I bought the Rutan training kit and made a simple 1 layer square piece just to try and I was suprised by a few things, and of course a few questions came to mind.
The first suprise was how amber the hardener was (EZ Poxy). Are all of the epoxies like that, or are some clearer than others?
The second suprise was how long it took to cure. I assumed (wrongly?) that the kit was using the fast hardener and it took quite a while to really set up. I set it in my paint booth in the closet which was warmer and that seemed to help speed it up. I don't know if this had anything to do with my extremely crude balance resulting in a ratio which was probably only barely in the ballpark.
The next suprise was how flexible it is now that its cured a few days. I was able to trim it with scissors still, and could even rip it by hand or bend it in half. Is that normal and expected for 1 piece of bid unattached to anything else? If I do the next one with multiple layers, will it become significantly more rigid?
Oh, and is there a less messy way to pour it out of the cans? If I ever do build a plane I'll get an epoxy ratio pump, but I'm just goofing around for now.
The first suprise was how amber the hardener was (EZ Poxy). Are all of the epoxies like that, or are some clearer than others?
The second suprise was how long it took to cure. I assumed (wrongly?) that the kit was using the fast hardener and it took quite a while to really set up. I set it in my paint booth in the closet which was warmer and that seemed to help speed it up. I don't know if this had anything to do with my extremely crude balance resulting in a ratio which was probably only barely in the ballpark.
The next suprise was how flexible it is now that its cured a few days. I was able to trim it with scissors still, and could even rip it by hand or bend it in half. Is that normal and expected for 1 piece of bid unattached to anything else? If I do the next one with multiple layers, will it become significantly more rigid?
Oh, and is there a less messy way to pour it out of the cans? If I ever do build a plane I'll get an epoxy ratio pump, but I'm just goofing around for now.