mixing epoxy and fillers

[petemarkey]

Any tips and techniques to share re: mixing expoxies and fillers?

right now, I use a 5 qt bucket, I mix the resin and hardener with a cheap mixing bit in my dewalt, which works great, but doesn't do so good when I add microballons or cab-o-sil. Once I add that, I use a wood mixing stick.

My current method works fine, for my current project, which requires less than mayonaise consistency, but soon I will need mass amounts of peanut butter consistency, to fill tons of ground out blisters. My arms ache thinking about it.

Also, mechanical blending of the resin and hardener introduces tons of bubbles, is this a problem?

[Ceasar Choppy]

Also, mechanical blending of the resin and hardener introduces tons of bubbles, is this a problem?

Yes. especially if its warm and the epoxy sets up too quickly, the air bubbles will be trapped and you will have lots of small voids.

Small batches, slow mixing, patience. How much are you mixing at one time without starting a fire? :)

[petemarkey]

Small batches, slow mixing, patience. How much are you mixing at one time without starting a fire? :)

I don't think the MAS epoxies I am using get as hot as WEST or others.

I am mixing about 2 qts at a time, I am rebuilding the fuel tank cover/deck for a boston whaler. which is primarily plywood that was rotten, I should have ground out the whole sheet, but I was scared to grind through, or chisel through the top gel-coated side so I left a lot, but left a lot to fill/fair.


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[Ceasar Choppy]

If I understand correctly what you are doing, why not just wet out the surface and apply a layer of FG cloth with more resin over the whole thing? Does it need to be perfectly fair on that side?