Re: Low Temp Expoy Curing

Posted by CLC on Dec 29, 2006

60 is on the cool side, although epoxy will cure at that temperature. The epoxy formulae have evolved over time; the "Slow" is faster now than it was 3-4 years ago. It used to be that the slow non-blushing goos required 78 degrees to reach a "full cure" in 24 hours, with the cure time doubling for every 10 degrees below that. It may be more forgiving now but not much.

Two things: First, pick up some work lights and put 75- or 100-watt bulbs in them, and point one light at each scarf joint. That will gently heat the epoxy and give you a 12-hour workable cure without burning the house down. Second, make sure that when you say it's 60, the parts themselves really are 60. Here at tech central we hear a lot from folks who switch on the heat in the garage and start working when the wall-mounted thermometer crawls up to "60." In fact, the floor, the jugs of epoxy, and the wooden parts are at 42 and have a long way to go, and the epoxy never really activates.

Speaking of the epoxy jugs, keep those warm all the time. My old trick was to point one of those worklamps at the epoxy and keep it at about 80 degrees year 'round. Kept the pumps from "coughing" (due to the high viscosity of cold resin) and it moved the cure time along.

More about epoxy in cool weather at the link below.

http://www.clcboats.com/notesfromourshop/images/winter2002news_3.jpg

Tips for Using Epoxy in Cold Weather

In Response to: Low Temp Expoy Curing by Dan B on Dec 29, 2006

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