I’ve just finished the bottom and I am about ready to flip it over and set it on the trailer. It’s been a lot of fun so far, I hope you’ll enjoy the process just as much as the rest of us.
So, I’ve found that the ‘lamp trick’ described on CLC’s website (and I think in the manual) works quite well also. Though, for the ‘bigger’ jobs obviously not so much. I recently pulled out the forced air propane heater torpedo thing to get my space up to a ‘workable’ temperature due to the ridiculously cold weather. Luckily, my space is so small it only takes about 30-45 minutes to take it from 50F to ~80F. It seems to hold out for about 6-8 hours while it is in the 30’s outside before I have to run it again. I also sealed off any small gaps around doors in the garage. That’s helped probably more than I realize. I have a carbon monoxide alarm and keep the heater isolated/away from everything else in the garage to keep things ‘safe’, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this approach, but I had to paint the bottom when it in the 20’s outside because I wanted to keep to my schedule.
So, one thing I don’t see discussed much is the concern for outgassing when dealing with fluctuating temperatures. I unfortunately, thought I had beat it, but after the fill coats were laid, I noticed quite a few areas where outgassing had occurred. If I were to do it all over again, I think I’d do the following.
- warm space
- allow to cool for an hour or more
- only lay one layer of glass at a time
I think by following that, you’d be able to avoid outgassing because the wood would be ‘cooling’ and no longer expelling gas/air. (I would only start epoxying the big jobs as the temperature is falling and I know the wood temp is at least the same as the ambient.) And then you’d also have less glass to saturate and therefore less chance of missing any spots and under saturating. Just my two cents.
Also, keep or store your resin/hardener in a ‘warm-ish’ place. The difference between resin at 65 and 70 is night and day in my opinion. It definitely has had an impact on how easy it is to mix and work into the glass. Granted, it will also affect to some degree your ‘work time’ with it. But small batches helps with that. 😉
Good luck, I hope to see more pictures as you make progress.