the results subjectively. With no data points, but likely some unavoidable material bias.

Dammit, “Bias”; under layers cut on the bias dumdum. Which I should have cut with most of the underlayers. It would have taken all of several additional seconds when cutting the fabric.

Double dang; half-arsed, and half thought out, with nothing under-laid on the bias.

In another thread we talked about shop decorations.

https://flic.kr/p/2e6nvVq https://www.flickr.com/photos/133956285@N05/

I don’t think UL will be underwriting my shop curiosities any time soon, and in any case there isn’t a lot of blank space left on my shop walls. UL is still a valuable (mostly) independent resource.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UL_(safety_organization)

If I had more computer skills maybe an UUL (“Underwriters Underwater Laboratories”) sign would fit the bill.

Someone grab that domain name quick. I have a roll of vintage 4” E-glass tape as your reward.

 

[Zac]

control might be needed as well, say an unprotected skin of Kev, FG or whatever.

The scientific method demands a control. In this case, the universal substrate is the vinyl siding so the control test should be performed on bare vinyl siding. I know, we're not learning anything about canoes by beating up some cheap siding but at least you will be able to scientifically confirm that the skid plates have added abrasion and/or impact resistance. Who knows, maybe you'll come upon a startling discovery and we'll all be using vinyl siding for our skid plates and incorporating it into composite layups. We'll call it McCrea-lex

I am likewise excited to see the outcome of your tests, Mike. I would volunteer to climb that ladder if I was less than 1000 miles away. Do I smell a full composite layup test in the future? I'll drop the rebar for you Alan; you're not nearly as far away.

Can you point me in the direction of your preferred Dynel material (specific) and supplier? I'll be doing some repair work on a keeled fiberglass beater soon and was thinking I'd try to run a skid plate from bow to stern. The sooner I get materials heading this way the sooner I will find motivation to start the project.

Zac

 

[Guest]

The scientific method demands a control. In this case, the universal substrate is the vinyl siding so the control test should be performed on bare vinyl siding.

Zac, thanks, good catch. I have some fine tuning to do on the guidance system and will drop the impact rods on a length of naked vinyl siding.

Can you point me in the direction of your preferred Dynel material (specific) and supplier? I'll be doing some repair work on a keeled fiberglass beater soon and was thinking I'd try to run a skid plate from bow to stern.

I have mostly bought Dynel from Jamestown Distributors (5oz Dynel), usually when ordering other materials or epoxies.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=4214

The keel on the beater may pose a problem, depending on the shape of the raised keel. Fabrics, especially heavier weight fabrics, do not willingly epoxy onto right angles, and something like a _I I_ keel protrusion could be tricky.

About running a length of fabric from bow to stern, that is much easier to do with fabric “tape”, which isn’t actually tape in the adhesive sense, but rolls of material up to 12 inches wide with seamed edges.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2074

I think the glass tapes are E-glass. Jamestown also sells carbon fiber and Kevlar tape in different widths.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1443

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1492

Kevlar tape would not have the abrasion resistance of Dynel, but would beat the heck out of E-glass. I have yet to find Dynel tape, which would be a godsend in some applications.

But again, kevlar or Dynel would be tricky to get to lay down on right angle _I I_ keel edges.

 

[Zac]

Thanks for the response Mike! So dynel is dynel is dynel? I get so confused when ordering fiberglass, perusing dozens of old posts here trying to learn the differences between all of the different choices and weaves.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread! II'll make my own thread about my crappy fiberglass canoe when I get it in the shop. Which should have been three weeks ago looking at the flooding here and all of the creeks I could be paddling today! I also have a kevlar job that's about ready for skid plates but that one isn't as critical as I know I will never mistreat it like I do the beater. I'm sick and tired of making last minute repairs to it just to get on the water, I want to overkill it and be done working on it for a couple years. I own two types of things: Nice, shiny ones and beaters. I have a limited selection of E-glass and S-glass laying around but not much of anything else and I am completely out of WS epoxy so I am due for a big order of supplies.

Thanks so much for all of the information you post here, Mike, it's very useful and dare-I-say inspirational for guys like me who would be using all of the resin in a skid plate kit otherwise.

