Epoxy ??

A

Absinthe

Well-Known Member
In my whole life epoxy has always been a hot or miss tool. I have never had consistency from one usage to the next.

So many people love epoxy and seem to use it all the time. So it must be a technique problem.

I am using regular JB Weld. Pulling equal length beads and then mixing until same color, butter both pieces and press together and clamp.

Some times this would work. Tonight after an hour, when I touch it, it comes gooey onto my skin. Going to.ignore it until tomorrow. Other days my finger nails would skate over it by now.

Hopefully it will.set and cure by tomorrow. However, what exactly am I doing wrong? Why can't I get the same open work time, set time, and potentially cure time from a product and process like this?
 
Regular JB weld is a 24 hour cure product isn't it?

As far as the rest, there are some hit and miss epoxies out there. Some of the hardware stuff kicks off like lightning and is sugary from the get go. Some of it doesn't seem to get real hard.

But regardless of what epoxy you find like, surface prep is always going to make or break how it performs.
 
I use JB weld for guards and such instead of soldering. Its sticks, seals and leaves a dark line if any line at all. i would not use it for the handle. That is for West System.
 
If you are anywhere near the low end of the temperature range for curing, it will take a long time to set. My basement shop is cold in the winter so I put the freshly epoxied piece under an incandescent desk-lamp (one of those cantilever-arm jobs, about 6-10inches away) for some heat and it cures like it should.

Regarding epoxies, I used Conap happily for many years but can’t find it reasonable now. I bought a set of USAKnifemakers house brand but the hardener turns to an unusable gel in my basement. So, I tried the G-Flex everyone talks about and after 3-4 uses I have no complaints.
 
PINE TAR! Go get you some pine tar, heat it up, and use that. Works GREAT.


No. It sounds like you aren't mixing your epoxy enough if it isn't setting up consistently. The rule of thumb for epoxy is something like "mix it until you are certain it's mixed well enough, then mix it more".

JB Weld is good stuff.

I like the 5 minute version. "Quik-weld", I think. All depends on what you use it for.


There are a million and one different epoxies out there. I suggest going with what other the other guys here have suggested. G-flex. I don't have experience with it, but if they're consistently getting good results, you aught to, too. Otherwise, feel free to go down the rabbit hole that is choosing an epoxy. I'm serious. It's a VERY deep rabbit hole.

Sent from my Champion Forge using Tapatalk
 
So, this morning it is finally hard. This particular usage is questionable as I am epoxying carbide tooling bits onto mild steel. This really should be done with silver solder, but I don't have any at the moment, and I didn't feel like dragging out the O/A rig anyway :)

So I epoxied tool bits onto the faces of my file guide. In addition to that I set 2 dowel pins in them as well. Definitely fun getting them open this morning. I placed a beer can shim between them. After some fiddling with a few razor blades it is apart. But it seems like it setup finally. The AC is on in the shop so, I noticed that it was 70°F so maybe that was a contributing factor as well.

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JB weld takes much longer to cure. JB Kwik Weld cures in 30 minutes at 70 degrees typically, much quicker in warmer temps. I use the JB Kwik Weld on most of my handles or their plastic welder if I am using light color scales/liners so the glue line isn't as noticeable.

I made my own file guide too like yours. I found that if I put the carbide strips flush with the inner edge of the guide, they sometimes get popped off when I clamp them down, so I found you need to add a tiny gap so the carbide is a hair above the inner edge. Couple layers of tape or paper seem to work.
 
Taz575 said:
JB weld takes much longer to cure. JB Kwik Weld cures in 30 minutes at 70 degrees typically, much quicker in warmer temps. I use the JB Kwik Weld on most of my handles or their plastic welder if I am using light color scales/liners so the glue line isn't as noticeable.

I made my own file guide too like yours. I found that if I put the carbide strips flush with the inner edge of the guide, they sometimes get popped off when I clamp them down, so I found you need to add a tiny gap so the carbide is a hair above the inner edge. Couple layers of tape or paper seem to work.
Click to expand...
 
Taz575 said:
JB weld takes much longer to cure. JB Kwik Weld cures in 30 minutes at 70 degrees typically, much quicker in warmer temps. I use the JB Kwik Weld on most of my handles or their plastic welder if I am using light color scales/liners so the glue line isn't as noticeable.

I made my own file guide too like yours. I found that if I put the carbide strips flush with the inner edge of the guide, they sometimes get popped off when I clamp them down, so I found you need to add a tiny gap so the carbide is a hair above the inner edge. Couple layers of tape or paper seem to work.
Click to expand...
I will keep that in mind if they pop. Of course, I can fit a fingernail between them on one end and a beer can shim on the opposite end. Precision gluing is apparently not really my thing :)
 
I have made the guides with angle iron, carbide strips and screws with no alignment pins and they worked pretty well. I used a cheap diamond plate to flatten the strips on one, but didn't bother on the 2nd and it works just as good.
 
Taz575 said:
I have made the guides with angle iron, carbide strips and screws with no alignment pins and they worked pretty well. I used a cheap diamond plate to flatten the strips on one, but didn't bother on the 2nd and it works just as good.
Click to expand...
I don't think I needed to add the pins. But, I am also testing my capabilities for accomplishing a few "precision" tasks using only the DP.
tkroenlein said:
For your application, have you thought about hard solder like gunsmith's use? ~450F melt, and very strong.
Click to expand...
Well silver solder is even hotter and I thought of that
 
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