comp tip glue-up

Well, it's forth and goal...the mast has been cut and the comp-tip glued, paying attention to the level and true of course. I did it on Saturday...today I checked on it, as I have every 8 hours or so, and the 3M 5200 is still tacky to the touch. I'm anxious to roll the mast and get the tang on, but I don't want to jump the gun and move it if it is still gummy. I'm surprised! The tube says it takes a while (48hrs till tacky is gone) How long does this really take?

3M 5200? Did you glue with this material? This is too soft for this job. CompTips are typically glued with epoxy. The epoxy makes a hard shim fit. The 5200 would flex under load...

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I was instructed to use the 3M 5200 from several sources. I was originally going to use a thickened West System, but was told that the flexing and bending of the mast would cause the brittle expoxy joint to eventually crack. I know most epoxy is rather brittle when cured. Obviously, it will be aided in its stiffness by the addition of the tang and the 12 rivets going through the extrusion and tip at once. Now that I'm worried about the instructions I recieved, I might add some additional hardware to the sides and back (stainless self tapping screws or additional rivets?)
I sure hope I didn't shoot myself in the foot...Surf City Cats (among others) told me to use the 3M instead of the epoxy. I'm putting my confidence in thier knowledge...ugh...I hope it works. Is there anyone else out there with experience doing this sort of mast work? Will what I've got going work??

5200 will definitely work. We used it as our standard while I was working at Oneills back in the day. I've never seen a failure from using it. As stated, the best stuff to use is the specially formulated epo the comptip comes with. Years after a comptip install the specially formulated glue that Hobie sells it will still be slightly soft. People use West Systems, Body Filler, and who knows what else to install comptips. You'll be fine, just let it cure. It takes about a week.

J

Good, good, good...thanks for the reply SCC. I used nearly the hole tube and then cleaned off the excess. I'm just impatient, there's still bits of snow on the ground anyway. 4 days of drying left!

With snow on the ground it may take longer...
J

I use golf club head epoxy thickened with silica. It comes in black too and breaks down at a lower heat than West System so when you want to pull it, you just do it like a giant club head-heat and pull. The slow cure stuff cures in 24 hours.

http://www.golfworks.com/product.asp_Q_ ... _A_cn_E_33