Most of my glass work is small ding patches.

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

For polyester, I'd think it would be counting drops of catalyst
into some amount of resin that's easy to pre-measure.... like
maybe a rounded tablespoonful or some standard-sized very small
paper cupful.

For epoxy, the hardener I have doesn't drip so well...


Anybody got a system?
--
PeteCresswell

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:35:03 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Most of my glass work is small ding patches.

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

For polyester, I'd think it would be counting drops of catalyst
into some amount of resin that's easy to pre-measure.... like
maybe a rounded tablespoonful or some standard-sized very small
paper cupful.

For epoxy, the hardener I have doesn't drip so well...


Anybody got a system?


Use a scale. Most resin/hardener mixes are stated in weights as well
as volumes and you can easily find a scale in 1/10th of grams.

My own experience is that volume measurements in small quantities
aren't sufficiently accurate, or easy to duplicate.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

A trip to your local restaurant supply house where you buy a sleeve of
1 OZ and 2 OZ plastic cups.

About 100 pcs/sleeve.

Add some Popsicle sticks and you are good to go.

I routinely mixed up 3/4 OZ (epoxy 4:1 ratio) batches by eyeball using
the above.

Next problemgrin.

Lew

(PeteCresswell) wrote:

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

I am just starting to play with epoxy, in small repair jobs. I went to the
local pharmacist and bought a couple of syringes. 5 ml for the resin and 1
ml for the hardener. With these I have been able to mix 1 ml at a time. Not
sure how precise it has been, but it seems to work all right. The 1 ml
syringe has marks at 0.1 ml intervals, so it is easy to get the 0.2 ml
hardener I need for 1 ml of resin.

- Heikki

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:35:03 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Most of my glass work is small ding patches.

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

For polyester, I'd think it would be counting drops of catalyst
into some amount of resin that's easy to pre-measure.... like
maybe a rounded tablespoonful or some standard-sized very small
paper cupful.

For epoxy, the hardener I have doesn't drip so well...


Anybody got a system?

The smaller the batch, the larger the error in the ratio is likely.
That may or may not be a factor in your case.

I used to use a digital kitchen scale to make small batches of West
System epoxy. Then I realized that although it seemed wasteful, a
minimun size batch using the West Pumps wasn't enough waste, cost
wise, to worry about. How much does one pump stroke of resin and one
of hardener cost? Not much!

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Most of my glass work is small ding patches.

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

For polyester, I'd think it would be counting drops of catalyst
into some amount of resin that's easy to pre-measure.... like
maybe a rounded tablespoonful or some standard-sized very small
paper cupful.

For epoxy, the hardener I have doesn't drip so well...


Anybody got a system?
'Blue Gee' do a general purpose epoxy system with fast and slow
hardeners and a 2:1 mix ratio. Their small packs come in bottles with
built in measures, 10ml fixed for the resin and 10ml calibrated in 1ml
units for the hardener. This allows a minimum mix of 15ml.
If you use little calibrated measures similar to those supplied with
cough syrups and similar medicines, you can mix down to three times the
unit calibration for a 2:1 resin but only six times for a 5:1 system.
The trick is to MIX IN THE MEASURE and measure the least viscous
component first then drip in the other one on top. As the measures tend
to be tapered and are made of a waxy plastic, set leftovers can easily
be popped out of the measure so you can reuse it.

Polyester resins are a lot easier as the mix ratio is far less critical.
Calibrate your hardener dropper bottle using a clean measure and your
preferred hardener. Calculate the number of drops for the correct mix
ratio in 10ml of resin IIRC for Blue-Gee it's three drops in 10ml.

Measure the resin in a clean measure, pre-wetted with resin and drained
for one minute. Always drain your measure for the same time after
measuring. This compensates for the resin stuck to the sides. Decant
into a polypropylene disposable plastic cup and drip in the hardener
while mixing thoroughly. I like the small disposable chopsticks as
supplied in Sushi boxes for mixing sticks as the shape lets you get
right down into the bottom corner and avoid unmixed resin lingering
there to **** up your result.

I'd love to have a digital scale with 0.1g resolution, but can't justify
the expense or storage space on board.

