Epoxy and Varnish the Galley Module

[mpilone]

I’m starting to assemble the galley module while I wait for epoxy to cure on the shell. I did all my routing and sanding and now I’m at the point of applying a coat of epoxy. The manual recommends applying the epoxy and sanding before assembly which makes sense because some of those cabinets and slots will be too hard to get to later. However it isn’t completely clear when or how to varnish it (before/after assembly, masking, etc). Also, I was thinking about just using wood glue as it seems a lot easier (and less messy) than the thickened epoxy and, in theory, the module won’t be directly exposed to weather.

So I’m curious what others who used the galley module kit have done:

• Did you epoxy and sand the whole thing before assembly?
• Did you then also varnish before assembly? If yes, does the CA glue and thickened epoxy still work as a glue on the varnish or did you mask off glue surfaces? If no, what did you use as a final finish, just epoxy?
• Has anyone assembled it with just wood glue? If so, I assume you had to mask off any glue surfaces before epoxying as wood glue won’t stick to the smooth epoxy well.

Any help would be appreciated. I know I’m jumping ahead in the manual but I don’t even have varnish in house yet so I might have to shelve the module (pun intended) until I’m later in the process and setup for varnishing.

Thanks,

-mike

[StarMan]

1)I sanded and rounded/routered the edges

2) then epoxied all surfaces with 2 coats.

3) 2 coats of varnish on most surfaces that are on the inside portions before assembly (Much easier to do when flat)

4) assemble using CA Glue and thickened epoxy following the fillet schedule in the Hymnal.

5) once assemble and filleted, I touched up as needed with varnish (especially outside surfaces)

Wood glue can cause problems with lines showing wear it is squeezed out.  I would use epoxy.

[mpilone]

Great, thanks for the information. That was about what I was expecting from the manual’s description but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious. I guess I’ll have to hold off on finishing it until I get closer to applying varnish to the shell.

Your final assembly looks great. I’ll need to order something like your sweet clamping system 😉

Back to sanding and recoating…

-mike

[Author]

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