Nice epoxy gallon, 1 to 1, has always set for me, soaks well into wood, never blushs.

Omewoold Crystal Clear Epoxy Resin Kit, 1 Gallon, Durable, UV Protected, High Gloss Finish - Walmart.com

I like the pumps. This is thin like oil.

It has made me like epoxy again, have bought it twice.

Has cured next day for me, but if it is cold out, 40's-50's overnight, may take another day.

maybe 20 years ago, I was using D.E.R. 331 epoxy, and I had some problems with the hardener... and it failed on white oak. I have not noticed any fails yet with this other epoxy. I had bought a 5 gallon bucket of that, and I still have some resin left over. I have heard it will work with West System hardener at same ratio, but for the cost of hardener, It may be cheaper to just get new epoxy from WalMart.

 

Many of those "clear coat"resin kits have a hardner that makes the finished product "hard" and therefore, brittle, in comparison to those chemically engineered for marine movement. It may work fine depending on your application, but test definitely before comitting wholesale.

 

Interesting, This is not doing that. For example the dried material I remove from plastic mix containers remains flexible.
I have not seen it get brittle on the wood.
It is definitely not like JB Weld cured epoxy which is very brittle when cured.

This epoxy cured, I can fold it in half and it does not snap. Like pieces from mixing containers. It is like a thin oil, it is pourable and it penetrates wood well.

Never blushes, always cures glossy.

 

White oak has closed pores. This feature makes it rot resistant, but also means epoxy cannot soak it. It also has oils, so prep was key. I doubt it was the epoxy.

 

Sounds promising. I went over to a 2:1 non blushing epoxy years ago and never looked West again.

 

What was failing for me, I was drilling half inch holes into white oak frames, then gluing in white oak plugs an inch long to hold new screws.
As I cranked down the screws tight, the plugs pulled out of the frames. I was screwing down 7/8" mahogany planking using Mcfeeley square drive #12 1 5/8" bronze screws.

I then switched to using PL Premium Poly CA from Loctite, the glued in plugs all held in place.

Even if it is like sealed pores, the hole-plug surface should have been rough enough to mechanically grip good. They did not all fail, like 15% did, so I did not want to waste my time anymore with epoxy. And they were not failing right away, put like a few days later. Basically who can trust that.

 

Picture of cured epoxy from the mix container. Thin it bends without snapping, I bent up an edge no problem, can bend all the way over. Thickness of bend material is 1/16".

Thick like 1/4" it flexes a little but will snap eventually, but not a sudden crack, it flexes a little than it breaks like a tear. It was tough enough, I could not bend to break it with my hands, had to use two pliers.

This here in the pic has no reinforcing fibers.