west system epoxy questions

[fish4me]

Question for all...................
I have used west system epoxy on the interior of my tank. The temps where I live have been around 40 in the past week. I finished the final coat last night and when I got home tonight from work the resin is still somewhat tacky and runny. Should I had another bit of hardener over the top layer. I did put a rather thick layer on the bottom of the tank over the matting.
My thought is that there may not be enough hardener mixed with the resin. This coupled with colder temperatures is causing longer cure times. I plan on letting it cure for at least a week before installing the glass.
I mixed the resin + hardener as specified for the first layer with cloth and then for the second simply poured a measured amount and rolled the hardener in to mix the two.

Any thoughts??

 

[IITUFFTOBEATII]

why did you roll the hardner in instead of mixing it before applying?

ive only used it myself a handful of times but have worked with others using it many many times and have never seen it applied in that way.

If it were me I would remove all the uncured material and apply a new coat that is mixed per the instructionsm

 

[CJH]

... I got home tonight from work the resin is still somewhat tacky and runny. Should I had another bit of hardener over the top layer.

My thought is that there may not be enough hardener mixed with the resin. This coupled with colder temperatures is causing longer cure times. I plan on letting it cure for at least a week before installing the glass.
I mixed the resin + hardener as specified for the first layer with cloth and then for the second simply poured a measured amount and rolled the hardener in to mix the two.

Any thoughts??

I would not just roll hardener on the top. If you have some time to wait on hold I would call their customer service department and get one of their technical representatives on the phone and explain the problem to him/her.

In case you're not already familiar with it, I would also ask about the "two-pot mixing method". Basically you mix the resin & hardener in a first clean pot and then dump it into a second clean pot and mix it again.