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Dave Polaschek
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Exothermic epoxy
I poured some epoxy and cholla yesterday for a project, and apparently did too much at once. That was exciting. And wasteful. Sigh. Now I know what they’re talking about when they say uncontrolled exothermic reaction.
Sure enough, when I went to turn it today, there were bubbles throughout.
One problem was the depth of the cup I was using as a mold. The other was that it was an insulated cup (I tend to buy my molds at the dollar store, and the regular cups I buy were out of stock, having been replaced with a row of Christmas ornaments), which didn’t allow any of the heat to escape other than out the top.
Guess I’ll try again with a different mold either this evening or tomorrow. Shame, as the yellow to blue transition looked pretty good until things started getting excited.
May you have the day you deserve!
8 Replies
I’ve had that happen a time or two with the AlumaLite epoxy. It doesn’t like to be very deep…gets hot enough to distort the throw away lite plastic cups I mix it in if I leave too much in there for too long! And once it gets warm it sets up even faster, so there’s no easy way to get the bubbles out before it’s done.
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
Did it harden ok? I’d probably still try to turn it if it did.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
It did, Nathan. The after picture is after I turned off the plastic cup (which hadn’t melted, but had seen some heat) to see what was inside. The surface of it next to the cup was relatively good-looking, but I could feel that it was lighter than it should’ve been. I’d guesstimate I lost 20-25% of the total mass of epoxy.
I was trying to blend the colors, so doing this as separate pours (maybe four for the cup?) will be tricky. Ideally, I’ll let the first pour get past peak heat and start cooling, then mix and pour the next layer before the first has fully cured, so I get a little mixing between the layers… or maybe I’ll change my design and tilt the cup so that the layers blend less, but run at angles… dunno. Mañana.
I was trying to blend the colors, so doing this as separate pours (maybe four for the cup?) will be tricky. Ideally, I’ll let the first pour get past peak heat and start cooling, then mix and pour the next layer before the first has fully cured, so I get a little mixing between the layers… or maybe I’ll change my design and tilt the cup so that the layers blend less, but run at angles… dunno. Mañana.
May you have the day you deserve!
Oh, one of the epoxy manufacturers recommends having an aluminum grill pan handy, and if the epoxy starts to overheat, dump it into the pan, let the increased surface area cool things, then back into the mold. If I could walk and chew gum at the same time, I’d think about that…
They say if insulated, it can hit 400F. Mine didn’t get that hot, at least on the surface where I could see what was happening.
They say if insulated, it can hit 400F. Mine didn’t get that hot, at least on the surface where I could see what was happening.
May you have the day you deserve!
Lessons learned, that's what creating is all about.
I'd get a different brand of epoxy. I have used Clear Flow and have not had it get that hot when doing 2" thickness.
Cheers, Jim
Cheers, Jim
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
This was almost 7” of total thickness, Jim. In an insulated cup.
Yeah, Tom. A man’s got to know his limitations.
Yeah, Tom. A man’s got to know his limitations.
May you have the day you deserve!
