Hello guys and girls

Has anyone had any practical experience thinning epoxy resin for infusion ?

I have been advised that if I use MEK at no more than 2% in the part A  it will be ok.

I understand that there may be a reduction in strength which wont be an issue for the parts I make.

never done that but heard about that as well...

A good way to improve viscosity of the resin during infusion is to apply some heat with a heat gun as it works its way through the part.

Thanks for the reply fellas.

Yer I,m looking at it as an option because for me it a $70 dollar difference in price for 5L for specific infusion resin. Nothing available

in my area so the cost to ship ( dangerous goods ) adds a fair bit to the cost.  A local fibreglass supplier here in Newcastle manufacture there own

epoxy , I talked with there chemist and it was his recommendation to do this as long as I use MEK and only 2%. I also have access to MEK being in the aircraft industry.




Yer I usually heat my epoxy and mould to at least 25 degrees before infusion.




My parts are not overly large so my concerned about flow might be unwarranted.

What is the mixed viscosity of this resin? 

They tell me its  600 mPas @25 C

I think it would work as is, depending on  the size and layup of your part. I regularly infuse with Araldite LY3600, which is a hand layup spec resin with a viscosity of 550cps. This infuses really well, I actually hugely prefer it to the Kinetix R118 infusion spec resin that I have used as well. 

Thankyou Hanaldo

My largest  mould is 1m x 1m max centre fed so you have given me confidence that I could use

this epoxy without thinning.

I appreciate your input.




Rod.

Give it a go, I'm confident it would work. Just be aware of the flow rate, that will be the biggest issue. You want to be sure that your pot life is long enough for the infusion. I would expect a 1sqm centre fed part to take about 25 minutes to half an hour to fully infuse (depending on layup schedule, more reinforcement will take longer), so just be sure that your pot life will handle that. If not, mix it in batches.