Hi everyone. I have been watching and learning from Chicago and appriciate all the information and pictures that everyone has taking the time to post. I own a custom cabinet/mill shop in down town Chicago, when work started getting slow, I found myself thinking to much about business and money so my fishing buddy from Michigan (I'm a transplant from Michigan myself) said I should build a drift boat to keep my mind off the business, I took him up on it. As my employees would say, I over think most projects and in this case they again would be right because I decided that with all the templets and set-ups to build one drift boat why not build two. So as of today (3 months into the project) I have both boats ready for the glass/epoxy bottoms.
Sorry for not logging in earlier and posting the progress with pictures, but I was waiting to confirm that Trout Unlimited was willing to raffle one boat for a good cause and I have really enjoyed Jason's build (Thanks Jason).
I still have many questions that I will start pestering everyone with, but right now I would like to know where to buy the graphite powder and are are there different grades?
I will start posting build pictures soon.
Again, thanks for the input. Sandy, it was great talking to you on the phone, you were very helpful.
You can also buy graphite from Raka as well as everything else you need epoxy wise. I found them to be helpful and quite a bit better price. The boats look great - your cabinet making skills are obvious.
I purchased graphite form Jamestown Distibutors... A West sytem product . I Had tried Fiberglass Supply but at that time lost their supplier. I mixed it per instructions 1 1/2 tablespoon per 8 oz. made a 24 oz. batch of System 3 epoxy , mixed, then added the graphite (41/2 tablespoons) worked well. Made to 2 batches to get the coverage I wanted Had previously applied 2 coats of clear coat epoxy , 2 more coats to apply tiaxel cloth and then the 2 graphite coats.Building a 18 foot Don Hill driftboat. I put a Tablespoon of water in a med cup to see where it filled to that container was marked . dried it out and used that to measure. Great looking workmanship. Steve
Great info eneryone, I talked to Larry at Raka yesterday about the glass and epoxy but he did not mention that he had the graphite. I looked a little closer at his wed page and found it this AM, will call today and order.
Eric , I have posted a few new pictures on my page, where I am at on my project. I tried to post here and they are distorted. I think I will sand and apply one more graphite coat. Steve