Has anyone here ever bought a tube of bad epoxy? I purchased a tube of 60min epoxy from Home Depot to put handles on a home made file knife. I mixed it 50/50 and it's still tacky after 5 days. The handles are made out of Goncolo Alves wood so I pretty anoyed that I ruined them. The knife is small so I didn't waste a lot of wood. Better luck next time...........Malcolm
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epoxy
- Thread starter malcolm47
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I've not only had that happen, I've had it go both ways, either the stuff didn't seem to want to harden at all, or it hardened so fast I couldn't keep up with it. Set them handle scales aside and let the epoxy do what it wants to do. Come back to 'em in a couple of days and scrape/sand the (should be) now hardened epoxy off. and they're most likely still useable.
Not being a chemist, I don't know why bad epoxy happens, but it does. Thankfully not that often.
Sarge
Not being a chemist, I don't know why bad epoxy happens, but it does. Thankfully not that often.
Sarge
Breaking news ....
When Epoxy Goes Bad, film at 11.
"You see, all I did" reports Gomer Roids from his hospital bed in Bumbang, Georga "Was mix the resin with the Diet Coke and added Mentos to the hardner cause I was out of superglue. Well when I tried to fill the hollow of my samura sword all hell broke loose."
:thumbdn: 
When Epoxy Goes Bad, film at 11.
"You see, all I did" reports Gomer Roids from his hospital bed in Bumbang, Georga "Was mix the resin with the Diet Coke and added Mentos to the hardner cause I was out of superglue. Well when I tried to fill the hollow of my samura sword all hell broke loose."
:thumbdn: 
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Usually, this is caused by uneven mixing. Even if you think its mixed evenly, it may not be. Im not accusing you of poor mixing, but that has been my findings. I agree on the heat lamp, but be careful as there is a point of decreasing utility as high heat will break down the epoxy or cause it to be very brittle when curing. Usually a warm lamp will increase the cure time.
After 5 days, i would be looking into taking those handles off and re-epoxying...
After 5 days, i would be looking into taking those handles off and re-epoxying...
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malcolm47 said:
I had that happen on a scruffy little user I made from deer antler and a brusletto blade. It didn't affect the useability, and the epoxy hardened up and lost its tackiness after a few years.
It's the bottom one. You can see the black epoxy/charcoal mixture that stayed tacky for some time at the base of the blade. I suspect that I didn't mix the epoxy well enough.
The knife is hanging over my desk as I write and gets used quite frequently. The ultra-slow hardening process didn't hurt the knife's working career.
I've heard some of the knifemakers say slow-hardening epoxy is better for knives ...
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A while back (quite a while back) there was a good bit of talk and interest generated here regarding "Cutler's Rezin" or some such thing. Apparently a hot glue incorporating pine pitch, carnauba wax, et cetera. Haven't fooled with any yet, but it's still on my "to do" list. I'd be interested to know if any of y'all have tried it, and what your experiences were.
Sarge
Sarge
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Sylvrfalcn said:
Basicly laha. Don't forget the herbivore feces. I haven't tried it but we know from the kami's work that it's good stuff.
I think the kamis use epoxy when they can. Maybe Yangdu can fill us in. Or one of you guys can "reverse engineer" a recent HI acquisition.
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Howard Wallace said:
Occasionally one stumbles across rich deposits of that particular material right here in the Cantina. Can't say I never generate any my ownself.
Sarge
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Sylvrfalcn said:
I haven't tried it but I sure was thinking strongly about it the other day. We stopped at the optical store to have my spec's fixed and parked right to the side of a fair sized pine tree that had a few branches cut off of it.
There was a considerable amount of resin that had dripped off the tree onto a privacy fence. It'll be there if and when I need it.:thumbup:
Used herbivore food you say? Hmmm. My sis and one of our daughters has horses, suppose that'd work or I wonder if it has too be goat or similar?
Actually Carrie and Rick also have a Dexter bull so I could have some fresh unadulterated bullshit instead of the watered down stuff that poses for it here.
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Four things about epoxy:
1. It has a relatively short shelf life, up to a few years at most. Who knows how long it's been sitting on that shelf? Always check the package for the manufacturing date, and always use your oldest stock first -- especially if it's already been opened.
2. It is VERY temperature sensitive with regards to curing. A few degrees can mean the difference between curing properly, curing slowly, curing improperly and not curing at all. Leave it in the sun for a few days or bake it in the oven at the lowest temperature setting with the door cracked open. That might just do the job. Read the back of the package for the temperature that it should be at; it will probably say not to use below sixty degrees F. Don't.
