A wood/epoxy sump cover Richard Jobe was faced with having a sump (top) located in the middle of a prominent landscaped area in front of his Newburgh, Indiana home. His solution was to build a cover (middle) for the sump that would be light enough for one person to handle, strong enough to hold the weight of half a foot of pea stone, and water resistant enough to survive being buried underground. The cover is made from one sheet of ¾" plywood, glued together and well coated with WEST SYSTEM® epoxy. The sump will be hidden under the landscaping (bottom), but accessible, if necessary, by raking back the pea stone.

Emergency pump repair Barry Bew, a sailing instructor at Arethusa Venture Centre, Gravesend, Kent, UK, used his experience as a plant engineer to make an emergency repair to a swimming pool circulating pump. The pump was leaking at joints between the 3" ABS plastic inlet and discharge pipes and the cast iron pump body. Barry cleaned up both bonding surfaces by grinding down to clean metal on the cast iron, down to clean plastic on the ABS pipes contaminated by thread sealant. He flame treated the ABS bonding surface following the recommendation in Epoxyworks 16 and on the westsystem.com website. He also applied a coat of unthickened epoxy to the cast iron bonding surfaces, then [wet] sanded the fresh epoxy into the surface. Barry first applied a small fillet, with a minimum amount of filler added, around the joints. After the small fillet gelled, he applied a larger, thicker fillet around the joints. He allowed the epoxy to cure for 72 hours, keeping the cast iron warm with a fan heater, before pressurizing the joints. The pump's output pressure is 15 psi. Barry reports the repair was still 100% effective four months later.

Epoxyworks 20 / Fall 2002