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Anybody have a good dealer/source for West System epoxy for woodworkers?
Most places I've found on-line or in my area are marine stores and carry the sizes and types needed for boat building/repair, not the smaller sizes needed for woodworking.
I'm building an exterior door and The Management has handed down some specifications and I'm planning on using epoxy to laminate some oak to meet the demands of her design so I'm needing a gallon of the resin, slow hardener and the measuring pumps West offers.
So I'm looking for somewhere to buy/order the stuff.
Anyone had good luck with a source?
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Wild Turkey
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(12-14-2019, 06:26 AM)Wild Turkey Wrote: Anybody have a good dealer/source for West System epoxy for woodworkers?
Most places I've found on-line or in my area are marine stores and carry the sizes and types needed for boat building/repair, not the smaller sizes needed for woodworking.
I'm building an exterior door and The Management has handed down some specifications and I'm planning on using epoxy to laminate some oak to meet the demands of her design so I'm needing a gallon of the resin, slow hardener and the measuring pumps West offers.
So I'm looking for somewhere to buy/order the stuff.
Anyone had good luck with a source?
For small sizes:
https://search.defender.com/?expression=...Trigger=ac
West Systems is good stuff, but there are others just as good. Check defender.com for epoxy resin as a more general search.
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Jim Waldron
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I ordered mine from Amazon. Whole kit delivered was sixty or seventy or thereabouts.
Works good. I mix it in small batches ( keep a stack of dixie type cups with the kit ).
Mark Singleton
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I buy West Systems epoxy from West Marine supply because it's convenient and they carry the whole line. Don't know if you have one near you, but if you are near water, you probably do. Look in your Yellow Pages or Google West Marine. I haven't compered prices buying locally or ordering online; but if the local prices are high, I don't mind. The convenience of buying locally is important to me.
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Is there a shelf life on epoxy in general? I usually purchase Loctite 5 min epoxy at Menards and it goes bad after about a year.
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It does, at lest IME. But trying to nail down what that shelf life is is tricky. It should be at least a few years, but it depends on storage conditions. I think of it like shellac: test it (a small amount) if it hardens you're good.
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I find that the West Systems hardener turns an amber color after a few months (like 8 or 10 months) and the reaction begins to slow down with time. But it continues to work (harden the resin) for years. I replace the hardener every year or so and the resin every 2 or 3 years, just to be on the safe side, even though they appear to still work fine.
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12-15-2019, 10:49 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-15-2019, 10:50 AM by Reverb.)
I go through quite a bit of epoxy, but I've never found it to go bad. I still have partial containers over 20 years old that I've used resins and hardeners from, and they still work fine. West System, Raka, System 3 and others...as far as I know it lasts forever.
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(12-14-2019, 06:26 AM)Wild Turkey Wrote: Anybody have a good dealer/source for West System epoxy for woodworkers?
Most places I've found on-line or in my area are marine stores and carry the sizes and types needed for boat building/repair, not the smaller sizes needed for woodworking.
I'm building an exterior door and The Management has handed down some specifications and I'm planning on using epoxy to laminate some oak to meet the demands of her design so I'm needing a gallon of the resin, slow hardener and the measuring pumps West offers.
So I'm looking for somewhere to buy/order the stuff.
Anyone had good luck with a source?
You might consider using GFlex from West Systems for that. I am suing it now to build up lumber for a very thick door. It is a bit thicker than honey and easy to work wiht at a 50:50 ratio. It can be had in small tubes, quarts, gallons. I bought it through Amazon. Below is what I am using it for.
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