Soft epoxy

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steve yates

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So I mixed some west system epoxy to fill holes in my deck created removing stubborn stanchion base screws with a holesaw. ! to ! as per instructions, well mixed with colloidal silica to thicken it. 2 days later it steel feels waxy when I poke it, I expected it to be solid?
Am I wrong in my expectations or have I got the mix wrong?
 
Which West did you use?

If it has been lfet for 48 hours then it should have cured pretty well. You could try some heat using a hair dryer - dont get it hot, just warm and see if this solves the problem. If not I would suspect inaccurate mixing ratios or some form of contamination.

I know bl**dy nuisance. I am afraid you will probably need to dig it out and redo as best you can.
 
I've recently been using 10+ yr old West Epoxy and hardener quite a bit. I didn't really expect it to still work after all this time, but it's just fine and goes off overnight no problem.
What ratios are you using and how are you measuring it?
 
As said, the most likely factors are temperature or mixture or both. I was caught out last year when using measuring pumps. I hadn’t noticed that the larger pump did not deliver an accurate quantity as the material had gone lumpy - but only enough to restrict the flow, not stop it. The epoxy never hardened. I now remove and clean both pumps after use and replace the original lids on the cans.
 
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I know you said 'well mixed' but if you added the filler and it was not well mixed then the result would be as you have found it.

Suggestions as above - try heat and then dig it out and start again.

Jonathan
 
I take it that it was 20ml of hardener to 40ml of resin?
Did you add the filler before or after mixing the resin and hardener?
 
I have had a few issues with quantity control using measuring cups. Now it's electronic scales for me, all the way.
 
The same thing happened to me once. to this day I have no idea where I went wrong??

I had to dig it out and start again. Ho Hum that life....
 
steve yates said:
1 to 1 as per instructions
Click to expand...

steve yates said:
i was just adding it to measuring cups. part A to 20ml then part b to 40ml
Click to expand...

So did you mix it 1:1 or 1:2?

And if you mixed it 1:2, apparently you got the ratio backwards anyway ("A" and "B" terminology isn't used all that much, but according to the MSDS A is the resin and B is the hardener).

And neither 1:1 nor 2:1 is correct anyway, it's 5:1 resin:hardener for the normal types.

Sounds like you got the mix wrong.

Pete

EDIT: Looks like I misunderstood the bit with the measuring cups. Not 20ml of A and 40ml of B, but adding them together giving 40ml in total - a 1:1 mix. Which is consistent with the original post, but still wrong.
 
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having spent lots of time (and litres) doing epoxy work, please use el.scales!
second, stir V.WELL, one min (imho) is not enough
THEN, add the whatever silica/bubbles/etc.

Further, I've noticed that when you put lots of extra things inthere, it takes way more time to cure.
Easy solution, add a bit more hardner in (3-5% more)
check your temps!
 
Neeves said:
Its only when all else fails we read the instructions. :)
Jonathan
Click to expand...

Genuine ignorance is a valuable commodity since then we seek to properly inform ourselves. It is false belief that is the problem ... we think we already know. I've been there many times myself.
 
prv said:
So did you mix it 1:1 or 1:2?

And if you mixed it 1:2, apparently you got the ratio backwards anyway ("A" and "B" terminology isn't used all that much, but according to the MSDS A is the resin and B is the hardener).

And neither 1:1 nor 2:1 is correct anyway, it's 5:1 resin:hardener for the normal types.

Sounds like you got the mix wrong.

Pete

EDIT: Looks like I misunderstood the bit with the measuring cups. Not 20ml of A and 40ml of B, but adding them together giving 40ml in total - a 1:1 mix. Which is consistent with the original post, but still wrong.
Click to expand...
Yup, thats exactly what I did, I thought it said 1:1 on the side, but then I didnt have my glasses!
 
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