: Hi!

: I have found a local surfboardmanufacturer who will sell epoxy at very
: reasonable prices. The resin is DOW low molecular base mixed with a Univar
: hardener.

I am always worried about great deals on cheap epoxy. About the only legitimate way I know to get a really good price is to buy in large quantities. The cost of packaging the stuff in small cans adds a lot to the retail price.

Generally, I'd double check that the material in question is indeed epoxy. All too often a low priced "epoxy" is really a polyester resin. Sometimes these words get mangled in translation, or are used interchangeably by unsuspecting people.
Surf boards, like many other products made with "fiberglass" could use either.

Since your supplier is probably buying large quantities of this stuff, you may have fallen on a great "deal"

A search for DOW Low Molecular Weight Epoxy gave me this product data sheet:

http://www.dow.com/PublishedLiterature/dh_0080/0901b80380080807.pdf?
filepath=epoxy/pdfs/noreg/296-01480.pdf&fromPage=GetDoc

DOW sells the stuff as a solid plastic flake, or as a liquid solution with the plastic dissolved in Xylene. However, the top of the data sheet says:

"D.E.R.™ 671 Solid Epoxy Resin is a low molecular weight solid reaction product of epichlorohydrin and bisphenol A."

So it could be that what you are getting is going to be a bottle of epichlorohydrin and another one of bisphenol A.

If you go to the main DOW list http://epoxy.dow.com/epoxy/products/app/civil.htm#Solid

and check on some of the other epoxies they sell, you'll see others made with epichlorohydrin and bisphenol A.

DOW says the solid stuff is suitable for marine applications, so I'd gamble on the liquid components.

As long as the price is reasonable, buy a small amount and try it out.

Ask your supplier about how long you'll have to work with the mix before it gels. Some products used in commercial production set up faster than we might like. If this is the case, just mix smaller batches and mix more of them. You might need more mixing cups, but those are cheap.

Good luck with this stuff.

PGJ