I bought a litre or so of epoxy resins about 6 months back
to do repairs on a firewire. I did a few repairs, then left the two
bottles of resin in the cupboard (with the bottle tops screwed on),
for 5 months. I just tried to do a couple of repairs last night and
my mix hasn’t set 12 hours later. I don’t know exactly what kind of
resins I’ve got, except that they’re suitable for the kind of foam
you get in a firewire (eps I think), and the ratio of the 2 liquids
is 39:100 (weight not volume).
The thicker of the two liquids had gone solid, it looked a bit
like honey - a solid layer on top, with some liquid underneath - I
used the liquid for my mix. I know I’m measuring them out pretty
accurate, I’m using scales that measure to 1/100th of a gram.
What’s happened here? Is this normal? Should I be making a fuss to
the guys who sold it to me?
Is there a way I can keep these kind of resins longer? Would less
air in the bottle make a difference (the bottle was a litre bottle
but only half full)? I can’t be restocking my supplies every time I
ding my board (I can’t believe I’ve gone nearly 6 months without
having a ding to repair - not like me at all).
Also, how do I remove the unset resin from the board to re-do the
repair - I’ve got resin, cloth and also a mix of resin and q-cell (a
light weight white powder for replacing foam)?