Stabilising board

[GraemeCook]

Tried using epoxy and it was a complete failure. I didn't do enough reading into using it didn't take ambient temperature into account and it never cured.

I had to scrape off the epoxy and clean up the surface. I'm going to cut the crack out and fill the void with some wood.
...

Commisserations. Two common causes of failure of epoxy are:

• Ambient temperature. Must be above 10°C for most epoxies,
• Inaccurate measurements. Gougeon Brothers who own WEST System say resin and hardenner must be measured within ~3% which is extremely difficult with small batches.

Next time, if a batch does not go off, check the temperatures and, if OK, mix another batch and overpaint it. [This does not work if you are casting with epoxy]

If you chose to remove the "tacky epoxy" then the simplest method is a clean rag plus solvent - acetone or MEK.

[AlexS]

Tried using epoxy and it was a complete failure. I didn't do enough reading into using it didn't take ambient temperature into account and it never cured.

I'm surprised it didn't cure. What type of epoxy was it? Did you use the correct amount of hardener? I've never had epoxy fail to go off, even in cold weather, if it's mixed correctly.

[sdbrett]

It was West Systems 105. I may not have been accurate enough with measuring as I was using the lines on the side of a measuring container. Didn't realise that the ratios were so tight, again I should have looked into this more.

I'm going to laminate a new vise chop after I have finished the rest of the bench as the bench alone will make work holding much better.