CURING PROBLEMS

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CURING PROBLEMS

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Gus	Gus posted 11 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 3, Visits: 8	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 Tags curing problems.rapid repair resin
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Warren (Staff)	Warren (Staff) posted 11 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Administrators Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 8.5K	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
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