Cabin sole - epoxy night

I always get into this trap: underestimating the amount of time needed for epoxy work.

Tonight I glued new boards onto old cabin sole. Prep work took longer than expected - dismounting all boards, cleaning with acetone, adjusting back the screws and aligning everything in proper order for gluing took most of the evening.

I use WEST epoxy with 405 filleting blend. Glue is thickened to Heinz ketchup consistency and I like that 405 makes epoxy look like mahogany. In case there are any gaps to fill it will blend nicely with wood. It is not the strongest composition - silica being the choice of most - but it should fit the bill for this work.

It turned out that my approach with multiple screws as referencing points worked smoothly. After cleaning each mating surface I adjusted the screws so they protruded just enough to get the grip in pre-drilled holes.

Then came thickened goo. I had to use quite a lot of epoxy - these planks are wide and long. Not particularly cheap business but “smakar det så kostar det”.

The hardest was to place the first plank - all screw holes disappeared under the “chocolate”. Once this was in place the rest went smoothly. Good squeeze-out indicated that wetting is fine in the joint so the bond should be strong.

Cleaning the squeezed glue while proceeding takes time but is well worth it - at the end of work I was left with only 2 pumps worth of epoxy. I thickened it further to peanut butter consistency and filled old finger holes in the underlying planks.

As always with epoxy - the whole job is a mess. Doing that in my bedroom does not make work easier. However - epoxy extremely simplifies such jobs. Good that we have it these days.

Early next morning, when epoxy was almost fully cured, I started removal of temporary screws.
I’ve made a mistake with the first screw - I tried removing it with a power tool. It snapped and most of the screw sits inside the board.

I should have know that. I then switched to manual screwdriver and the second screw… also broke. Too fast!
Lesson learned so I proceeded with the rest very carefully, giving time to wood/glue to give and breaking the bond without too much torque which kills the screw.

Out of 90 screws only these first 2 broke. There will be some work to remove them.