FIBERGLASS YOUR LEAKS AWAY...
(Page 2 of 3)
After waiting a day for the repair to cure, I turned on our pump (five horsepower with a 160-foot head) and discovered that my beginner's plumbing job had worked! Only a few drops spattered down from the bottom of the pipe, the results of my applying too much liquid (when the excess dripped away, it pulled the 'glass cloth out just enough for water drops to find their way out). Fortunately, every bit of leakage eventually stopped itself, and the monster of a crack was finally dry.
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That first leak, however, taught me a lesson: From then on, I always took cleanup supplies along with me. Acetone works fine to get the hardened resin off your hands, as does hot water with detergent, boraxo, or cleanser. However, if the compound isn't washed off immediately (a good idea anyway considering the strong chemicals involved), you'll spend more time trying to pick it off your hands than you did fixing the leak.
MISCELLANEOUS TIPS
Once, I attempted to repair pipes that weren't completely dry ... a definite mistake! Even though the laminate did slow down the leaks considerably, I still had to redo my work. And fiberglass—as I quickly discovered—is harder to break apart than concrete. Hit it with a mallet, and the cloth just scrunches down. Chip it with a cold chisel, and it's like scraping an English walnut with your fingernail: The tool simply slides across the slick surface or else chops out only a tiny chunk. This substance bonds to a surface so completely that either some of it adheres in spite of attempts to break it loose, or a portion of the patched surface comes off with the fiberglass.
Naturally, the resined cloth also sticks to rust and dirt ... and when the rust flakes away, so does the fiberglass. That's why it's important to scrape, wire-brush, or sandpaper down as close to the original surface as possible.
And remember, resin never acts exactly the same ... its curing time varies according to heat. An identical mix won't set up nearly as fast in the shade or in the evening as it will at bright noon. (Humidity affects the drying process, too.)
To slow down the hardening action, add less catalyst or else repair your leaks in cool weather. I prefer, however, to add a lot of catalyst, so the material sets up really fast. Remember, too, that the compound continues to harden long after it feels solid to the touch.
Though you may have to experiment a little, try not to mix up more resin and catalyst than you can use. Too much will soon turn into a gummy consistency that quickly becomes rock-hard. In fact, my son's rock collection sports one such man-made "stone" that would have repaired two bad leaks ... if I had moved faster, or if the weather had been cooler. Now I never mix more than a cup at a time for large leaks, and much less for small ones. After all, it's reasonably easy to make more if I don't have quite enough.
