Battle of the Titans

Mike and Joel enjoyed a friendly backgammon match by the pond last weekend while the fillets and Fiberglas cured in the fore section of the boat,
A bit of relaxation was in order for all due to a dose of epoxy fumes earlier in the day. I, the nubbish one, became quite giddy under the influence of the stuporous gases. And naturally we had not mixed enough of anything so there was much gnashing of teeth and panic as the dyslexic left-handed carpenter attempted to fillet the large cockpit compartment before things started to set up and get nasty. I was assigned the task of mixing some epoxy (1 pump of epoxy + 1 pump of hardener) but in my altered state I must have gotten then mix wrong (don't ask ME how I could screw up 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 3 and so forth! I was not actually present). I left the garage briefly for some reason (drink of water, bathroom break, or trip the light fantastic - whatever) and when I returned I asked Mike the obvious question: Why is that cup of epoxy smoking? He looked up at the cup of epoxy that I had mixed, balanced on the temporary cross beam and smoking like Joe Camel. He shrugged and went right back to filleting. I took his casual response as reassurance that the smoke signified nothing until I noticed that the plastic cup was actually collapsing in slow motion. When that registered in my epoxy-addled brain I grabbed the thing and slung it out of the garage and onto the driveway. Although it did not actually burst into flames, I realized later that it actually could have! Excess hardener can heat the mixture so much that it can superheat and flame up! Yikes! Mike was still not impressed. He came over and played with it a little bit - thought it was a great chemistry experiment - but had to get back at the fiberglasing.