Envirotex Lite drying temps...Options?

[bigrock]

It may sound a little excessive, but I have a kitchen timer I use, knight is right on the money!!

[gldnbear93]

If you don't want to or can't heat your whole shop, try getting a heat lamp and reflector from a hardware store and place it in front of your curing station. Those things work really well in heating a small space, but don't put it too close to the plug as it will burn the epoxy (I found out the hard way). This does cut down on the cure time, though I have cured several batches in a 50 degree basement (it just takes longer).

It does sound like yours was a bad mix or out of proportion. One of the sponsors here sells graduated mixing cups. Easy to use and disposable and not much$. Another alternative is to use 30 minute epoxy in the dual syringe container. It distributes even amounts of resin and hardener so you don't have to worry about proportions, and it cures faster.

[fishing bum wannabe]

If you don't mix Envirotex Lite correctly it will never harden. I turned some nice Mackeral painted Polaris style poppers and envirotexed them 3 years ago and they still are soft! If you top coat the unhardened finish you are just putting a hard top coat over a soft finish and the base coat still will not harden and the finish will not be durable. Sometimes the hardened topcoat will peel off. I have experienced that as well. In spite of these issues I continued with Envirotex figuring the issue was technique. It ws inexpensive and readily available. And other plugmakers were having great success with it.

I have been using graduated mixing cups for a long time and was still mixing wrong proportions untill I measured the two parts in separate mixing cups side by side.This way you can be sure that you have exactly the same amount of resin and hardener. Mix them together and stir for 2 minutes. It can be cold and the Envirotex will still eventually harden (my shop gets down in the 40s but the finish hardened after 36 hours). Exact proportion is very critical with Envirotex (and other finishes such as Flexcoat as well). All finishes need careful mixing. If you are exact in your proportions and mix thoroughly you should find all your Envirotex curing issues resolved. I did. It's been almost 2 years since I've mixed a batch that didn't cure completely.

[numbskull]

Does anyone know the conversion ratio used to mix Envirotex lite by weight?

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Does anyone know the conversion ratio used to mix Envirotex lite by weight?

Nope but if you have the capability to weigh it, just weigh the full bottles and you should be able to figure it. The container weight might skew it a little.