Stephen Baker ) writes:
Brian Nystrom writes:

Maybe the next time I need to do some fillets, I'll thicken the epoxy
with Metamucil. It's got plenty of fiber and it should help to produce
fillets that are quite "smooth" and "regular". ;-)

That would only work if the fillet were to be extruded. ;-

I'm not familiar with Metamucil but suspect it may be one of those fine
clay (kaolin) powders suspended in a flavoured water solution. If you boil
off the water all you have left is clay which, like powdered talc, which
would be less expensive to buy dry in the first place. And of course,
water mustn't be mixed with epoxy or polyester resins.

I'm not suggesting insecticide powder as a thickner for fillets. Some kind
of additive for sheathing might be interesting but expoxy itself is
supposed to be impermiable to air and water so it's probably a waste of
money. If the expoxy wears off to the point air and water get at the
wood the insecticide is gone then too.

From what I've read I would use fibre for reinforicing for structural
strength and powder to simply make the resin go further, or in the case of
silica, for added abraision resistance. Both fibre and powder would make
the resin more viscous if that's needed while curing. I've also read that
that the need to sand the cured resin influences which powder to use. I
usually collect wood "flour" for free (sandable fibre) and use that. I've
used powdered talc with epoxy for non-marine repairs around the house.
Laser toner sounds interesting except for the graphite coating. I don't
know what graphite does to resins. Carbon fibre is sought after for
combining with resins, but graphite? Imagine trying to clean up after
sanding. Ugh.


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