Comments on: How Many Holes can you Drill in a Ski?

By: aviator

aviator — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:27:28 +0000

@toby
always follow the exact instructions regarding the very product you are using.
some professional epoxy is meant to be cured at high temps, and when doing that, the temp is meant to be controlled very exactly, and so is everything else, the fiber ratio, the vacuum bagging, etc etc

but the fast epoxy people will pick up at the hardware store is not meant to be cured at high temps though, and when heating a tiny amount of fast epoxy with a heat gun several times you have no control

getting the epoxy more fluid by increasing the temp some 10-20 degrees or so while applying it is fine, use a water bath and a thermometer

By: aviator

aviator — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:06:09 +0000

using epoxy without fiber is like using concrete without rebar
concrete only without reinforcement will crack, it wont last

By: Toby

Toby — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:22:07 +0000

Heating epoxy is not always (never) bad idea. Professional Epoxy I use, has a table of different curing temps (I think it was up to 150*C) Higher temp means more strength and better bonding, plus faster curing of course. Disadvantage (for screw holes on the skis) is that it will get harder and can crack more easilly. But I never saw any cracks on my epoxy filled screw holes. So follow manufactures instructions, but I’m sure that some medium temps (50*C or so ) to get the epoxy more fluidy is not harmful. It removes bubbles very well and let the epoxy to penetrate properly. Just do not never ever use fast curing cheap epoxies

PS. I did a quite spectacular motorbike engine water pump repair with commercially available two component ‘chemical metal’. Water pump was cracked to the hundreds of pieces of magnesium. I glued them together with that ‘glue’ and let is cure in the oven. (according to instructions) after 10 years, this pump is still tight and working. Moral of the strory is that those modern 2-part bonding glues are really good. Just pick the right one.

By: aviator

aviator — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:19:48 +0000

oh and before you start
make sure the holes you are filling is 100% clean and dry
extremely important!

By: aviator

aviator — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:18:20 +0000

Heating the epoxy when it’s curing is a really bad idea.
The temperature the epoxy is meant to cure at is the only temperature you should have, anything else is gonna mess with the epoxy strength.

The air bubbles is the least of your worries.
Using epoxy ONLY is WEAK, think window glass kinda weak…
I cracks really easily…

What you want is glass fiber.

Glass fiber weave/twill wet in epoxy is VERY STRONG , this method is easily 10-20 times stronger or more than any combination of epoxy, jb weld, steel wool, matches, tiny strands of glass fiber mixed in the epoxy, any crazy recipe you ever heard…

What you want to do is:

-cut tiny pieces of glass fiber twill

-wet the pieces through completely, but use as much fiber as possible and as little epoxy as possible
you really want more than 50% fiber weight, 70-80% fiber weight is MUCH stronger, this means you need wipe off ALL excess epoxy from the little pieces, you want them as dry as possible.
more fiber more strength
more epoxy A LOT LESS strength

-then you jam as much epoxy wetted glass fiber you can into the holes

-let it cure at the recommended temperature, wait an extra day, and then drill new holes