Re: ATM - West System Epoxy and wood

[Bruce Swayze <swayze@europa.com>]

At 08:38 AM 6/5/97 -0700, Mel Bartels wrote:
>I have used the WEST stuff before - it's good stuff.  How much strength
>would you say that it adds, just pouring it onto the wood surface?
>-- 

Mel,
I don't have any quantitative data for you, but it greatly strengthens the
wood.  The beauty of it is that it isn't just a coating smeared on top of
the wood.  It penetrates the wood fibers and becomes part of it, making it
extremely strong.  

Our experience is that we mix a bit of acetone in with a batch to make it
real runny, and it will penetrate even deeper and faster.  Brush it on with
a paintbrush.  The acetone quickly evaporates, leaving the epoxy to cure
very hard.  We brush it on a sonotube that has been flamed with a blowtorch
to remove the wax, for instance, and when it is hard, we cover the sonotube
with another layer mixed this time with enough colloidal silica to make it
thick so it won't be runny.  It would be about the consistency of mayonaise,
but stickier.  We cover the tube with it and then add a layer of wood
veneers for the finish.  The epoxy penetrates this wood and I can tell you
that you could jump up and down on these tubes and not hurt them.  It's that
strong.  The wood veneers are very thin, <1mm thick, so the added weight is
almost negligible.  And it's as beautiful as fine furniture.  The epoxy
cures hard as a rock.  You can sand it, and then paint or varnish it.  

We finish it with 3 or more coats of marine spar varnish (Man O' War) to
make it impervious to the weather and the sun.  I don't worry the least
little bit about these telescopes, beautiful as they are, sitting out in the
hot sun, freezing frost, the dripping wet dew, or even the rain.  They'll
last darn near forever.  Water beads up and runs off, and I can blot it down
with a towel when I bring it in if I like.  

We have a sampling of some of this work on our photo page.  It's at:
http://www.europa.com/~swayze/photos.html

Best regards,

Bruce Swayze
swayze@europa.com
http://www.europa.com/~swayze    Swayze Optical home page
http://www.europa.com/~swayze   Homemade spider page