Can epoxy go bad?

My husband has been building boats for years, and has a stash of West epoxy that I could use for our in-progress 14" Great Auk.  He's had this epoxy for awhile (several years), and in that time was stored in an unheated barn for at least 3 winters, which means it was frozen/thawed a few times. Is this still good, or would it less of a headache to get some new stuff?

 -Lianne

 


4 replies:

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RE: Can epoxy go bad?

I had some that was old enough to crystalize. I set the stuff in a bucket of hot water which liquified it. Used it all up on  project and had no trouble. I may have tested it on something small but I don't recall now.

RE: Can epoxy go bad?

I used some epoxy on one project that had been sitting fully crystallized for just over 10 years.  I put the bottles in from of a light for a few hours to heat it up.  (This can be dangerous if the light melts the plastic bottle, don't ask me how I know...)  The epoxy worked fine and after a couple of years of use on the boat, hasn't shown any ill effects. 

RE: Can epoxy go bad?

 

The only total epoxy failures I have had was with resin or hardener components that got frozen.  Some epoxy that froze in Maine a few years ago was almost the undoing of a dinghy project of mine.  

Make sure you do a thorough test before committing the suspect epoxy to a boat!

More about epoxy in cold weather:

http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/epoxy_and_fiberglass/epoxy_cold_weather.html

RE: Can epoxy go bad?

Good to know.  I'll definitely test it first, but we're in NH, so I suspect we may have a problem...

 Thanks!

 

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