Zac

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response Mike! So dynel is dynel is dynel?

I dunno. All the Dynel I have ordered has seemed the same in weave and weight.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread!
I am completely out of WS epoxy so I am due for a big order of supplies.

I don’t think of it as a hijack, just further discussion around the virtual campfire. IIRC Jamestown Distributors charged $4.50 ORM-D shipping for any quantity of resin.

for guys like me who would be using all of the resin in a skid plate kit otherwise.

A lot of people did that. It was understandable; the kits ran $70 - $100 and people weren’t “wasting” that resin. One of the reasons I bought kevlar felt was to have some extra material to use that excess resin on. The resin in one skid plate kit would easy do three full length skid plates.

One more thing on that skid plate resin. Some of it (MRC’s) seemed like nothing more than the West 105/206 type stuff I am used to working with. Old Town’s skid plate kits contained some kind of uber stinky urethane resin that was closer to G/flex in viscosity, and seemed much tougher.

 

[Guest]

Color agent pigment testing with kevlar felt

That also brings up another easy test. Next time I have some epoxy mixed up I’ll lay out some felt squares and try using just color agent pigmented epoxy to see what kind of green or red I can achieve over kevlar felt. Anything is better than Baby crap yellow.

I had two test slot spaces left on the vinyl siding, so “Next time” became a few days ago. I had no green pigment left (note to self), but had red and blue (and black and white and yellow) pigments.

P3140004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

A tiny dab of red color agent pigment for skid plates on red hull, followed by some blue pigment in the same red epoxy mixing pot (and same brush) for a blue canoe skid plate color match. Still blue, not Barney purple as I thought it might be with some red leftover; pigments can be mixed for custom colors.

Even before the peel ply compression those kev felt pieces are deep red, and Not-Barney blue. “Deep” being an important part; having the cloth color saturated through and through.

There is no reason kevlar felt skid plates can’t be tinted to better match the hull, or at least not be Baby-crap yellow.

P3140005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Disclaimer shop oops; I neglected to cut the peel ply larger than the pieces of kevlar felt, leaving no loose edge to peel off. I also didn’t bother with any G/flex in the epoxy mix, so any impact testing with those pigmented pieces will be skewed.

I meant to photograph the appearance of the raw test materials, but already had the epoxy going and gloves on before I remembered.

FWIW, the carbon fiber and kevlar tape in raw form. Both hid easily under Dynel with graphite powder and black pigment, and vanished flat in peel ply compression. The results at hiding carbon fiber or kevlar tape under layers may vary with color agent pigment alone.

P3140001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

 

[Odyssey]

Here's a half-arsed question. Are those colour agents only sold separately? ie: Do suppliers of skid plate/patch kits not offer a choice of minitubes of colour along with a kit? I see few kev skids in anything but yuck yellow. Having a choice of skid colours would be consumer friendly. And here's another h-a question, does pigment affect the goop integrity in any way? ie: Is it a perfect marriage of pigment and adhesive coating, with no performance compromises?

 

[Guest]

Here's a half-arsed question. Are those colour agents only sold separately?

I have only bought individual 1oz tubes of color agent pigment, and the cost seems to have increased since I last purchased any. Some vendor may sell a multi-color selection.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.co...ct.do?pid=7886

The good news is that the 1oz tubes of pigment do not seem to go bad (it pays to squish the tube around a bit to mix before dispensing, I just squish and then squirt a tiny bit out on a clean stir stick), and a dab will color a pot of epoxy.

I have heard that acrylic paint can be substituted in epoxy as color agent pigment. I meant to give that a try, bought a cheap acrylic paint set in a dozen colors, procrastinated and by the time I opened one of the little vials it had gone rock hard.

I use far more black pigment than any other color, but I guess with red, blue, green and yellow you could make anything on the Roy G Biv spectrum. One issue with that is trying to achieve the same exact shade with multiple batches of epoxy. We did repairs to an old glass slalom kayak. A bright purple slalom kayak. It had a variety of shades of purple patches when we finished.

Do suppliers of skid plate/patch kits not offer a choice of minitubes of colour along with a kit?

