SilverThane SA-2100 by System 3 - looks convincing

Cant find a mention here in the site, so here goes -

Glen L sent me a newsletter about the product, and a Google brought up

http://www.systemthree.com/sys3news/system-three-news/why-cartridges/

A thorough read of the article answering questions on the strength benefits, costing and convenience sounds very convincing.

I could really get over mixing epoxy for joints.

Any real life experience out there ?

 

Two component products with these mixing tips are becoming common. Ive only used small packaged convienence size products, but i like them. I would certainly purchase fillet material, pre thickened epoxy in a tube. It convient, fast, less waste

Yesterday i did a micro fillet repair by conventional epoxy filler..id estimate 90 percent waste plus mixing sticks, rubber gloves, container....and a good possibilty that i failed to get the correct epoxy mix ratio

Pick up a few tubes and report back

 

Oh and i like the term...countdown factor !

Think of how you work...first you start your application precisely, good craftsmanship, little waste, epoxy applied exactly where you want it...then you feel the bog beginning to heat up so you pick up the application pace and reduce precision, then you feel the epoxy really start to exotherm and you begin to haul a ss, epoxy dripping everywhere, then the moment of truth arrives and you throw your smoking pot of bog to the floor.

Now you must go back, clean up your messy application and throw away all that scraped off bog and hope that the smoking bog pot doesn't burn down your shop.....

 

You picked up on some things I can identify with.

Just did a search for suppliers in Australia.

No luck !!!

 

What is the west system product.

Also there is a technical name for the mixing nozzle.. Some 4 letter patented trademark acronym that i cant remember . Perhaps the packager uses this term.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Adhesives/Tapes/Products/?N=5396526&rt=c3

 

This is just the latest of "application systems" available from the major formulators. They're selling convenience and little more. If you take the cost of the product alone, you're paying twice their usual selling point. Next you add the tips and delivery system and yep, you're paying through the nose, but damn it's convenient. For small batches I can see it being worth it, though tip costs will piss you off pretty quickly and the amount of unused goo inside it will not help maters.

Most serious users of goo have a way (usually a few different) to deliver a bead of goo into a joint, along a stringer top before a sole is dropped onto it, etc. I use a standard 10 ounce cartridge blank (an empty caulk cartridge) and a pneumatic caulk gun, if I have a bunch of beads to lay down (like the aforementioned sole stringers). I can dial in the speed and bead size and there's no mess. Of course, I need to get cartridge blanks, but I can reuse them with a little cleaning.

 

But all the common workshop ways of delivering pre mixed epoxy have to deal with exotherm. By the time you have mixed up a batch and loaded into a cauliking tube you have already wasted precious working time. Ive had my caulking tube method flare off and become permanently mounted on my caulking gun due to exotherm. Snipped off ziplock bags held in your hand exotherm very fast .

Its my understanding that the new mixing tubes can continue to pump out small doses of premixed epoxy all day. Very worthwhile when assembling components or working outside the shop.

I waste way to much epoxy and disposable stuff .... and its a big mess to mix and add filler to epoxy when you are away from your workshop mixing station and working inside a boat.

Id love to get my hands on a few tubes and have asked my epoxy supplier to see what he can come up with.

 

par if you check and know the tip mixing ratios you can buy them in bulk now. we use all kinds of products in autobody repair. i have an air dispenser for the cartridges but yes product is more but is easy

 

Like HMN... helical mixing nozzle

We used to call the internal mixing device in a chopper gun the Spider, I s'pose because the little thing had lots of arms..... or legs?
Jeff.

 

Just found the West System equivalent, I think - Six10.
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/six10-introduction/

I rang my local supplier - the tube costs $28, and extra nozzles cost $7 ea.

That's for a 190 ml of resin and hardener ( I presume total amount ) with a static mixer.

That's nearly $30 for essentially $7 of thickened epoxy.

I am wondering if I can just buy the static mixer nozzle, and rig up some kind of dispenser system myself.

 

Find out what the patented name of the nozzle is...then google. Its a 4 ? Letter acronym.

I have seen websites for companies who supply this system to the epoxy repackagers . There are one to one , one to two all kinds of mix systems .....

 

Waikikin, Wests call them 'static mixing wands'


I used West's six10 to tack the planks of the canoe together and some of the spacers on the inner gunwale.
For someone inexperienced with epoxy it is marvellous stuff. It comes out like a gel, sticks upside down without sagging but stays easy to spread. I have tried various recipes of fillers but never achieved a non sagging mix that I could move about easily.

When using smaller amounts I did not bother with the nozzle, squeezed out what I needed and hand mixing.

Feeding normal resin and hardener through a mixing tube will not produce anything resembling six10.

Unfortunately epoxy products have to be delivered by courier so to me it cost as much for the six10 as the 1.5 kg epoxy kits I collect locally.
However I am glad I bought it.

 

Again, the convenience of these delivery systems can be handy enough, to make you forget about how much more you're paying for the product. I do suspect these cartridge and tip setups, can be purchased at the wholesale level much cheaper then what the formulators charge for them, though I've never bothered to look them up. Some quick searching is in order, though I'll bet you need to buy them by the case to get reasonable pricing. Maybe a goo tube coop with fellow builders.

 

ill find the company i was talking to so you can research

 

Convenience is nice by it doesn't pay the mortgage (well, it pays the vendor's mortgage, but not yours).

A good alternative all around is to use 'ordinary' empty 10 oz caulking tubes - you mix your epoxy and fill the tubes. If you have compressed air handy - you can blow the plug out from empty / used tubes and refill them again.

my company - progressive epoxy polymers inc (epoxyproducts.com) - sells 4 empty tubes for $10.50 --- The cost of the tubes is not much more than the cost of a throw away epoxy paint brush.