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CA glue and epoxy resin not play well together?

Sam Fleisher

Sam Fleisher

Joined
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I had a design change/challenge that I used some epoxy resin on. When I sanded the epoxy back I had some bubbles appear so I thought "Hey, I'll just stick some CA glue in the spots" put it aside and came back a couple of hours later stuck my finger on what I thought would be hard glue and oops that stuff was if anything runnier than when I put it in the holes. It was some thick parfix glue. It hardened pretty quick on my finger. I squirted some activator on it this time to see what happens and am waiting till morning.

Is this the usual reaction with ca and epoxy resin? If it is, another lesson learned. The glue wasn't old and the epoxy had hardened fine. Epoxy was some 1 to 1 ratio-name never heard of before from prime day.
 
George Kuipers said:
Never had this problem before, most likely epoxy never cured properly, ratio not exactly 1 to 1?
Click to expand...
Close as I could get it with a small graduated epoxy mixing cup. It will only do 100 ml total and I had plenty of extra that I put in a spare mold to make pieces for an upcoming project. It turned out fine when I demolded that.
 
Oh well, another lesson learned. I'll wait two days instead of one. It did say on the box "cures in 24 - 48 hours". I haven't been down to the shop yet this morning to see what's up. I'll try sanding it some more after I mess with some milliput I tried for the first time last night as well.
 
This whole project ended up being a lesson in futility or maybe fiasco is the word I'm looking for...

This is the one where the ca glue didn't work with the epoxy. I wouldn't have had the epoxy on there if the previous plan had worked but it didn't.

It was supposed to be wine color dyed and then I dribbled hot glue all over it ($%##% you tube videos) then topped with black lacquer. Everything went according to plan until it came time to peel the hot glue off. I believe the guy that says cheap hot glue is just as good as expensive because this stuff wasn't coming off like it did in the videos. 1/2 inch at a time and still leaving some on the bowl. So I took a putty knife, heated it up and removed the glue. By this time I knew it was a failure and didn't take any more pictures.

Sanded the black off as best I could and most of the dye. Don't forget the glue residue is still there. Fun sanding. Notice on the back side the bark like inclusion? After all the sanding and messing around it was really weak on the inside hence the epoxy circle that looks goofy but it is what it is. A lesson....

After all that when I went to sand the second application of ca glue today it more or less melted and came out of the bubbles in the epoxy so that was a waste too. Still not sure what went on there. To try to salvage something I blended in more trans tint and then sprayed the whole thing with some clear gloss.

I feel like I need to hang this on the wall in the shop to remind me to NOT do this again.
 

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Sam Fleisher said:
I feel like I need to hang this on the wall in the shop to remind me to NOT do this again.
Click to expand...

Sam, here't the thing with processes like that - the first ones usually don't work. Things like this that rely on interaction between finishes/glue/dye/heat/water/fire/etc take some experimentation to find the combinations that work. No matter what they say, those YouTube guys didn't film their first one, and many of them probably cheat via post-processing the video clips together.
I've not done the hot-glue drizzle, but I have done spin-art, hydro dipping, burning, dye, and other things - and you have to approach them as experiments in the beginning. First piece is often for figuring out what doesn't work, next few for dialing in what does. Then you can make something. Of course, after all that you have to decide if you like the effect, and if it's worth the effort.
 
I'm liking the red and gloss finish it ended up with. Too bad it has the epoxy circle in the middle. Should have, would have, could have... They're all experiments.
 
Sam,
When I took a class with Stephen Hatcher at Arrowmont we used a UV resin to fill holes in the epoxy mainly around items we had placed in the epoxy for decoration. May want to try some of that. Filled nicely and hardened with the flashlight that came with the kit
Alan
 
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