clean those pumps out...

Posted by Dennis Rioux on Jun 7, 2004

if you are going to be storing your epoxy and hardener for a while. I know, it says that quite clearly in the instructions, but human inertia being what it is I just never got around to it last November when I had to stop building because of the cold. Every couple weeks I'd tell myself I'd go down and scarf the tip onto the deck and then clean out the pumps. Yeah, right.

So when I started in again this spring (N.B. that is *much* more than the 3 month max allowed) I kept wondering why the hardener pump was so sluggish compared to last fall. Well, imagine my surprise when the goop on top of the screen came flying out of my pump and into the resin in the middle of my deck glassing extravaganza last night. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the bits of goop are hollow -- apparently some of the hardener coagulated in the tip of the pump and I had been squeezing the fresh stuff through a fairly small hole. Ohhhhh...

Fortunately, I am also in the middle of building some screens for my garage windows and a quick snip off the corner of a scrap of wire mesh saved the day -- or at least 16 pumps worth of resin and hardener. No real harm done, but if you ever wondered why you are not supposed to store your epoxy liquids with the pumps in for the long term, here is an object lesson in one of the reasons why.

Dennis

Replies:

• Re: clean those pumps out by Mac on Jun 7, 2004