On Sunday, February 27th, I took the opportunity to layout the hatch frame and begin the glue up process. This was a pretty straight forward part of the hatch construction, taking just a short amount of time. In a previous trip to the wood shop, Glen and I cut the dado / channels in the frame pieces in preparation for gluing them together. During this session, I began by laying out the components, ensuring the pieces to be mated presented the best aesthetics. I then wiped down the surfaces of the teak with acetone, taking off the naturals oils of the teak that would hinder the effectiveness of the epoxy.
Next, I mixed up a batch of neat epoxy and painted it on the surfaces to be mated. I then combined West System 403 Microfibers with a subsequent batch of epoxy and applied this to all previous painted surfaces. I first applied the 'neat' epoxy to the glue surfaces in anticipation that the teak would absorb some of the epoxy, so the second batch of thickened epoxy would supply an adequate amount of epoxy for bonding the wood surfaces together and filling in any voids in the wood surfaces. If I would have bonded the wood immediately after applying the 'neat' epoxy, I might have ended up with voids and weak areas in the bond.
Once I had all surfaces covered with the epoxy thickened with 403, I assembled and clamped all pieces. The clamps were secured tightly so as to close all seams. I wiped surfaces on one side with a rag wetted with solvent...
....and repeated on the opposite side - ensuring all epoxy was removed that had squeezed out during the clamping.
I then set aside while the epoxy fully kicked and cured. I would take care of any residual epoxy during a sanding session prior to applying varnish - a few more steps are required prior to this however.
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