: Hi Jeff,

: Somthing seems really wrong.
: I'm assuming you epoxied the joints together, then later put the tape on.

pygmys butt joints are joined together with a 1 inch strip of a light (2oz?)fiberglass tape. due to the problems I had with it last time I was really carefull. I did a light sanding of the wood, precoated the wood with a light layer of epoxy, came back in about 6 hours when the epoxy was lightly tacky. I layed the tape over the joint and used a foam paintbrush to paint on a layer of epoxy, places a piece of mylar over the top and layed down a couple of bricks on top to keep everything in order (and to help the plywood lay down flat)

I removed the tape about two weeks later.

: My first guess is that you have an amine blush issue. The blush comes from
: some brands of epoxy, it will be worse if you are working in a high
: humidity.

: The blush will cause the second layer of epoxy not to stick to the first.
: You need to scrub off the blush with water and a pot scrubber. Also the prior
: to putting the second layer of epoxy on you should sand the first layer if
: it has fully dried.

only 6 hours between layers, if blush is the culpret, then I am really in trouble here, besides it really doesn't get that humid here.

: The second guess is that you had a bad mix of epoxy. It should not have been
: sticky, or plyable. it should have been hard. this could be a bad ratio of
: epoxy, or just not mixed enough.

the epoxy _seems_ fine, it stuck just fine to the wood and all, it got hard &ct. it was just that teh epoxy did not want to stick to the fiberglass tape

: The 4th guess. Was the surface of the wood contaminated, with somthing that
: would prevent the epoxy from bonding to it?

I hope not, this is the very first step so there is very little time for something to contaminate the wood. I havn't spilled anything on it, I havn't been smoking anything in the garage. I'm even waiting till I'm finished with the kayak before cleaning the carbs on my wifes honda

: My last guess: when you say tape... you mean a strip of epoxied on fiberglass
: cloth. right? you do not mean the sticky tape with the fibers in it...

: It is hard to guess the cause of the bad bond, I'm not familliar with the
: kits.

: I think we should figure out what is the cause, before deciding how to fix
: it. Fiberglass strips that are epoxied in place should not cause a
: problem.

: good luck,

: Myrl