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Yet another toy for my workshop. The WEST squirt pumps issue a gob of epoxy which is often much more than is needed for a small repair. Example: One of the nice wood rocking chairs at the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport where I work was fat-assed and a seat frame broke. I took it home and repaired it with WEST resin. My old method for small repair was squirt a small amount of resin in a cup and then dribble in hardener until it *looked* like I had a 5:1 ratio. If you miss the true ratio the epoxy strength is degraded, but fortunately epoxy is forgiving of minor mix errors. Still it would be nice to know your mixed batch is as strong as it can be. Another method is mix an entire one squirt batch and toss the leftovers. Yes, you would have the correct ratio mix, but also a lot of expensive waste.
Now I have a WEST System 320 Small Batch Scale. It is a cute 3x5 inch scale. The 320 kit includes two sizes of mixing cups, stirrers, pipe cleaners, and a pair of 4 oz. squirt bottles similar to a ketchup/mustard dispenser. Scale calibration is done with a stack of US or CA quarters, I kid you not. Visual judgment and Math is required. For 205/206 hardeners you squirt about 1/6th of the batch you think you need, then multiply the gram weight recorded on the scale my 6 and add resin until the scale hits that number. Same process for 207/209 hardener, but you add hardener to 1/4th of your expected need and multiply the weight by 4.5 to get your target weight. The 320 scale is very accurate and one can mix minute batches of epoxy at the proper ratios.
The 320 scale costs about $40. I like it. Over the long years I'm sure I've trashed way more than $40 of unused epoxy from over-large batches. That's my story and I'm sticking to it to justify my recent purchase to SWMBO.
Now I have a WEST System 320 Small Batch Scale. It is a cute 3x5 inch scale. The 320 kit includes two sizes of mixing cups, stirrers, pipe cleaners, and a pair of 4 oz. squirt bottles similar to a ketchup/mustard dispenser. Scale calibration is done with a stack of US or CA quarters, I kid you not. Visual judgment and Math is required. For 205/206 hardeners you squirt about 1/6th of the batch you think you need, then multiply the gram weight recorded on the scale my 6 and add resin until the scale hits that number. Same process for 207/209 hardener, but you add hardener to 1/4th of your expected need and multiply the weight by 4.5 to get your target weight. The 320 scale is very accurate and one can mix minute batches of epoxy at the proper ratios.
The 320 scale costs about $40. I like it. Over the long years I'm sure I've trashed way more than $40 of unused epoxy from over-large batches. That's my story and I'm sticking to it to justify my recent purchase to SWMBO.
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