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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Repairing a butchered skirt

Last year I routed out my skirt to fit the busted up A&A frame that I had at the time. It would have worked well on that frame but not on my current aluminum frame. So I took some leftover resin I had and mixed up a batch. It's the epoxy resin that was recommended to me from Mike in Blogland.

I covered the holes with clay the best I could and then poured the resin into the pourous cavity of the skirt. It quickly soaked in and did start leaking in a few spots. I thought for sure it would all leak out but it kind of sealed itself off after a short period and I kept pouring in a little bit at a time to top it off. Of course making sure it's all set up on something to catch the runoff because it can be a mess.

About 10 minutes into it, the mixture started popping and making strange noises. It heated up and even melted the clay in places. It was weird watching a little stream of boiling hot resin mixed with clay drizzle out the sides. At this point I was sure the entire skirt was going to melt down or distort but everything turned out beautiful. The resin hardened and dried clear which looked interesting. And the skirt is now back to it's original form only this time it's a lot more durable and solid than the material it was originally made of.

After inquiring on the board if anyone had a JAG center ankle, I decided I would have to make do with the heavy ankle I had. So the next step is to mount the center foot and get the outer feet finished.

2 comments:

Mike D. said...

I've had the same reaction occur with mixed resin. I think it was due to the stuff I was using being old. The proper term (I think) is exo-thermic and it amounts to a chain reaction giving off heat which in turn causes the reaction to accelerate and give off more heat in a vicious cycle.

Glad it didn't cause a melt-down of your project!

I noticed you have an outside door in one of your garage pics, mine is set up the same way. Since it gets hot and humid in Kansas, I cut out plywood to fit the door opening and mounted a small A/C unit. It's held in place by 4 of those barrel hasp that fit into matching holes in the door frame.

Then it's a simple task of opening the door, setting the plywood panel in place and plugging the A/C in. We call it the "AirconDOORtioner" and it does a great job of cooling the garage even on the hottest days. I usually leave it in place all season and start it the night before I plan to work the next day.

Jim said...

Mike that's a genius idea for a door air conditioner. It's funny you posted that because my wife was saying I should put an a/c unit in the window but I told her that would destroy the shelf area so we "shelved" that idea. But the door idea is dooable.

However, I'm pretty well aclimated to the heat and with a couple fans blowing I don't mind it as much as most folks. But I will keep that in the back of my mind.