Am looking to create a mill-able epoxy paste - I currently have to buy it in at high cost - but wondered if I could use a epoxy coating resin plus some sort of filler powder to replicate for test/non critical jobs. This paste is used for patterns - after undersize milling low density foam and then remachining after cure to form a high quality surface for coating.

The mixed uncured consistency is like that of pastry, and cures to form a 0.5kg/m3 density coating similar to that of body filler.

I think polyester filler uses talc - anyone know if this is likely to work in a similar way with epoxy resin?

Thanks all,

You can load up epoxy with micro balloons into a dough consistancey. (micro balloons are tiny glass spheres)

It will cure very hard and light weight.

Fred

Fred, does it remain clear when you do that?

No epoxy will not remain clear when you use fillers.

Thanks Fred, cured some overnight with glass bubbles - certainly had the right consistency - will see how it mills today..
I know you can also get a plastic based micro balloon - wonder how that changes things?

Anyone know if there are problems with tool-life and dust creation issues with machining these glass microspheres?

james

West systems have a filler product called "Microlight"  I think this is essentially polystyrene micro-balloons .. the resulting cures resin can be extremely lightweight and I have successfully mixed it with West Systems "High density filler" 

That way you can create different levels of paste consistency and also hardness of the finished product.  Hardness and "sandability" follows the content of filler and filler-to-resin ratio.

Using only "microlight" filler and mixing in the maximum amount of filler, the resulting product is almost as light as styrofoam, but quite a bit stronger, and sands nicely, but gets a porous surface.

Using only the max amount of "High Density Filler" the result is as heavy as pure Resin, but extremely strong, and will hold large bolts and fasteners in wood and composite materials. You can actually cut threads in it and screw in bolts..

The West systems fillers are not cheap unfortunately .... maybe Easy Comp have something similar, that might be cheaper....

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I've gone for Q-cell - cheapest by far in 27.5kg quants - and makes a suitable paste

+x

 

Dravis - 4/23/2013 5:39:43 PM

West systems have a filler product called "Microlight"  I think this is essentially polystyrene micro-balloons .. the resulting cures resin can be extremely lightweight and I have successfully mixed it with West Systems "High density filler" 

That way you can create different levels of paste consistency and also hardness of the finished product.  Hardness and "sandability" follows the content of filler and filler-to-resin ratio.

Using only "microlight" filler and mixing in the maximum amount of filler, the resulting product is almost as light as styrofoam, but quite a bit stronger, and sands nicely, but gets a porous surface.

Using only the max amount of "High Density Filler" the result is as heavy as pure Resin, but extremely strong, and will hold large bolts and fasteners in wood and composite materials. You can actually cut threads in it and screw in bolts..

The West systems fillers are not cheap unfortunately .... maybe Easy Comp have something similar, that might be cheaper....

How would you bring this kind of filler to a gloss surface?