: The first coat of epoxy took 24 hrs, instead of the usual 4 hrs, before it
: was dry enough to put on the second coat. I've been using the West system
: on my previous boats but for economical reasons I had purchased Sytem
: Three epoxy and hardener so my first impulse was to blame the West Three
: hardener. I had noticed that the hardener seemed to be slightly thicker in
: consistency. That observation gave me the clue to the drying problem.
: Since the the mixing ratio is the same for both products I decided to use
: the West System pumps. As it turned out the hardener pump
: supplied only half the required hardener. Problem solved.
: William

Glad you worked it out. I usually let the epoxy harden for 24 hours before doing anything with it, unless I am doing multiple coats to fill and smooth. I use only West and never had a problem with it until I switched tothe more expensive stuff (105 hardener, I think) and neglected to read the instructions. I used the same ratio as the 106 Hardener and messed up big time: the ratios for each hardener are not the same. Once I read the instructions (not something I often do) everything was ok again.

Robert N Pruden