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MAS epoxy cure time with slow hardner at 60 degrees?
I bought an older new in the box kit and decided to test the epoxy that came with it before i starting my build. It seemed to harden fine where I coated a scrap of plywood but I tried to glue two pieces of scrap wood together and I was still able to pry them apart with a screwdriver even after 24 hours. My garage is unheated but the furnace is in there so it stays about 60 degrees but may have gotten up to as much as 70 for a few hours during the day when the sun was shining in the windows. Should this stuff have been completely dured in 24 hours at this temp?
The guy i bought the kit from said it had been sitting in his garage for several years. Also the hardner is not clear like the Went System i previously used on my sailboat. It has a slight amber color in the pot but it is not noticeable on the plywood becasue I put some of my left over West System next to it and it looked the same
Is this stuff any good or should i just buy new epoxy?
2 replies:
RE: MAS epoxy cure time with slow hardner at 60 degrees?
Sure you have the mix ratio correct? MAS is 2:1 - resin to hardener, whereas WEST is 5:1 for standard WEST hardener (205/206). WEST pumps are calibrated to put out 5 parts resin to 1 part 205 or 206 hardener, I'm not sure about MAS pumps. Get a digital postal or food scale and measure the squirts. The ratios are volume and hardener is slightly lighter than resin but on a small batch doubling the gram weight of hardener for the resin weight works fine.
i.e. 20 grams hardener = 60 gram total mix with resin.
RE: MAS epoxy cure time with slow hardner at 60 degrees?
» Submitted by Barkleyboater - Mon, 1/7/13 » 9:05 PM
Sounds like old hardner. Fresh MAS is hard and strong in less than 24hrs in my shop which I keep at around 65 degrees.