Crockpot for resin warmer?

Dave Diefenderfer

Dave Diefenderfer

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My resin is thick, I am having a hard time using the pumps.... sitting it in the sun worked fine, but was thinking of trying the crockpot with water... should do the trick, and not run the risk of a fire as with a hot plate? Anyone try it? Set on low with a jug of water near buy to replenish... if it makes the epoxy kick faster, that would be a bonus, as this is slow!
 
Hi Dave. I used a heat lamp when Frank and I glassed on cold days. Adjust the level of heat by how close you put the lamp to the resin...

John
 
I put some in a sink full of hot water before. I heat up well. Too good the stuff kicked before I could get half of the small batch out. So I let it cool a bit before mixing the next batch.
 
Some people use old fridges with a light bulb. When I've done a lot in the winter I rigged a metal trash can with a light bulb in the bottom and a shelf above that the epoxy containers sit on, turn it on 2-3 hours ahead.

Some sort of warming cabinet is really nice and underused among those of us here given the effect of temperature on viscosity and the impact of viscosity on workability. Next project I do, I'll have something rigged up for sure.
 
Dave: finally got around to using that resin? We use a drum heater in the winter. It is a strap with electric heating coils that maintains a usable viscosity. I think the croc pot is a good idea. Put an old thermometer in it, if you get it too hot you will have problems. We thin that stuff for penetrating and sealing raw wood with denatured alcohol, been doing that for thirty years no problems. Mix the resin and catylist well first before adding any thinner or thickener like cabosil or wood flour. An old heating pad around the jug might work well too. Rich
 
Rich, yes started using it this weekend... attached some mounts on my sneakbox for the front decoy boards, and put a coat on Rufus' Kalash layout to seal the plywood and filled the holes with thickened epoxy. I did thin the mix with the denatured alcohol for soaking into the plywood, but the resin is thick to run through the hand pump. I'll see if we still have the old crockpot, or hit the goodwill store or a yard sale. Just putting it in the sun was enough but we don't always have the sun! Do you know what temp the drum heater brings the resin up to?

A little heat in the mix to speed up the kick wouldn't bother me too much either, especially when we will be laying the glass and wanting to overpaint a couple coats to fill the weave the next time working.

Dave
 
I've used a piece of 1/4 aluminum cut to fit inside the lip of the large WEST system cans. Set on a hot plate the aluminum spreads out the heat nicely and warms up quickly without overheating the resin
 
I can tell you if you put a gallon of U.S. Composites resin in front of a electric space heater it turns out badly when the plastic gallon jug starts to melt. Please don't ask how I know!
 
Ok, so I set a jug of water in the crockpot, and then filled around the jug with water too. On low, it looks like it is stabilizing around 120F. What do you think, too hot? I'll look for a digital crockpot to see if the low setting is lower..... this is just an old crockpot we had.... just has low, med and high.
 
if you are using west systems at that heat you can use the tropical hardener to give yourself more time to work, will still kick very quick if left in a container with any quantity.
 
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