Tack welding with "gluezilla"

Hello,

Reading through Shearwater Sport manual. Manual recommends epoxy mixed with silica for tack welding panels together. Would "Woodzilla" or "gluezilla" work as well?

John

 


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RE: Tack welding with "gluezilla"

Two clarifications:

CLC uses the term "tack welding" to mean gluing to peices of wood together, inbetween the copper ties, prior to applying a fillet.

And I am not trying diverge from the manual. Many years of experience went into it and it is an exquisite piece of technical writing. But the Zilla products are relatively new. From a noobie's perspective it looks like the products may be helpful in tack welding or that part with the syringe where you inject epoxy into seams. Of course there is a lot to be said for becoming very comfortable with epoxy.

Thanks!

RE: Tack welding with "gluezilla"

Your zillas may work well enough for temporary adhesion, but are they compatible with epoxy? That is, will the epoxy adhere to the tacks when the fillets are laid down, or will the stuff cause a bubble to form inside the fillet? I don't know the answer, but I do recall that one of those zillas is an expanding sort of foamy glue. Probably a good idea to check with the glue and epoxy manufacturers about compatibility.

FWIW, epoxy/woodflour make a perfectly good tack glue. I've been using it for 14 years and never had it break. So if it's the silica you're trying to avoid, that's a safe, proven alternative for tacks.

Good luck,

Laszlo

 

RE: Tack welding with "gluezilla"

1. There is also the color thing. The zilla won't be the same color as the fillets. Who wants to see little light color dots down a dark joint?    

2. On the other hand,  go ahead and try a zilla and report back the success or failure. :-)  Innovation comes from thinking out of the box. Of course there are some risks.

 

RE: Tack welding with "gluezilla"

   I "tack welded" my Eastport Pram and was very happy with the results.  I used a smaller radius for the tacks between the wires, removed the wires, then used a larger radius for the finished fillet.  That means the larger fillet covers the tacks over nicely.  Those were done with wood flour "peanut butter".  

For the Passagemaker, I'm looking to giving the "Zillas" a try.  If you use the smaller radius trick, it doesn't matter what color the tack welds are, as they will be covered over.  Part of the reason I'm looking forward to the "Zillas" is the caulk gun format.  I used lots of syringes and zip-lock pastry bags (which waste a lot of epoxy) on the EP build and mixed up probably a hundred 1-cup batches of epoxy, unthickened, with silica and wood flour.

RE: Tack welding with "gluezilla"

I used Gluezilla/Woodzilla for filleting the bulkheads on a Chester Yawl, and it worked fantastic! Strong bond, plays perfectly well with MAS, easy to apply and save if not finishing the tube immediately (just cap and resume, whenever). The consistency is well "consistent" every time. 

Things to be aware of: the color is different from MAS epoxy with wood flour, as has been said. I like the darker color myself, but unaware of this I started with MAS and wood flour, then continued with Woodzilla. I ended-up going over Woodzilla fillets with MAS+Wood Flour to save the uniform color. This was a waste, but I know for next time. The cost is significant if used in quantity and may be important to some. I would definitely use Gluezilla wherever the manual calls for epoxy and colloidal.

Only a matter of preference, but if I can do away with mixing, bagging and squeezing, I'll take the caulking gun and Gluezilla/Woodzilla any day.

 

 

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