I have never seen a skid plate kit come with color agent, but haven’t bought a kit in years. If the manufacturers had at least provided black pigment there wouldn’t be 10,000 fugly kevlar skid plates on canoes.

And here's another h-a question, does pigment affect the goop integrity in any way? ie: Is it a perfect marriage of pigment and adhesive coating, with no performance compromises?

Here’s another h-a answer; if used in the correct (tiny amount) quantity I have never seen any difference. I expect adding too much pigment could result in poor epoxy adhesion or some unwanted plasticity.

A less h-a answer “Per Evercoat, up to 2 oz. of color agent or tint per quart can be added”

Edit: Clarification to “1oz tubes of pigment do not seem to go bad”. A few weeks ago I went through my jar of color agent pigments, all 1oz tubes except a giant tube of white. An ancient giant tube of white, bought 20 years ago when repairing a sailboat.

When I pulled it out of the jar it was empty. The bottom of the (long unused) tube had dissolved and the jar had loose white flakes of dried up pigment.

 

[Guest]

Another pigmented epoxy and cloth question – Does tinting the epoxy add any UV protection to the resin or cloth?

And/or does adding graphite powder?

 

[Guest]

Impact Testing Trials

I opted to use three different length/weight metal bars as impact “bombs” and drop them lightest to heaviest, increasing the drop height by 12” increments with each bar.

A 12 inch length of rebar (9oz), a 24 inch length of rebar (1lb 4oz) and a 36 inch bar of thicker iron (horseshoe stake, 3lbs 9oz, and pointy on one end if it came to that).

P3140010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The bombsight was easy enough to build, one of the tall sawhorses, a vertical scrap of 2x4 screwed in place and a piece of pipe to drop the metal rods through.

The top of the bombsight pipe is a little over 7 feet in the air, and I could start the rods inserted mostly inside the pipe, for a shorter drop, or extended largely out for more distance. Note that the bottom of the pipe is 38+ inches off the deck, I needed room for the 36 inch bar to fall free.

Starting the drops 7 feet in the air meant ladder work. Best done on the hard level deck rather than the muddy, sloped lawn.

P3140008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

First guidance test was simply dropping the rods onto a sheet of ¼ Lauan.

The 9oz rebar dropped at the minimum 6 foot elevation barely made a dent in the lauan

At the six foot minimum drop the 1lb 4 oz rebar made a (by mechanical caliper estimation) 1/64” deep dent. The blunt end of the 3 lb 9 oz horseshoe stake left a perfectly circular 1/8” deep crater. The pointy end of the horseshoe stake punched a conical dent all the way through the ¼” thick lauan (and left a dent in the deck, don’t tell the missus). Both of the latter left dents went through onto the back of the lauan panel.

P3150012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Zac smartly suggested

The scientific method demands a control. In this case, the universal substrate is the vinyl siding so the control test should be performed on bare vinyl siding.

I repeated that test with a sheet of naked vinyl siding. The 9oz rebar didn’t make a dent when dropped from 6 and 7 feet, and after a few trials I may skip that lightest rebar on the FRP reinforced patches

The 1lb 4oz rebar left a visible dent at 5 foot drop (#1), cracked the vinyl at 6 feet (#2) and big time cracked the vinyl at 7 feet (#3).

The horseshoe stake busted out pieces with the flat end (#4) and left a circular punch out with the pointy end (#5) that extended conically 1/8” into the wood below.

P3150017 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Before the impact tests I printed out “score sheets” for each material, impact rod and drop height. I’ve done these kinds of experiments before and it helps to have a scorecard ready to fill out, especially with a bunch of disorganized messy field notes in my handwriting.

P3160021 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I didn’t want to bomb directly on the deck boards, and with wee 3.5” squares of test material I needed some alignment assistance, in the form of a 6 foot tall piece of pipe held vertically against the bombsite tube. I put piece of wood on the deck, dropped a few test bombs and corrected my aim using that free piece of pipe. Better results than Norden.

I could move that substrate board a bit for each test piece, so that I wasn’t impacting the same vinyl siding area repeatedly and can see any visible damage that goes through into the board underneath.

