CURING PROBLEMS


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Gus
Gus
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I have been using the EL2 resin and hardener for a number of yeas now to repair damaged fishing poles sections for myself and also for other team members while we are away at major competitions.  One of the problems when away at International events is the time it takes to effect repairs due to the tacking up and then curing time of the the EL2 resin..

To address this I have recently purchased some of the Rapid Repair Resin and Hardener as this claims to be much quicker as it was designed for us trackside by F1 teams.  I have mixed the resin carefully following the rations (I use digital scales) but have found that, despite the room I am working in being kept at approximately 25 degrees the resin is taking almost as long as the EL2 to tack up and even 14 hours after the repair has been completed, when the shrink tape is removed it is still surface tacky/greasy to the touch and the resin hasn't fully cured.

I have tried slightly increasing the ration of hardener but continue to have problems.  Ultimately, if the final repair is overheated the resin softens again and is thus totally ineffective.  Could this be a bad batch of resin/hardener or could it be other environmental conditions?  

Grateful for any help/advice from anyone else using the Rapid Repair Resin and Hardener.

Gus  
Matthieu Libeert
Matthieu Libeert
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This post has already been posted I think? 

I can not help you on that fast curing since I havent tried it yet. 
One thing I can tell is that it wont make sense to add more hardener. Epoxy doesnt work that way

maybe some other members can help you out

Matthieu Libeert
Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports
website:
www.mat2composites.com




Edited 10 Years Ago by matthieutje65
Warren (Staff)
Warren (Staff)
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What size batches are you mixing?  ideally it needs to be within 1%.  It could be quite easy to be a few % out.

Adding extra hardener will never work with epoxies as the chemistry is such that there needs to be a precise amount of each part to react with each other.  As such adding extra hardener will make things worse almost gauranteeing a tacky finish.

The rapid repair at a constand 25C should be hard within a couple hours at most. It is possible that your environment is still quite humid and that would effect the cure.  However normally you see excessive humidity as a slight milkyness in the resin.

It is normal for an epoxy to soften on first application of heat. This is because at room temperature it does not fully cure initially so the application of heat softens it.
                           

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant
Brian2fast
Brian2fast
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Following on from Warrens comments.

When i started out I had a part screw up due to my mixing ( I think) ratio not being accurate enough. I then proved to my self many times that the digital scales I was using weren't accurate when slowly, gently dripping liquid onto them. I could add more than a full teaspoon full worth of liquid and the scales did not register. They were meant to be accurate to 0.1 gram.

So I bought another set of different digital scales and they did the same....

Then I bit the bullet and spent about £120 on scales that were accurate to 0.01 grams (max limit is 1.2kg i think). Temperature compensated as well. These are great for mixing small batches of resin. Never had any problems since then.

Craig
GO

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