RapidRepair epoxy resin incompatibility with West Systems epoxy


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BoA kayak
BoA kayak
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I’ve been repairing a carbon-kevlar kayak. I had used alayer of West System 105 epoxy resin with 205 hardener but did not like all thebubbles that appear on adding the hardener and are v difficult to get rid of.After a cure period of more than a month I sanded to 80-grit and recoated witheasycomposites RapidRepair epoxy resin and fast hardener. When these are mixedthere are no bubbles – so preferable to the other brand!( I cleaned aftersanding with acetone but waited for that to dry before re-applying resin).Where I applied easycomposites resin on top of the West Systems resin, theeasycomposites resin did not harden fully and went slightly milky. I know I hadthe resin/hardener mix correct (100-33) because the mix hardened in the mixingcup and on parts of the kayak where there was no West System resin underneath.After waiting a couple of weeks for it to cure, I found it was still a bit stickyon the surface and although it had hardened it had the texture of polyethylenerather than a hard clear resin and could be peeled off with a paint scraperblade (luckily because it won’t sand off easily). So there was low adhesion tothe West Systems resin underlayer as well as the hardening issue. Has anyoneelse experienced this? 


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Warren (Staff)
Warren (Staff)
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This is not a problem we have heard of in terms of incompatibility before.  As long as the west resin was fully hardened, then in terms of a reaction, the fresh epoxy does not react with the underlying material, it merely gets a mechanical grip on the material (hence the need to key with sandpaper).    The milkyness in the resin is moisture absorption into the resin in most cases. It could have happened and caused the issues or a secondary consequence due to the resin not fully hardening due to the other curing issues. What sort of temperature and humidity have you been working on?  Was the resin mixed by volume or by weight? 

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant
GO

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