Hi Justin,
Haha......couldn't get it out of the cup...awesome. Regarding your questions, Acraglas is like a 4:1 mix I think? and requires a little more diligence when measuring and mixing. Odd mix ratios like that can be touchy in terms of their margin for error in measuring and mixing. Our stuff has a slight margin for error built in. You can be off about 5% in either direction and you wont have any noticeable degradation in performance. But let me say this....PLEASE do not try to mix up super small amounts in order to save money. The reason being is that if you try to mix up a few small drops of any epoxy, it becomes MUCH harder to stay within that 5% parameter...does that make sense? 5% of a 6cc mix is a lot easier to deal with than 5% of a 1/2cc mix. I always recommend folks mix at least 3cc each of resin and hardener....yeah you'll have a little waste leftover, but you've assured yourself a much better chance of being within that slight margin for error we've built in to the product. There's no reason to mix our stuff for 4 minutes. 2 minutes is plenty, but you certainly wont hurt anything by mixing it longer. The pot life on both formulas will allow that, but its not necessary. I want to add, that there is a VERY specific way to mix epoxy properly. First you want to use a flat object rather than a round object....something like a Popsicle stick is perfect. I have a little metal spatula an old mentor of mine in the resin business made me that I'll post pics of at some point. If you mix it on a flat surface, you want to try and gently fold the parts into one another to try and avoid trapping air bubbles. Use the flat edge to SCRAPE all the excess off the surface and introduce it into the mix. If you mix it in a cup (like you did) you want to approximate the action of a rotary cement mixer. Tilt the cup at an angle and and turn the cup at the same time you scrape the sides of the cup and fold the epoxy into itself...NEVER whip it really fast as this will trap air in the mix, which can weaken the bond. The reason for scraping as you go is to make sure that there is no unmixed resin or hardener left in the cup or on the flat surface and everything is mixed thoroughly. The best way I can describe it is a scrape and fold procedure. With the cup, I usually rotate the cup 50 turns to the right while I mix and scrape, then switch and go 50 turns in the opposite direction until I hit the 2 minute mark. Same deal on the flat surface, there's just no "rotating" involved. Its like...fold mix, fold mix fold mix fold mix...ssscccrraaappppeeeee...fold mix fold mix fold mix....sssssscrappppeeeeee...you get the idea..LOL. Also be aware that if you leave it in a cup, you'll shorten the pot life some, because the cup will contain the exothermic reaction and accelerate the cure. If I mix in a cup, when Im done I usually pour the mixture out on a piece of clean aluminum foil....that will allow the heat to dissipate better during the chemical reaction, and the pot life will be longer
Regarding storage, leaving the yorker caps on is fine, just make sure the colored tips are on as well. Ideally what you want is to keep it in a room around 75 degrees or so....not too hot or cold. You want is to keep both parts from prolonged contact with the air mainly because there's all kinds of crap floating around in our air these days...perfumes, air fresheners, chemical fumes from cleaners etc...I had a guy one time in the fishing rod business who every time would build a rod would get HORRIBLE cratering and fish eyes in his epoxy guide wrap finish. He was absolutely convinced I had sold him a contaminated batch of epoxy. I think he was about ready to drive to Texas and kick my butt when I informed him these were formulated in 25 gallon batches, and if his was contaminated, so was about 500 other peoples...and nobody else was complaining but him. Finally we figured out his wife was dousing herself in Chanel No.5 or some cheap perfume in the adjacent room, and the mist was settling in his guide wraps. The perfume had some small trace amount of silicone in it, and THAT was causing the cratering...lol! I am going to dedicate a full Axis Outdoors newsletter to this subject in the near future, so if you're interested get on the email list at
newsletter@bladebond.com if your not already.
The measurement of these resins is not super critical. Ultra is a little bit thick to measure with a syringe, but if you can do it that's great. A good way to measure with syringes is like this. Snip the tip off the yorker cap so that its big enough to fit the syringe tip into. Then turn the bottle upside down and extract it into the syringe much like a nurse would do when filling a syringe with serum. Its much cleaner to do it this way, and allows you to reuse your syringes. If the parts are too thick, you can microwave them for about 6-8 seconds to heat them up, and they'll flow A LOT better, and should be easier to get into a syringe. I usually just dispense out lines about 3"-4" long of equal length and diameter get with it. I hate resins that are real finicky about that kind of stuff, because its just one more thing to go wrong in the process, and one more thing for you guys to worry about that you shouldn't have to. My job is to make sure you don't have to think about all that foolishness, and can focus on making knives and not measuring and mixing epoxy.
Hope that answers your questions, and please feel free to contact me anytime.
Best Regards,
Andy Dear
Axis Outdoor Products
www.bladebond.com
