: Hi Bill

: I suppose by active I really mean able to accept a chemical bond. I don't
: know how long that is with West which I use but I take no chances and sand
: if it is hard. I find keying really boring so I avoid it whenever
: possible.

: Do you have any info or experience with glueing times for chemical bonding
: with epoxy? It could be a useful post, for me as well as others, I am
: sure.

: Et

Hi again Et,

That's what I was saying, epoxy takes quite awile to fully cure and until it's fully cured it's chemically active and able to form chemical bonds. I use West brand too, usually now with their special hardener (clear stuff for coating wood, I'm at work now so can't go look up the number which I never remember ), this stuff takes as I remember nearly a month to fully cure assuming you're not working at elevated temperatures (cures faster with heat). I do the same thing, tend to be extra careful with bonding, but then again I've yet to have a bonding failure (other than with test panels). I do tend to scrub the areas to be bonded with a scotchbrite pad, takes the gloss off and only takes a couple minutes, doesn't creat a bunch of sanding dust either.

Bill H.