What are your most effective ways to clean up spilled resin? I know about acetone, alcohol, lacquer thinner and, of course, vinegar. Has anyone found another way of cleaning up the gooey stuff? I am specifically interested in getting it dissolved and then hardened in solution so that the resin is not sticky.

Robert N Pruden

Waterless hand cleaner?

Problem as you have proposed it, is that a solvent will dilute the epoxy resin. Then you need a coupled pair of nucleophiles in the solvent such as a di-amine to open the epoxide rings and polymerize (harden) them. The opening of an epoxide is an SN2 mechanism. Water (with a dissolved reactant such as ethylene di-amine) as a solvent inhibits SN2 reactions. Acetone with some ethylene diamine in it would work, but I don't know how long it would take to harden the resin, smell bad, be difficult to come by, and would be a bit pricy.

The waterless hand cleaner will emulsify and sequester the uncured resin in micelles (think of a cage of soap molecules), rendering the resin less sticky and allowing the whole mess to be cleaned with water.