REFLECTOR: building With West Systems

[Patrick Sieders]

Hello all,

 

I have flipped my plane upside down to start working on the fuselage-fuel
strake transitions. Reading up on it, it requires microballoon to fill. Now
I have been using West systems as I understood from others that it can be
used as a replacement for 'anything'. One statement I got was " You can
build your whole airplane with West Systems, but it's expensive". I have
been trying to answer this by looking into the Wiki and the reflector, but
no real answer there.

 

Looking at the manual, introduction :

"EZ-Poxy - is used in all major lay-ups on foam and all lay-ups of glass to
glass. EZ-Poxy

hardener is mixed with DER 324 resin at a 44:100 ratio. For lay-ups on foam,
a

slurry of EZ-Poxy and micro balloons is used. Throughout the construction
manual

this mixture is referred to as Micro-Slurry. It is also used with milled
fiber for

structural fillets and structural bonding such as hinge pockets for the
speed brake,

doors, etc. This epoxy was known as Epolite (2180/2183/2184) and SafetyPoxy

in past manuals.

 

VelociPoxy - these systems are used primarily in the finishing and filling ,
never for glass

lay-ups. VelociPoxy hardener is mixed with DER 324 resin at a 1:2 ratio. For

finish work, VelociPoxy is mixed with micro-balloon to create a smooth easy
to

sand filler that is flexible. This epoxy was known as AlphaPoxy in the past
manuals.

The resin for both EZ-Poxy and VelociPoxy are the same, only the hardener is
different.

The Resin is clear in color and is known as DER 324.

 

You may see references in books and catalogs and videos to Safe-T-Poxy, or
Hexcel

Epolite they have been replaced by EZ-Poxy, and Genimid or AlphaPoxy has
been replaced

by VelociPoxy. You may substitute the West System or Resin Research epoxy
for

VelociPoxy if desired."

 

This confuses me. Here it states clearly that West system is a replacement
for Velocipoxy, but not for EZ-Poxy ? So which is it ? Before I start mixing
the wrong resin/hardner in the wrong place.

 

Are there any times that other epoxies are needed ? (if the statement holds
true that west system is a replacement for 'all'?)

 

Maybe very fundamental and basic questions, I am just getting 'cold feet'.

 

Thanks for your replies.

Patrick Sieders

XLFG-5

 

 

Patrick & Dana Sieders

Nashville TN 

Tel. 615-250-2304

Cell P. 615-918-2698

 

 <Http://www.sieders.com/sieders> Http://www.sieders.com/sieders

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20130903/36264729/attachment.html>