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Boat Forum / Building / December 2005West System ???? What is it??
I keep seeing postings and other writings about the "West System" . I know it is something to do with epoxy .. but what? Is this just a brand? Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, where would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? > I keep seeing postings and other writings about the "West System" . > > I know it is something to do with epoxy .. but what? > > Is this just a brand? Exactly. It's a widely available brand of epoxy that's popular with boat builders. > Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, where > would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? Not unless you're looking for polyester resin, which is what's typically used in car bodies. Marine suppliers are your best bet for local sources, though Home Depot sells Everfix quart epoxy kits and fiberglass, if you're just doing small repairs. There are many online epoxy sources, with Raka (www.raka.com) being very popular with boat builders, due to high quality products and excellent service at much better prices than West Systems. See http://www.westsystem.com. WEST epoxy was one of the earliest, and certainly the most successfully marketed, epoxies used for boat building. It was also the first one to pass MIL-spec testing too. It's the one that more people turn to than any other ...when they are scared to try anything else. There are many that meet and exceed the requirements for building boats ...and many other (including RAKA and Progressive Polymers) that either refuse or don't have specs to share. WEST and System Three are the top choices amongst those companies that do share specs with the public. Brian D >I keep seeing postings and other writings about the "West System" . > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, where > would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? West System is a brand of epoxy and additives . More at http://westsystem.com These are the people who pioneered he use of epoxy in boatbuilding. Many of the methods they develeoped are in the very good book The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction There is a new edition (5th) just published . If you intend to build a boat using epoxy get the book. Perhaps 10% of the bandwidth in this newsgroup is devoted to the question of how to avoid the relatively high cost of their products. There is no quest at all for better products. The Gougeons do a superb job at a fair price. > I keep seeing postings and other writings about the "West System" . > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, where > would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? An interesting question. I found the Material Safety Data Sheet, at http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Miscellaneous/MSDS/msds.html The ingredients are: Bisphenol -A type epoxy resin <50% Bisphenol -F type epoxy resin <20% Benzyl Alcohol <20% Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether <0.03% If you look at several of the other products on that sheet, they share many of the same ingredients. > I keep seeing postings and other writings about the "West System" . > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, where > would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? Bisphenol -A type epoxy resin, should say >50% > An interesting question. > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] >> Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, >> where would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? The "West System" is not just the brand of epoxy, but a method of encapsulating a wooden boat in fibreglass and epoxy. Using the West System, a boat is completely sealed, so that water cannot get to the wood. It's time consuming, requiring great attention to detail. It's not simply painting epoxy over the wood. Each seam is covered with a fillet of thickened epoxy and fibreglass cloth. > I keep seeing postings and other writings about the "West System" . > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Also,,, if you need fiberglass supplies when fixing an old sailboat, where > would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? They've got no patent on ecapsulating wood or composites in something waterproof and people did things like that on boats long before WEST pulled up to the table. I'd call their approach "marketing" and nothing more. Especially if you consider that they mislead the public with statements like "epoxy saturation" as though the wood completely saturated with epoxy and become a rot-proof wood/epoxy composite product. False advertising. Nope. I'd say that the other epoxy outfits get just as much credit for epoxy encapsulation as WEST does... if not more. It was the other companies, and boat builders themselves, that corrected the nasty rumors about 'saturation' and made the statements more accurate by saying 'encapsulation' instead. But I am at least glad that WEST got the ball rolling and do give them credit for that. Brian D > The "West System" is not just the brand of epoxy, but a method of > encapsulating a wooden boat in fibreglass and epoxy. Using the West [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >> where >> would you look? Do you go to an auto repair supply place? WEST - Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique? Gougeon Brothers - boatbuilder/supplier/bookwriters in Michigan? The GB have probably copyrighted and trademarked their version of the process under the WEST trade name. |
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