west going hard too fast

[Farrell]

Hi Ed. I have used West System for many years. The pumps work great - if you
will be using that much epoxy. I usually just eyeball the smaller batches.
Jon's suggestion for the scale sounds great (is there potential for a big
mess  there though?). I usually have at least 20 minutes working time with
the materials you cited. I have a 24" by 12" by 3/4" piece of warped cedar
that I use for mixing and containing my working epoxy mixture. I just tear
off a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil and cover the concave (slightly)
side of the board. Squirt my resin and hardener on the foil and mix with a
plastic trowel. As soon as I am done mixing, I spread it out over most of
the board. That way as it starts to cure, it doesn't heat up much and hence
does not accelerate the cure process.

I think when I did my last bridge pin epoxy refurbish job, I did the treble
bridge in three epoxy batches and the bass bridge in one batch.

If you still have trouble, try the slower set hardener.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Delwin D Fandrich" <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2000 12:07 AM
Subject: Re: west going hard too fast


> Several thoughts come to mind:
>
>     1)    Are you mixing it in larger batches?  More mass increases the
> internal heat build-up which accelerates the cure process.
>     2)    Are you mixing in a different shape container.  Try a larger,
> flatter container, i.e., a shallow dish type container for the same reason
> listed above.
>     3)    Try putting it in the refrigerator before mixing.  Starting from
a
> cooler base point, it will take longer to kick over.
>     4)    When all else fails, I think they have a slower hardener now.  I
> don't remember the number of the hardener we use but it is labeled 'Slow.'
> They now make one even slower.
>
> Del
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: December 11, 2000 4:09 PM
> Subject: west going hard too fast
>
>
> > Greetings,
> >     In using the West System resin products, I have run into problems
with
> > even the smallest dose from the mini pumps beginning to set up before I
> get
> > as many bridge holes, etc, filled.  I am  using the 105 Resin and 206
> > Hardener.
> >     Anyway to slow this down?
> > Thanks,
> > Ed Foote
>