West System Epoxy question.


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I was going to go the route of our fearless leader Marc and pickup some of the West system epoxy for a large project i needed to assemble.

Has anyone used the "A" sized containers of the hardener? It's a pint size container and I was wondering if it lasted. Also how does the pump kit distribute the material. Is it a three pumps to one kind of thing or what.

Has anyone found a cheap place online to pick this stuff up?

Thanks guys.

Oh the use will be for a large entertainment center that I need more drying time for.

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I bought the kit with the slow hardner and I love the set up. One pump from the glue and one from the hardner and mix it up and away u go. I have been told that it will stay fresh with the pumps hooked right up to the bottles so i leave them as they are. The pump kits are well worth the money for ease in dispensing and u dont have to measure anything. I think the quart of glue the hardner and the pump kit with gloves was right around one hundred bucks and it's the best glue I have EVER used. strongly recomended.

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I'm honestly not sure if there is a shelf life on epoxy but I have use the same batch for several years at a time with no negative effects. I just let the pumps sit on the bench top and take some when I need it. Amazingly convenient compared to other ways of dealing with epoxy. I try to get mine whenever there is a sale on at Jamestown Distributors.

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I know JamestownDistributor's site lists the mix ratio for hardener to resin for the various hardeners. I want to say 5:1, but verify that. Use that to decide. I have a nearly empty resin container along with a nearly empty pint of 205 hardener (fast). I think that's the intended pairing as you'll notice the slow-set tropical hardener's smallest size is a quart because it's mix ratio is heavier.

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The resin and hardener are sold in the correct ratio so you should empty the containers at the same time. Their pumps are designed to mix correctly with one full pump of resin and one full pump of hardener in each batch. West System says the shelf life is very long, and even if it starts to turn bad you can rejuvenate it by slowly warming it up and stirring well. You'll also probably want to buy some of the #406 or #403 thickeners as the pure epoxy is very runny.

I recently got a pretty good price at boatersworld.com. They were cheaper than the woodworking stores, but seems to be about the same pricing as Jamestown.

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Instead of relaying on the pumps you can use a good digital kitchen scale and do it by weight, less likely to become a mess - especially if you don't need a full pump worth.

Another tip: Use a shallow cup with a lot of surface area for mixing, that keeps the thermoreaction off a bit for longer open time.

And keep that resin away from the skin and never-ever sand epoxi that's not fully cured!

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Thanks for the advice guys. One more quick question how well does the epoxy do when staining wood? Does it look off color like woodglue if you stain or finish over it? Also I ended up getting some 404 filler. It states it's off-white in color. Has anyone had any troubles when staining after using the epoxy?

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Thanks for the advice guys. One more quick question how well does the epoxy do when staining wood? Does it look off color like woodglue if you stain or finish over it? Also I ended up getting some 404 filler. It states it's off-white in color. Has anyone had any troubles when staining after using the epoxy?

I would not think that staining after applying epoxy would work well as the wood would have no ability to absorb it.

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You could paint it, but it will not take stain. It can actually take a little bit of tinting dye if you want to alter the color while you're mixing up a batch to more closely resemble a darker wood species or stain color. Epoxy squeeze out can be cleaned off with acetone before it cures or scrape 'n sand after it cures.

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