water based epoxy??

A

alinwa

oft dis'd member
Been using water based epoxy resin for affixing fiberglas mat at work, I'm running some tests on it for use in gunstocks. Anyone ever used water-based resin?

al
 
Al I have not used such however my question does it have some properties that make it better than regular epoxy?
Ohhhhh yes as I remember you are from the rainy state :cool:.

Seriously I know you and your asking for a reason. What benefit are you thinking would be had by using the water based?
 
This may or may not be related, but water based epoxy paint does well. In the past, the chemical epoxy was the go to standard for industrial coatings, if you could stand to put it on. People who did say they could taste the stuff for days after applying it. But now, to keep the greenies happy and keep the VOC's down, water based epoxy is used more and more. It does seem to provide a durable coating. Maybe the same goes for resin and adhesives?
 
Vern said:
Al I have not used such however my question does it have some properties that make it better than regular epoxy?
Ohhhhh yes as I remember you are from the rainy state :cool:.

Seriously I know you and your asking for a reason. What benefit are you thinking would be had by using the water based?
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I guess the main benefit is that it doesn't smell, I can do small layups in my gunroom. That, and the water cleanup is slick and easy.
 
Boyd Allen said:
I did a little searching, and initially, all I got was links to coating sites, but when I changed my search string to "water based epoxy for lamination" I got what I was looking for. This site has a lot of interesting stuff. The link is to a page that has something that I had never heard of, that you may find interesting.
http://www.smooth-on.com/Vacuum-Bagging/c1334/index.html
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I'd never heard of silicone bagging either. this offers some real benefits over conventional bagging. I'll look into the cost.

al
 
Boyd Allen said:
I did a little searching, and initially, all I got was links to coating sites, but when I changed my search string to "water based epoxy for lamination" I got what I was looking for. This site has a lot of interesting stuff. The link is to a page that has something that I had never heard of, that you may find interesting.
http://www.smooth-on.com/Vacuum-Bagging/c1334/index.html
Click to expand...

Well, I watched the first 13 minute video and still have no idea what a vacuum bag is used for.
 
adamsgt said:
Well, I watched the first 13 minute video and still have no idea what a vacuum bag is used for.
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Basically, spun fiberglass fiber is really light and strong...... kevlar is lighter and carbon fiber is lighter and stronger yet. But they need to be woven into a mat and cemented together to make something more usable than rope :) this cement is often termed "resin" and comes in a variety of forms the most common (and smelliest) being "poly," the strongest (and messiest) being epoxy, with all sorts of variations in between.

And the resin is HEAVY! And it's only function is to give shear strength to the fibers, it has no appreciable tensile strength of it's own. The resins have some compressive strength.

If you can squeeze the resin out you can maintain strength and lose the weight.

Sucking the resin out (actually using air pressure to squeeze it out) is the most common way to accomplish this.

al
 
Sucks the air out

The Vacuum Bag, just sucks the air out allowing for more complete bonding and helps maintain a specific shape until cured..
 
Watched the video on making a car seat and I think I understand a little more. Nomenclature was a problem. They call what to me is a form, a tool and the bag is not really a bag in the sense that you put something into it. It's more like a cover that that seals tightly and allows you to draw a vacuum between the "bag" and the "tool". Is this correct?
 
adamsgt said:
Watched the video on making a car seat and I think I understand a little more. Nomenclature was a problem. They call what to me is a form, a tool and the bag is not really a bag in the sense that you put something into it. It's more like a cover that that seals tightly and allows you to draw a vacuum between the "bag" and the "tool". Is this correct?
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Absolutely true, good description. And in "bagging a car seat" the hardest part can be getting the bag on and wrinkle-free over the sticky mess of resin and mat..........within the pot time of the resin.
 
I Have used it many times in the past, Although for a differnt purpose.
I use to install Epoxy floors. The new formula water base epoxy was very good . IT wore slightly more but worked very well.
The clean up is a lot easier and , the epoxy itself is less toxic. just be careful not to breath it more then necessary. soap and water clean up versis POison like toulol zylene or MEK.
 
One thing that hasn't been mentioned since bagging has entered the picture....... "water based epoxies" include air drying and 2-part catalyzed products. When bagging or otherwise covering an epoxy used for affixing mat it's important to realize that only two-part resins (water or solvent carried) will harden under cover.
 
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