Hi guys
i need to fill and smooth a huge curved surface of EPS with epoxy and microballons.
i just heard that people mix alcohol into the epoxy to augment the absorption capacity of epoxy of microballons. Have you tried this? Sounds as a good way to consume less epoxy and save some bucks. Its a plug so it doesnt has a structural critical function. By the way, where in europe you get the cheapest microballons?
How much do you need?
Alcohol thins epoxy, so you need less, but mechanical properties drop dramatically.
will the alcohol outgasss during degassing in a chamber before infusion? Or does the epoxy somehoe take it up and prevent it from outgassing. My concern would be during an infusion and vacuum you could get a ton of bubbles /voids in the laminate.
Never do that! You will nearly always have problems. For infusion never “optimize” the resin, buy the specification you need.
Only if you spray the epoxy (not wealthy) you can thin it with acetone. The acetone will evaporate wben spraying.
acetone or styrene would thin VER and Epoxy, but you will have major troubles later…the chemistry changes!!! Your strength can go down, you can possibly not have it cure, or because of the extra solvent added, it will shrink and or crack the part!!! Adding a VOC en mass to a part that is to be cured, you will loose that extra mass in the resin. Thereby having major shrinkage (and warping) due to the mass loss.