Your favorite fairing compound recipe?

[Reardon]

I'd like to mix my own epoxy-based fairing compound. I'm looking for workability, sandability, durability, and cheapability :D. Would anyone mind sharing their recipe?

Thanks Kindly

[John B]

I know how to get a nice coffee coloured one. Smells like coffee when you sand it too.

[peter radclyffe]

if boero is too soft, or awlgrip is too hard, you could try
3 eggs,
half a can of baking soda,
horsehair,
brylcreem,
cement powder
5200
Teflon
Sisal
Hundreds & thousands
Dolphinite
West’s
Tiramisu
Boot polish
Marmite

Throw it all in a cement mixer & leave it running for 36 hours
Bingo, trowel it on, scrape it off

[Stiletto]

I used to buy microballons and altex epoxy. I played around with it until I had the sag and adhesion to my liking. The mix would differ slightly on a day by day basis depending on temperature etc.

I would spread the first coat with a notched trowel which would leave small pyramids to sand rather than the whole surface.
when applying the second coat I would often use the back of an old hard tempered saw as a flexible squeegee which would conform to hull shapes well.

[Reardon]

if boero is too soft, or awlgrip is too hard, you could try
3 eggs,
half a can of baking soda,
horsehair,
brylcreem,
cement powder
5200
Teflon
Sisal
Hundreds & thousands
Dolphinite
West’s
Tiramisu
Boot polish
Marmite

Throw it all in a cement mixer & leave it running for 36 hours
Bingo, trowel it on, scrape it off

I guess this is your way of telling me my question is stupid?

[JimConlin]

I used to buy microballons and altex epoxy. I played around with it until I had the sag and adhesion to my liking. The mix would differ slightly on a day by day basis depending on temperature etc.

I would spread the first coat with a notched trowel which would leave small pyramids to sand rather than the whole surface.
when applying the second coat I would often use the back of an old hard tempered saw as a flexible squeegee which would conform to hull shapes well.

All OK. Quartz microspheres are lower cost than microballons and a bit of cabosil smooths the mix out and reduces sag.

Marmite is a nice touch.

[Saltiguy]

I used to use baby talcum powder just to save money
Then I found a good source for microballoons and have been using them ever since

[George Ray]

I just bought about 5_lb bag of reddish colored phenolic micro-balloons ($75+ship). I have not used cabo-sil in the past to stiffen the mix and prevent sag but will probably start doing that in future.

I like the light weight and ease of sanding and of course shaping when still green. Not expecting strength in the fair material itself but do expect added stiffness (core effect) when glassed over, as with foam core.

http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product_Catalog/Fillers/fillers.html

[peter radclyffe]

Reardon, please do not take offence at my post, it was a harmless bit of trivia
your question is not stupid

[peter radclyffe]

it was triggered by your emoticon, i dont know the best fairing compound, but boero & awlgrip are specialists, from discussing this with experienced fairers, the key thing appears to be the softer the better for the torture boards/alcohol consumption/cat kicking senior moments etc

[peter radclyffe]

you can look at materials here
Boat Design Net - the Boat Design and Boat Building Site (http://boatdesign.net/) - [

[PeterSibley]

I guess this is your way of telling me my question is stupid?

He's just having some fun ....he does that .:):D

[RodB]

Reardon....

A mixture of 1/3 cabosil and 2/3 talc (baby powder if you do not want to order talc from an industrial source).

Micro-baloons end up leaving small hollows when you sand them... then you have to recoat with epoxy to fill the voids.

The talc/cabosil mixture works great, is very easy to sand.

BTW... Dave Carnell recommends talc with epoxy....

RodB

[Reardon]

Reardon, please do not take offence at my post, it was a harmless bit of trivia
your question is not stupid

None taken... I just figured the subject has probably been beat to death, but my search skills were only good enough to turn up some vague recommendations... no specific ratios... etc...

[ian scott]

Pre mixed fairing compounds are really good. More expensive than mixing your own but because the consistency enables you to apply more evenly and flatter you tend to use less, turn less into dust because you sand less and also save on sand paper.

That's my experience.