Finishing Ipe' bright

[CaseyJones]

Was looking at some of my Ipe' in the shop today and wondered how it holds varnish or poly in an exterior environment.

Anybody know?

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Not first hand, but I've heard it has serious adhesion problems for varnish.

[Mike Vogdes]

I'm gonna try teak oil on the next bright finished Ipe project. Varnish just doesn't want to penetrate.

[carioca1232001]

I have used CETOL on my Ipê railings and put on a maintenance coat every 12 months or so.

Ipê doesn´t seem to like polyurethanes/epoxies at all, the chief culprit being its own resin.

For epoxy-gluing Ipê , you need to at least wipe down the surfaces to be glued with acetone -preferably torch the acetone and Ipê resin - prior to coating with glue.

[Gary Bergman]

Well, I've been using a lot of Ipe, and it seems to epoxy, paint, cetol and varnish alright with me...I use Smith's CPES before I do any of the above on any wood, any more.....I guess that says I really like CPES!

[carioca1232001]

Well, if you like CPES, fine..... but rest assured that Ipê can do without it and still outlive most of us on this Forum !

Needless to say, I am an Ipê fan and the more fans there are, especially overseas, the more expensive Ipê is going to get.

Actually it is already up some 250%, compared to 1998 prices in Rio de Janeiro, due in part to the export market.

So keep your fad secret and let them say that it is very heavy stuff, hard as nails to work with etc. ;)

[Lone Star]

How's the Flatsflyer coming along? I'm curious as to how you rate this boat against the Phantom that you built a few years ago.

[CaseyJones]

I am enjoying the process of the ply on frame Flats Flyer much more than I did the s&g Phantom. I have flipped it over & pulled it up on the trailer. Life got in the way and I haven't done anything to it since. One of these weekends I need to get the inside epoxied so I can get started on the rigging tubes and cockpit sole. I sold the Phantom to a friend in Orlando. He just loves it.

http://www.flatsflyer.4t.com/images/flipped1.jpg

http://www.flatsflyer.4t.com/images/flipped3.jpg

http://www.flatsflyer.4t.com/images/flipped2.jpg

[ 01-11-2005, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: CaseyJones ]

[Dan McCosh]

I've used ipe for boatwork, gluing with epoxy with no special treatment, and it seems to work fine. I haven't tried varnish, as it's all below, in deck beams, etc. I put in a deck at the house last summer and oiled it, and it still looks nice after two months of winter, snow, etc. I once saw a piece of it where it was buffed on a wheel, like bronze, and it came out looking like varnish. Weird.

[Pernicious Atavist]

last year i replaced the interior wood on my thistel with ipe. so far, so good! i varnished it--began with several coats of thinned stuff--and then applied full strenght coats. some spots seemed to have missed the varnish, but the other 95 percent worked just swell. other apps on those bad spots didn't seem to fix it; they just stayed pale, but under the varnsih coat--odd. i expect it would have been a good 100 percent job had i wiped it down with acetone instead of thinner just prior to varnishing.

the epoxy seems to be holding well, evn without pretreatment.

[carioca1232001]

....... i expect it would have been a good 100 percent job had i wiped it down with acetone instead of thinner just prior to varnishing The Ipê varnishing I´ve done in the past has not run into flaws as yours has.

Next time, successively apply acetone and wipe off prior to varnishing - should fix it.

BTW, an extract made from Ipê is being presently patented for mitigating the side-efects of quimo in cancer patients. A most beautiful tree to look at when in flower, be it the yellow-flowered (amarelo) or purple-flowered (roxo) variety.