:Tonight I was gluing up the last of the cockpit lip, and
: being out of fast-cure that I use for gluing, I tried adding just one
: teeny tiny extra squirt of slow-cure hardener to one full pump of epoxy
: and one full pump of hardener. I was thinking this would speed up the
: process, i.e. more hardener = faster hardening, right? Well, it seems to
: me it slowed it down.

With polyester resin you can speedup the hardening process by adding more catalyst, but with epoxy, you need ot have the right proportions of resin and hardener for the final plastic to have maximum strength.

To give an analogy: Think of someone packaging gloves by pairs. You need to have just as many left handed (hardener?) molecules as you have right handed ones (epoxy?) so they match up evenly for best strength. Otherwise, as you suggest, you have a bunch of hardened plastic surrounding all those un-matched molecules.

That's not a scientific explanation, but hopefully it conveys the point that the manufacturer packages the hardener and resin in a consistent fashion and expects one to be matched with the other according to the mixing directions.

The speed of the polymerization might be influenced by a change in the proportion of the two components, but in the end you'll still have some part of either of the components which does not react as it has not got any matching part to react with. Really bad mixing would cause the same problem.

If you want to keep the resin cooler, try an ice bath. Get a tray, or line a box with a plastic bag. Add ice cubes and enough water to make a shallow pool. Set your mixing pot in there to keep it nice and cool. If need be you can bank the ice cubes against the side of the mixing cup. Way cheaper than a refrigerator, and safer, too, as you throw the whole thing out when you are done, and nothing comes anywhere near food.

Hope this helps

PGJ