Epoxy Filler Additive?

Dougal

Dougal

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I'm trying to find a particular filler/adhesive additive for epoxy resin... Needs to be redish brown wood mix to match teak/mahogany etc.

I thought there was one in the West System range, but their nearest is the 407 mix (no good).

The Americans use something very similar called 'Wood Floor'.

Anyone know of a UK supplier?
 
Word of warning, teak dust if you were thinking of it, turns black with epoxy! Suggest you use colloidal silica and a dye.
 
Ordinary sawdust is too course.

I once had a great big pack that a boat builder gave me. It was was a blend of fine wood powder and coloidal silica I think - wonderfull stuff it was.

I'm sure there must be suppliers somewhere...
 
What you need are "microballoons". It's a brown lightweight filler for epoxy that's easy to sand.

Mix it into the epoxy until it's the consisancy of chocolate spread. It's an excellent filler and is also used to good effect to add strengthening fillets to joints.

SP Systems make it, but if you google "SP Microballoons" under the shopping tab, you'll find it (0.1Kg pot for £11.94 at a certain well-known online chandlery).
 
Dougal said:
I'm trying to find a particular filler/adhesive additive for epoxy resin... Needs to be redish brown wood mix to match teak/mahogany etc.

I thought there was one in the West System range, but their nearest is the 407 mix (no good).

The Americans use something very similar called 'Wood Floor'.

Anyone know of a UK supplier?
Click to expand...

I think West System would be worth a phone call, seem to recall on one of thier courses they were talking about colouring agents.
 
I have used gel coat colour in epoxy with some success to get cream coloured "stripes" between teak strips to look like Teak'n'holly.

Brown microballons blend quite well with most dark woods and you can vary the depth of brown by using white wood fibres in the mix.
 
epoxy tint

You can buy tint to mix in with whatever filler you want - whether micro balloons, coll. silica, micro fibre. I could send 10ml or so in an envelope if you PM me - haven't got much left myself. I got mine from "Bote Cote" in Australia, so not much help - try SP?

You can sand down a sample of timber you want to match & catch the "flour" that results (I've done it myself), but you do need a good sander that will produce enough stuff even when using med grit paper (say 200). It is a bit coarse, but will sand back, and you can 50:50 it with micro balloons to help with sanding whilst retaining most of the colour match.

Epoxy will always need protecting from UV to stop it going cloudy - any varnish.
 
You can produce lighter colours than that achieved with with red/brown standard Micro balloons.

Use Micro spheres, they are tint glass bubbles and cure off white, a little bit harder to sand than micro balloons but also better for water resistance than micro balloons.

Just add colour agent/s to get the shade you want.
 
You can mix many things into epoxy to colour it - even those that they say won't work. The table below was originally going to have a dark wood inlay but instead I used ink black from a paint store. It worked well and was varnished over with the rest of the table for protection. This picture was taken when it was about 14 years old.
 
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Steviecracknell said:
Does anybody have a prefered epoxy resin, or are they much of the same. I have used West but never SP, and can you add West additives into SP.

Stevie.
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There are less than a handful of resin manufacturers in the whole world, but there are possible hundreds of distributors.

Each distributor or brand add their own additives to improve the base resin for the particular task or application.

Bottom line, use a reputable tried and true supplier and you should have no problems.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 
Steviecracknell said:
Does anybody have a prefered epoxy resin, or are they much of the same. I have used West but never SP, and can you add West additives into SP.

Stevie.
Click to expand...

I used to use SP and now West because it is stocked locally. Either in my view are good and seem to be ok with each others additives for the work I do. I have also used gel coat colour in the expoxy mix to add colour but it does still need a varnish coat to give protection.
 
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Sicomin do a range of filler called "woodfill" wich i think is like a wood coloured epoxy filler. wich you can get in the UK

But as with all epoxy you will have to varnish to protect from UV discolouration

unless you get a UV stable epoxy (which still dont last forever without a coating!!)
 
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