Testing West System Epoxy
Over the last few days I have been testing the use of the West System epoxy. I took the suggestion from one of the comments to use the end cutoff pieces to test the epoxy.
I have used other epoxy before so I had some familiarity with how to mix, etc. I did speak with the West Technical support team to clarify temperature ranges of each of the different hardeners. They are very knowledgeable and helpful. Based upon that conversation, I intended to use my basement verses the shop, since it is warmer, I used the 206 Slow Hardener.
I took the 8 end cutoff strips and coated each with a mixture of resin with colloidal silica mixed in to thicken the epoxy. I then clamped the strips using the actual jig I made that will be used for gluing up the inner and outer stems.
After letting them cure for a good 36 to 40 hours I removed the test strips from the jig. The end result looked very good. All laminations seem to be well bonded and they retained the curved shape of the jig. Tomorrow I will clean up the squeeze out and run the edges on the belt sander.
Next step will be to prepare the inner stems strips for laminating.
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