If its non-critical bulk and surface repair, 'Plastic Padding' do a
polyester resin product in tubes. There is a thickened glassfibre filled
resin suitable for minor bulk structural repairs not requiring too much
tensile strength and a thickened white gelcoat paste. You just measure
equal lengths from both tubes. Minimum mix quantity is about 1ml.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:

"IanM" wrote in message
...
Anybody got a system?
'Blue Gee' do a general purpose epoxy system with fast and slow
hardeners and a 2:1 mix ratio. Their small packs come in bottles with
built in measures, 10ml fixed for the resin and 10ml calibrated in 1ml
units for the hardener. This allows a minimum mix of 15ml.
If you use little calibrated measures similar to those supplied with
cough syrups and similar medicines, you can mix down to three times the
unit calibration for a 2:1 resin but only six times for a 5:1 system.
The trick is to MIX IN THE MEASURE and measure the least viscous
component first then drip in the other one on top. As the measures tend
to be tapered and are made of a waxy plastic, set leftovers can easily
be popped out of the measure so you can reuse it.

Polyester resins are a lot easier as the mix ratio is far less critical.
Calibrate your hardener dropper bottle using a clean measure and your
preferred hardener. Calculate the number of drops for the correct mix
ratio in 10ml of resin IIRC for Blue-Gee it's three drops in 10ml.

Measure the resin in a clean measure, pre-wetted with resin and drained
for one minute. Always drain your measure for the same time after
measuring. This compensates for the resin stuck to the sides. Decant
into a polypropylene disposable plastic cup and drip in the hardener
while mixing thoroughly. I like the small disposable chopsticks as
supplied in Sushi boxes for mixing sticks as the shape lets you get
right down into the bottom corner and avoid unmixed resin lingering
there to **** up your result.

I'd love to have a digital scale with 0.1g resolution, but can't justify
the expense or storage space on board.

If its non-critical bulk and surface repair, 'Plastic Padding' do a
polyester resin product in tubes. There is a thickened glassfibre filled
resin suitable for minor bulk structural repairs not requiring too much
tensile strength and a thickened white gelcoat paste. You just measure
equal lengths from both tubes. Minimum mix quantity is about 1ml.

And to make a long story short: use cheap syringes, the ones you can buy for
20 per dollar/euro/pound.

Meindert

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:11:53 +0100, IanM
wrote:

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Most of my glass work is small ding patches.

Mixing up, say, an ounce or less of resin and getting the
resin/catalyst ratio right (especially with epoxy) escapes me....
so I waste a lot of resin.

Anybody got a system?

For polyester, I'd think it would be counting drops of catalyst
into some amount of resin that's easy to pre-measure.... like
maybe a rounded tablespoonful or some standard-sized very small
paper cupful.

For epoxy, the hardener I have doesn't drip so well...


Anybody got a system?
'Blue Gee' do a general purpose epoxy system with fast and slow
hardeners and a 2:1 mix ratio. Their small packs come in bottles with
built in measures, 10ml fixed for the resin and 10ml calibrated in 1ml
units for the hardener. This allows a minimum mix of 15ml.
If you use little calibrated measures similar to those supplied with
cough syrups and similar medicines, you can mix down to three times the
unit calibration for a 2:1 resin but only six times for a 5:1 system.
The trick is to MIX IN THE MEASURE and measure the least viscous
component first then drip in the other one on top. As the measures tend
to be tapered and are made of a waxy plastic, set leftovers can easily
be popped out of the measure so you can reuse it.

Polyester resins are a lot easier as the mix ratio is far less critical.
Calibrate your hardener dropper bottle using a clean measure and your
preferred hardener. Calculate the number of drops for the correct mix
ratio in 10ml of resin IIRC for Blue-Gee it's three drops in 10ml.

Measure the resin in a clean measure, pre-wetted with resin and drained
for one minute. Always drain your measure for the same time after
measuring. This compensates for the resin stuck to the sides. Decant
into a polypropylene disposable plastic cup and drip in the hardener
while mixing thoroughly. I like the small disposable chopsticks as
supplied in Sushi boxes for mixing sticks as the shape lets you get
right down into the bottom corner and avoid unmixed resin lingering
there to **** up your result.

I'd love to have a digital scale with 0.1g resolution, but can't justify
the expense or storage space on board.

If its non-critical bulk and surface repair, 'Plastic Padding' do a
polyester resin product in tubes. There is a thickened glassfibre filled
resin suitable for minor bulk structural repairs not requiring too much
tensile strength and a thickened white gelcoat paste. You just measure
equal lengths from both tubes. Minimum mix quantity is about 1ml.

I have been small tubes of epoxy for decades. They all have been
50/50. Two same sized puddles on a piece of paper and mix with a
spatula, a popsicle stick works. Reloaders scales are accurate to a
tenth of a grain, or a hundredth of a gram, flip a switch. Put the
paper on the pan. Scale fits in a shirt pocket.

Casady