Hi All,

Sorry to resurrect a four year old thread, but I'm trying to do a post-mortem of why my epoxy pour went so wrong.

I was using West 105 with the 209 extra slow, mixing 3.5 parts by weight 105 to 1 part 209 - in my book thats 350g to 100g.

The air temperature was about 21 degrees when I poured, which the manufacturer states: Pot life at 72°F (22°C): 40 to 50 minutes - we didn't get anything like that. The full description of what happened is in my build thread (here), but short story is we mixed 1.3L into one pot in 6 stages, stirring for a minute at each stage.

We then thought lets leave it for 10mins for the bubbles to rise, but we didn't realise the temperature of the mixture was rapidly increasing. By 8 mins into the wait, the whole thing was burning hot and we started to pour as the plastic container was melting. That kinda ties in with the manufacturers Pot life at 95°F (35°C): 15 to 20 minutes.

How do I get it to wait 72hours? Mine was rock hard within minutes, you guys are still leaving fingerprints after days! Was it just those few minutes waiting that screwed me, or should I mix a small amount, pour, then mix more and pour over?