3. It must be mixed thoroughly and correctly. I refuse to use any epoxy that sets up in less than thirty minutes because there's just not enough time to mix and apply it properly. The directions will mention stirring the crap out of it -- stir the crap out of it. Stir it until it can't possibly need any more stirring and then stir it a bit more. If it's very slow setting (and slow setting is best), let it rest for a bit so that some of those bubbles will escape it. Likewise, use the proper ratio of catalyst to resin. It doesn't have to be exact in most cases but different epoxies tolerate bad ratios to different degrees; the closer you are to perfect, the closer the result will be to perfect. Be as careful as you can.
4. Like any other product ever made, the occasional sample just plain won't work. Rule out the other three factors before you jump to this conclusion. Epoxy is great stuff but it's not quite the easy and conveniant wonder adhesive that it's made out to be by some. Like most things in life, a bit of preparation ahead of time will save a lot of heartache later.
You're on your own with the herbivore feces. I don't have much experience in this field, other than watching where I step.
1. It has a relatively short shelf life, up to a few years at most. Who knows how long it's been sitting on that shelf? Always check the package for the manufacturing date, and always use your oldest stock first -- especially if it's already been opened.
2. It is VERY temperature sensitive with regards to curing. A few degrees can mean the difference between curing properly, curing slowly, curing improperly and not curing at all. Leave it in the sun for a few days or bake it in the oven at the lowest temperature setting with the door cracked open. That might just do the job. Read the back of the package for the temperature that it should be at; it will probably say not to use below sixty degrees F. Don't.
3. It must be mixed thoroughly and correctly. I refuse to use any epoxy that sets up in less than thirty minutes because there's just not enough time to mix and apply it properly. The directions will mention stirring the crap out of it -- stir the crap out of it. Stir it until it can't possibly need any more stirring and then stir it a bit more. If it's very slow setting (and slow setting is best), let it rest for a bit so that some of those bubbles will escape it. Likewise, use the proper ratio of catalyst to resin. It doesn't have to be exact in most cases but different epoxies tolerate bad ratios to different degrees; the closer you are to perfect, the closer the result will be to perfect. Be as careful as you can.
4. Like any other product ever made, the occasional sample just plain won't work. Rule out the other three factors before you jump to this conclusion. Epoxy is great stuff but it's not quite the easy and conveniant wonder adhesive that it's made out to be by some. Like most things in life, a bit of preparation ahead of time will save a lot of heartache later.
You're on your own with the herbivore feces. I don't have much experience in this field, other than watching where I step.
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In the knife makers forum they only recommend full cure epoxy, never the fast cure 'rapid' stuff. Devcon seems to come out best. When I mix epoxy I make sure the amounts are equal, although that is easy with the syringe tubes. Mix and whip it up using an ice cream stick. As Mr Rishar says, mix it and then mix it some more. I scrape the cardboard mixing palete clean and remix for about 5 minutes. Leave to stand for 5 minutes and then apply. Knife maker George Titchbourne told me last week, don't clamp up too tight and squeeze all the epoxy out of the joint.
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If you are matching colors, an easy way to ensure even mixing is to add the dye to one part of the epoxy, then mix until you have that dye totally even between the two parts.
Look up "glue wars"....some makers did extensive destruction testing on about 15 different glues and documented the whole process.
Look up "glue wars"....some makers did extensive destruction testing on about 15 different glues and documented the whole process.
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TikTock said:
Never heard that before but it seems like a right good idea!!!!
Have heard that model car enamel makes a good colorant for epoxy but I've never tried it so can't make any claims for it personally. One thing about it with Red, Blue, and Yellow you can mix damned near any color under the sun!:thumbup:
TikTock said:
I don't know if our very own Dan Koster participated in this or not but Dan is really high on the Accuglass (sp?) instead of epoxy.
Can't recall if Dan ever said how long it takes to set up.:foot:
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I read his posts about Acuglass, but thought it was another brand of epoxy. What is Acuglass?
Thanks for all of the input. The epoxy never cured past sticky, so I went out and bought a new tube of epoxy. After I cleaned up the knife and handles I tried some of the new epoxy. A few hours later the new epoxy set up fine. I guess I did get a bad tube! Thanks a lot.............Malcolm
TikTock said:
"Glue wars" is an excellent reference & its conclusions were surprising in some cases. Highly recommended.
BTW, to remove epoxy which has not yet hardened, use vinegar. It dissolves the epoxy amazing well, better & faster than many other solvents, and is safer to use.
John
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- Jun 20, 2006
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if only guerilla glue made epoxy.......unless anyone has used it before with sucess
as one of my hobbies i assemble/paint models and me and everyone else in the hobby use blue/yellow ( green ) epoxy and it works very well but i think its a bit too solid for knifemaking
but hey i may have to try it someday
as one of my hobbies i assemble/paint models and me and everyone else in the hobby use blue/yellow ( green ) epoxy and it works very well but i think its a bit too solid for knifemaking
but hey i may have to try it someday