 

[Guest]

Impact Test Results

The impact tests with various bar weights and height drops on the ten sample skid plate materials have been completed. A tall step ladder, two, sometimes three, people helping, bombsite practice, repeat drops, taking notes.

That test would have taken me all freaking day working solo, up and down the ladder an estimated 70 times. Once we had some practice aiming impact drops all 10 test pieces took less than an hour, handing up the next bomb and moving the target area along on each test piece.

The results ranged from worse than expected to surprisingly good. For a copy of the full test results send a self-address stamped envelope, a 5000 Venezuelan Bolivar note and a six pack of Hop Devil IPA to:
Half-Arsed Shop Experiments
PO Box Zero+/-
T’aint Free Land, MD 21053

The first 10 entries will receive an autographed 8x10 glossy photo of the Plaid Prancer’s beguiling portrayal of Sally Rand, using pickerel skins in place of feathers, with classic rock from the 60’s as a score. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Mem, shake that moneymaker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYeUx4kOQwI

Two shows nightly at the Blue Lagoon when it’s not motor freighter season. The Plaid Prancer shimmers more than Sally. It’s probably the fish scales. Maybe stripper glitter.

 

[memaquay]

Nobody is gonna want the results now, lol. But really, did you film it? I'd like to see the results

 

[Guest]

Here's a half-arsed question. Are those colour agents only sold separately? ie: Do suppliers of skid plate/patch kits not offer a choice of minitubes of colour along with a kit? I see few kev skids in anything but yuck yellow.

Brad, I think you may be on to a boater-needed business opportunity in those questions.

Kevlar felt (results to be posted soon) is, in a four letter word, crap for impact resistance. Even a single layer 5oz Dynel skid plate does measurably better.

I just looked at costs for manufactured skid plate kits, all provided with kevlar felt. Wenonah, Mad River and others want $100. For a couple pieces of crap kev felt, some (?) epoxy, a tongue depressor, a chip brush, pair of disposable gloves and piece of sandpaper. What’s that, like $20 in pre-packaged materials?

Old Town now wants $300! That kit better dang well include that thick amber uber stinky cancer causing urethane resin. And someone coming by from Old Town and to install it for me while I watch. For $300 they need to arrive scantily dressed and toting a case of cold beer.

https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoor...030d974e7c0619/parts/hull-deck/skid-plate-kit

To skid plate kit business opportunities. Someone with cloth cutting skills, and maybe a sewing machine, should make pre-cut, seamed/selvage edged Dynel skid plates. If not sewn at least folded over and adhesive tacked down, with clean, crisp edges secured from frays in brush-on epoxy coats.

A much improved kit: a skid plate shaped piece of Dynel with secured edges, an overlapping piece of release treated peel ply, and step-by-step instructions. Folks doing skid plates on a single canoe don’t need to order a 60” wide yard of Dynel and a yard of peel ply they may never use again.

Don’t even bother including the Haz-mat charges epoxy resin shipping charges, maybe not even with pigment for color choice. Just an envelope with some cut-to-shape, crisp edged, easy to work Dynel cloth, and a well-overlapping (for folks with poor aim) piece of release treated peel ply, and installation instructions starting with: “Step 1 - Order one of these epoxies and your choice of pigment here or here or (in Canada) here.

It might be hard to resist offering the Premium Kit option; for another $50 that kit includes a tongue depressor, disposable brush & gloves and piece of sandpaper. Score!

Two easy to install skid plate sized/shaped pieces of Dynel, and some overlapping peel ply would make a much better, lighter, tougher skid plate kit than the kevlar felt stuff currently available in kit form.

I don’t know what the market would bear for a Dynel and peel ply skid plate kit, but shipping the resin in a kit is a cost killer. And I do know that I will never ever install another kevlar felt skid plate.

 

[Guest]

Nobody is gonna want the results now, lol. But really, did you film it? I'd like to see the results

We photographed it. No one wants to see video of my fat, arthritic arse climbing up and down a ladder any more than folks want to see the Plaid Prancer shaking his fish-slimed moneymaker to late 60’s rock.

A teaser

P3170001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I need some bills tucked in my fleece before giving up the goods. I’m sure you understand.