Will Mixing Different Brands of 30-Min Epoxies Work?

Test a small sample and let us know the results.

It all depends on chemistry, not brand name. :o)

Marty

When you eat an ear of corn, you throw away the cob.

And I thought I was thrifty...

m-m

It will work. Most probably both came from the same factory.

go to system three or west systems website and look for a pdf called "the epoxy handbook" very humorous, very informative and will explain WHY mixing brands will give a weaker bond.

P.S. a hard copy of the epoxy book comes with their trial kits, of which our club has gone thru 6 of.

whether I

thoughts on

Yes that would be important if we were working with aircraft or even marine composite's. But we are not, and with plywood and balsa, it will work just fine.

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

Do you want to risk a couple of hundred dollars worth of plane/equipment for 2 or 3 dollars ? Go buy a small tube of epoxy and hardener and do it properly. Using the other hardener MAY work, but I would not trust it.

plane/equipment

whether I

thoughts on

I know from trial, experiance, and even reading the contents of the products that it does work, and there is no reason to expect it not to. There is no differance in any of the 50/50 epoxies we use, in any of the brands.

Is your modeling budget so tight that you really need to worry about 1oz of hardener? Why risk a couple hundred dollars of model and accessories for $.50 worth of adhesive.

Like others have said, a test will confirm whether they are compatible but not what kind of yield strength it will achieve.

That is COMPLETELY not true. There are several formulas out there and while some may appear to work, their strength is vastly inferior. I also know that Z-Poxy finishing resin will not cure with laminating hardner. That was a difficult mess to clean off! ;^)

sometimes

30-minute

Thought the issue was differant brands, not types. Laminating hardner will not give as strong of a bond in the first place.

While it won't give you the strenghth a test will confirm that the strengh is enough. Simply glue two pieces of wood and let cure a few days. Then break. If the wood breaks the glue will work. If the epoxy breaks or debonds then don't use it.

| Well, after several months, I am running out of my Devcon 30-minute | epoxy. I still have maybe an ounce of the Part A (resin) left, but I am | out of the Part B (hardener).

Why bother?

Personally, I've been getting my epoxy at Wal-Mart -- the 2 hour setting time variety. (The real working time is closer to 30 minutes, to be fair.) It's far stronger than anything I glue together with it, and it's only $2 for a pack.

I think it's even Devcon. The packaging is different, but I think this is it --

I really like that system where it dispenses the right amount of each portion correctly. Not only does it mean nothing is ever left over, but it means I always get the right amount without any work.

Personally, I'd be more concerned that you actually have extra hardener than what to do with it. Does that mean that something you glued a while back didn't get enough hardener?

Your new epoxy has just the right amount of hardener for the resin, so why would you even consider using the left over stuff when you really don't need to. work on your mixing techniqe so when you get to the end of one tube theh other is also empty.

Ed

Harry Sanchez wrote:

You weren't specific. Their laminating resin is a 50/50 mix as well.

This is the most sensible response yet, IMHO. Ideally you shouldn't have any leftover resin or hardener anyway so toss the leftover and use more equal parts of hardener and resin with the next batch. You should be able to stand the bottles next to each other and see if you are using equal amounts, or just use disposeable measuring cups.

I wouldn't, but *I* don't like to crash ;-)