Category Archives: Techniques & Tips

Testing for Damage Tolerance

By Jeff Wright — Vice President of Technical Services

Ted Moores and his company, Bear Mountain Boats, build wood epoxy strip plank canoes, manufacture kits, and publish books on building strip plank canoes and kayaks. This method of construction provides a very light yet stiff structure and also enables the hull shape to have compound curves. Moores has 30 years of experience and his designs have logged many safe miles. He understands the forces boats are subjected to when paddled on the water and during transportation. Continue reading →

The repairs are transparent and difficult to detect.

Repairing Dented Varnish with G/5

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Photo above: Dented varnish repaired with G/5 Five minute adhesive. The repair area is quite difficult to detect.

A few years ago a customer approached me at one of the trade shows to say he loves our G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive for filling dents in wood trim prior to reapplying varnish. I thought what a great idea. It cures clear, can be wet sanded in an hour (longer if you are dry sanding), and can be varnished over without a problem. It looks much better than filling with wood putty because it is clear. It can be difficult to match the surrounding wood color when filling with wood putty.

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An S hook will save your foam roller frame.

Saving Your 801 Roller Frame

by Captain James R. Watson

Photo at top: How a simple S hook can save your 801 Roller Frame.

When you’ve completed a coating task using an 801 Roller Frame and 800 Roller Cover, what next? The frame is reusable. But if you leave it resting in the pan while the residual epoxy cures, you‘ll probably ruin both the reusable pan and the frame. If you lay the roller and frame on a workbench, it will be stuck there the next day. Here is a simple solution to this problem that will allow you to reuse your frame again and again.

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Julie examines a 3" × 6" coupons after a long exposure in the QUV test machine. In a matter of days, the accelerated test subjects the samples to the equivalent of months of normal weather.

Weather Forecast: Destruction

QUV Accellarating Weather Test Machine

By Julie Jezowski

Above: Julie examines a 3″ × 6″ coupons after long exposure in the QUV weather test machine. In a matter of days, the accelerated test subjects the samples to the equivalent of months of normal weather.

I’ve been with Gougeon Brothers, Inc. since 1996, and 13 of those years were in the Order Entry Department where I talked to many interesting customers working on all sorts of projects. In 2007 I became a member of the Technical Department. Now, rather than giving product pricing to customers or advising them on the quantity they may need, I’m able to see how those products evolve from just a mere gleam in someone’s eye to a product we are proud to call our own. For me, being a part of this process means among many other things, handling our testing data. My role ranges from filing it all the way to building databases for the many tests we perform in-house. Continue reading →

Using G/5 Five Minute Adhesive

G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive

Uses and Tips for Furniture Repair and More

by Tom Pawlak and Captain James R. Watson

Above: G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive is applied neatly to a furniture joint. 

Let’s look at some ways G/5 Five-Minute-Adhesive can be used around the house for everything from furniture repair to building model railroads.

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A combination square is used to mark the two edges along the entire length of the corner before applying reinforcing fiber tape.

Reinforcing Fiber Tapes

By Captain James R. Watson

Above: A combination square is used to mark the two edges along the entire length of the corner before applying reinforcing fiber tape.

Composites are a blend of resin (in this case mixed epoxy) and reinforcing fiber. Folks often ask, “How strong are they?” It is difficult to answer this question due to many variables including resin type, fiber type, fiber orientation, and resin/fiber ratio. To give a value for a laminate, we reduce the variables. Values shown in this article were done with test samples using WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin®/206 Slow Hardener® at room temperature (70°F). Reinforcing fibers are Episize™ materials. Continue reading →

Six10 Epoxy Adhesive

Introducing Six10 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive

Above: Introducing Six10 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive, a two-part adhesive in a convenient, self-metering cartridge for permanent, waterproof structural gap filling and gluing.

Six10® Adhesive gives you the strength and reliability of a two-part WEST SYSTEM epoxy with the convenience of a single-part product. Six10 is dispensed with a standard caulking gun. Non-sagging Six10 bonds tenaciously to wood, metals, fiberglass, and concrete. Continue reading →

Six10 Epoxy Adhesive

Understanding Six10 Epoxy Adhesive Properties

By Jeff Wright — Vice President of Technical Services

WEST SYSTEM® Six10 is a two-part, pre-thickened epoxy adhesive formulated with properties that make it perfect for many adhesive applications. Compared to other ready-to-dispense adhesives, its particular physical properties make it ideal for stitch and glue boat construction, fiberglass laminate repair and general bonding. This new formulation has a good balance between the elongation and toughness of G/flex® and the strength and stiffness of our 105 Resin-based epoxies. You can use it with as many materials as possible including wood, metals and composites. The long working time with fast thru-cure and unique shear thinning are additional characteristics formulated into Six10 that contribute to its ease of use. Continue reading →

Six10 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive

Practical Tips for Using Six10

by Captain James R. Watson

The WEST SYSTEM® Six10 epoxy cartridge is comprised of the cartridge body, removable nose plug, and a threaded retaining nut. A 600 static mixer is included with the cartridge. (It’s called a static mixer because it has no moving parts.) The cartridge fits into any standard caulk gun—manual, cordless, or pneumatic—and allows simultaneous dispensing and mixing of the two-part epoxy.

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epoxy testing is performed in the GBI lab

Testing, Testing, 123

by Julie Jezowski

Above: the state-of-the-art lab where Gougeon chemists perform much of the company’s epoxy testing.

By now most of you know that we are the manufacturers of WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. But you may not know what is involved in the manufacturing and more specifically, the formulating of WEST SYSTEM. It’s not just slapping some chemicals together and then packaging it up into a pretty box. To date, we have performed thousands of tests and generated thousands of test results. Continue reading →