West System Epoxy cost

cowboy · Post by **cowboy** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:26 am

Can anyone tell me what harder is best to use with MAS epoxy ?I wanted to use West System but I live in Texas and they are wanting 47 $ a quart for 207,or if anyone know's if there is an even better product out there that will work just as good .Thanks for any info you can give me. :(

KARKAUAI · Post by **KARKAUAI** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 5:45 pm

Howdy, Cowboy,
I used the slow hardener for my first canoe, and it was great. Next time, I'll use slow for the glassing, and buy a small quantity of fast to use when making fillets, gluing, etc. Maybe when I grow up I'll be confident enough to use the fast stuff on the hull, too.

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 6:54 pm

Hi Cowboy, if you are using MAS epoxy, why don't you wrangle up some MAS hardener?

Erich Eppert · Post by **Erich Eppert** » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:21 pm

HI Cowboy,

MAS is really different to use. Their hardeners can be mixed to get the mixture to harden faster or slower. I found that the slow hardener will take almost 48 hours to harden in normal temperatures. I checked with MAS and was told to mix the slow with the fast to quicken the hardening time. Their fast will harden in about 12 hours.

I personally like epoxy that will flash in an hour and be hard in 24 hours. This may seem fast to most but it is easy to get use to applying fast epoxy. A helper is a major plus. Good luck, it only gets better from here on.

Regards, Erich.

John Michne · Post by **John Michne** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:50 am

I have used MAS exclusively. The slow hardener is just that – slow. It is very comfortable to use for the wet out (I don’t precoat), and will be leathery with an overnight cure. For the fill coats, I mix 25% fast with the slow hardener. That mix allows me to get two fill coat on the day after wet out, and two more on the next day. There is no blush with MAS, even with the 25% fast mix. The MAS fast hardener, when used by itself, will blush, but it has only limited use when used alone.

For a detailed description of fiberglassing and epoxy, see my web site, http://michneboat.com. Click on Builder’s Corner, then scroll down to Fiberglassing-101.

- John

chasmitc · Post by **chasmitc** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:58 am

I used US compositss slow at $30.00/gallon Clear no blush but darn slow. They also have medium and fast
Frugal Charlie

Steve Lansdowne · Post by **Steve Lansdowne** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:59 pm

RAKA, from Florida (assuming the hurricaine didn't get them too good) is a relatively inexpensive yet good product. Likely you looked at West System in stores. Try the internet and you can save some bucks.