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Is Acra Glass gel still hated

I am an epoxy junkie, I used to make stocks.
Some bad info going on here.

Epoxy can only be thinned with acetone, or other solvents, when used in thin layers like paint. The thing is that the solvent must flash off before it cures or it will be trapped in the epoxy and will never evaporate. Not a good thing for strength.

Pigment can only be used on uncoloured epoxy or it will take too much added to get the colour. Once again what ever you add will be trapped in the epoxy and will effect the physical properties of the epoxy.

Last point, I am not sure what "epoxy" pigment is. Any that I have bought to sample smelled and looked the same as colour I bought by the gallon so I carried on using what I had in a glycol base and proved it over thousands of stocks. Only use as much as you need to get the colour. For small amounts of pigment go to your local house paint store (take a small bottle) and talk them into giving you an ounce from their tint machine. I would only ask for unmixed colour and just buy the tints you need to mix for the colour. Look at a Pantone book on the web (costs thousands to buy the paper copy) and it will give you an idea of what goes into a certain colour.

Cheers!
 
Another rant.....

When mixing epoxy proportion the components by weight. It is much more accurate than using the mark 1 eyeball. Get the ratio by weight from the seller, if they can't give you that then buy somewhere else. Brownells will not give this info. The guys that mix the stuff for Brownells are guaranteed to be mixing by weight.

Get a small scale that measures grams for $20. Use any container you can find that will fit. Use a calculator and given the amount of resin as 100% then add the percentage of hardener, ie a ratio of 100:38 would look like this, 27.2g of resin plus 38% for hardener. This would be a total of 37.5g. Perfect ratio every time.

When anyone says "good enough" for volume measuring don't believe them. If you only measure to the gram and forget the tenths then it really will be good enough. If they say the ratio is like 15:23 then you need to do the math to get the resin portion to 100 parts. There are sites on the web that will sort this for you.

I say to use metric because it is convenient with only whole numbers. There are about 28 grams to the ounce (rounded) and that is pretty accurate if you are off by a gram. Measure some by volume and then put it on the scale and see how close you really are.

Next time I will rant about mixing. You thought it was simple, Ha!
 
A trick I use with Marine Tex to get the air bubbles out. After a through mixing I agitate the mix with a stick. Just poke at it to make it move a little. The large bubbles rise and appear first followed by the smaller bubbles. Just takes a few minutes.
 
I use J-B and any air bubbles will come out with low heat from a blow gun. I've been told that it's too hard for bedding but I've got rifles that were bedded over 25 years ago that still shoot great and bedding looks like it did. Brownell's is simply having someone re-package their product under the Brownells name.
 
Another rant.....

When mixing epoxy proportion the components by weight. It is much more accurate than using the mark 1 eyeball. Get the ratio by weight from the seller, if they can't give you that then buy somewhere else. Brownells will not give this info. The guys that mix the stuff for Brownells are guaranteed to be mixing by weight.

Get a small scale that measures grams for $20. Use any container you can find that will fit. Use a calculator and given the amount of resin as 100% then add the percentage of hardener, ie a ratio of 100:38 would look like this, 27.2g of resin plus 38% for hardener. This would be a total of 37.5g. Perfect ratio every time.

When anyone says "good enough" for volume measuring don't believe them. If you only measure to the gram and forget the tenths then it really will be good enough. If they say the ratio is like 15:23 then you need to do the math to get the resin portion to 100 parts. There are sites on the web that will sort this for you.

I say to use metric because it is convenient with only whole numbers. There are about 28 grams to the ounce (rounded) and that is pretty accurate if you are off by a gram. Measure some by volume and then put it on the scale and see how close you really are.

Next time I will rant about mixing. You thought it was simple, Ha!
Have you by chance done the volume to weight conversion with using Marine Tex? I wouldnt mind weighing it.. but 5-1 volume ratio is a PITA. You think the manufacture assumes no one has a gram scale? I havn't come up with a good way to despense 5-1 ooey gooey sticky stuff. A scale would be SO much easier.

thanks
Scott

A quick search found this.. I guess I have answered my question.. thanks for the patience.
would be nice if it was printed on the can...

MIXING RATIO: 5 Parts epoxy resin to 1-part hardener by volume. (When mixing by weight, the ratio is 6.3 parts resin to 1- part hardener.) Always keep the epoxy at room temperature before mixing.
 
Last edited:
Have you by chance done the volume to weight conversion with using Marine Tex? I wouldnt mind weighing it.. but 5-1 volume ratio is a PITA. You think the manufacture assumes no one has a gram scale? I havn't come up with a good way to despense 5-1 ooey gooey sticky stuff. A scale would be SO much easier.

thanks
Scott

A quick search found this.. I guess I have answered my question.. thanks for the patience.
would be nice if it was printed on the can...

MIXING RATIO: 5 Parts epoxy resin to 1-part hardener by volume. (When mixing by weight, the ratio is 6.3 parts resin to 1- part hardener.) Always keep the epoxy at room temperature before mixing.

Correct, 6.3 by weight and I just do it by grams.
 
Have you by chance done the volume to weight conversion with using Marine Tex? I wouldnt mind weighing it.. but 5-1 volume ratio is a PITA. You think the manufacture assumes no one has a gram scale? I havn't come up with a good way to despense 5-1 ooey gooey sticky stuff. A scale would be SO much easier.

thanks
Scott

A quick search found this.. I guess I have answered my question.. thanks for the patience.
would be nice if it was printed on the can...

MIXING RATIO: 5 Parts epoxy resin to 1-part hardener by volume. (When mixing by weight, the ratio is 6.3 parts resin to 1- part hardener.) Always keep the epoxy at room temperature before mixing.
I use a popsicle stick, grab 5 eyeballed equal globs of the thick stuff then one of the amber hardener, stir it up watching for the smoke, then move forward. I have never had an issue in 25+yrs. If it only gets to 3kpsi compression instead of 4k ill be fine. The only thing i ever weighed to mix was cerakote.
 
Yes, I think marine Tex is now on the can for weight ratio.
Mixing can be pretty simple.

Weigh out what you need and mix away.

When well mixed add any pigment and mix well again.

When mixed scrape it out into a new clean cup and using a new stick mix it well again.

When you are happy throw out the stick and use a new one to apply to the stock.

This is just good practise. There are many from the "I never had a problem" school but you don't know what you may have burried in the stock.

Release agents. Everybody likes to come up with their own mixes. I have tested KIWI neutral shoe polish and it has worked well. I tend to use commercial releases. Put in three seperate buffed out coats. There are a million and oneI don't like PVA which leaves a film on the part and if you can measure this film that's what the gap will be. There are also permanent releases but without filling may pages I don't think you want that, wax is best. Whatever you use do a couple of tests before you commit your gun.
 
Just looked at Marine Tex. It says "When mixing by weight, the ratio is 6.3 parts resin to 1 part hardener.". That is 100 parts resin to 15.87 parts hardener.
 

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