What are you guys using to thin epoxy?

Mace

Mace

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Apr 8, 2003
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I never had the occasion to thin epoxy untill now. I am using black epoxy, but it is a bit thick for what I want.
So....what do you use to thin your epoxy?
Thanks
Mace
 
you're probably better off buying thinner epoxy. you can get it in industrial grades that are as thin as water or as thick as molasses.
 
Mace, ol' buddy, I use West System a lot and it's thin enough to go everywhere I want it to go!
 
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Regular rubbing alcohol will thin epoxy quite nicely. Alcohol also works for clean up of epoxy as long as it hasn't hardened yet.. I use the clear epoxy (Devcon 2 ton). I don't know if it works on the dark stuff like JB Weld.
 
I love Brownell's Acura Glass, they also sell a thinner made specially for their epoxy. Works great!
 
Mace, I don't know what you are doing with the epoxy, but you can thin it with heat. This will shorten your "open" time, and you would not be able to use it for a large project. But for a hidden tang knife it helps to fill the voids in the handle, especially antler.

~Alden
 
You might want to nuke the 2 parts of epoxy before combining and applying. Let us know how this works, I heard it did.
 
I thought I had read here somewhere a while back that thinning epoxy may affect the final hardness? Anyone ever notice this?

Brad
 
From what I've read denatured alcohol is the most commonly used thinning agent, but some say that it effects the set time etc.
 
Alden Sherrodd said:
Mace, I don't know what you are doing with the epoxy, but you can thin it with heat. This will shorten your "open" time, and you would not be able to use it for a large project. But for a hidden tang knife it helps to fill the voids in the handle, especially antler.
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I use heat when I want to thin epoxy. Heat the epoxy and where the epoxy is being applied.

Alden is correct. Heat will shorten the pot life. At 70°f an increase of 10° will reduce the pot life by half.

We worked extensively with West System before changing from Acraglas to G/flex. The West System website has lots of good information. Here is an article on thinning epoxy:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/thinning-west-system-epoxy
 
Chuck Bybee said:
I use heat when I want to thin epoxy. Heat the epoxy and where the epoxy is being applied.

Alden is correct. Heat will shorten the pot life. At 70°f an increase of 10° will reduce the pot life by half.

We worked extensively with West System before changing from Acraglas to G/flex. The West System website has lots of good information. Here is an article on thinning epoxy:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/thinning-west-system-epoxy
Click to expand...

Chuck, This sounds like some pretty good stuff (G-Flex). What's the color when it dries?
- Thanks
 
Troop said:
What's the color when it dries?
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G/flex is amber colored when dry. If I'm concerned about appearance I add black gel coat pigment when mixing the resin and hardener. A tiny amount of pigment goes a long way.

The main reason we change to G/flex was the strength of the bond. It is crazy strong. Master Smith Michael Rader had the following experience:
I had a knife with a bad blade that I wanted to remove from the good handle, so I had Dave Lisch put it in his induction forge to heat up the tang a bit. He had done this before and it worked good. So, we heated it up and tried pulling the handle off. No go. We heated it up some more. No go. We worked it for a good five minutes and finally, I was able to clamp the blade in a vise and pull the thing apart, but only after the handle cracked and gasses were venting out of the top and bottom. Wow.

All this to say, is that the G-flex epoxy is awesome. I had always worried about a customer putting a knife in the dishwasher and having the handle slide off the tang, as I don't use pins in my kitchen knives. No longer a worry!!​
 
Chuck Bybee said:
G/flex is amber colored when dry. If I'm concerned about appearance I add black gel coat pigment when mixing the resin and hardener. A tiny amount of pigment goes a long way.

The main reason we change to G/flex was the strength of the bond. It is crazy strong. Master Smith Michael Rader had the following experience:
I had a knife with a bad blade that I wanted to remove from the good handle, so I had Dave Lisch put it in his induction forge to heat up the tang a bit. He had done this before and it worked good. So, we heated it up and tried pulling the handle off. No go. We heated it up some more. No go. We worked it for a good five minutes and finally, I was able to clamp the blade in a vise and pull the thing apart, but only after the handle cracked and gasses were venting out of the top and bottom. Wow.

All this to say, is that the G-flex epoxy is awesome. I had always worried about a customer putting a knife in the dishwasher and having the handle slide off the tang, as I don't use pins in my kitchen knives. No longer a worry!!​
Click to expand...

Thank you, Chuck. How about the pre-thickened G-flex? Just as good?
I wouldn't want thin epoxy running off my tang when I'm attaching scales.
If I mix in a little of the black coloring gel, would it make a brown color to match wood scales (generally speaking)?
 
Chuck Bybee said:
I use heat when I want to thin epoxy. Heat the epoxy and where the epoxy is being applied.

Alden is correct. Heat will shorten the pot life. At 70°f an increase of 10° will reduce the pot life by half.

We worked extensively with West System before changing from Acraglas to G/flex. The West System website has lots of good information. Here is an article on thinning epoxy:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/thinning-west-system-epoxy
Click to expand...

For a newbie - What is pot life?
Would thinning the epoxy make it more effective for making mosaic pins without voids?

Thanks
Rob
 
"Pot life" is the amount of time you have to work with the epoxy once you mix the two agents together. A five-minute epoxy that has been thinned.... you'd better move fast to get it all together.

As for mosaic pins, greater fluidity in the epoxy will only help it flow better through the tubes. Just make sure it the epoxy has a long enough pot life that you can get it all together.
 
Thanks fellas.
I decided not to thin my epoxy. I used a thinner epoxy to get where I wanted it to get then just capped it off with some black epoxy.
Mace
 
Don't thin 5 minute epoxy. The thinning agent (denatured alcohol) won't have time to escape before it sets up. It's always a good idea to test your mixture before actually using it. About the only times I've used thinned epoxy, was when I needed it thin enough to get into tight places by capillary action and used it more as a filler/sealer than an adhesive.
 
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