solvent for epoxy

try acetone (nail varnish remover) but I fear it will not be wholly successful

Thanks, but I need to get rid of the stuff completely, else the new mix, when I apply it, will not bond to the wood. There must be a suitable solvent, surely !

No need to remove all traces. Just soak up as much as you can with tissue paper and remake the joint with plenty of fresh adhesive. The residues will diffuse into the new mix and probably do no harm.

John

Scrape off what you can, then use meths. The new glue will work fine.

SWMBO's nail varnish remover says "acetone free" even though it smells and feels like acetone.

Acetone is what I would try.

This guide (there's a tiny bit about cleaning at the bottom) might be useful. It may be worth noting that the two types of epoxy that SP Systems produce have different solvents, so it might mean that other makers may have different formulations..

use heat on the joint to promote mixing and flow.

Too little hardener or what? Its a devil of a job to get anything to reach it if its got into wood etc.

Heat it to see if you can get it to set?

Brian

Boots do (or did about a year or two ago) a nail varnish remover that has none of the crap in it that many new ones have, AFAIK it's all acetone. Cheap too.

Justin.

Yes, that might work. Worth a try first.

Yes, it was far too little hardener. When I got the joint apart again, I realized there was no hope of putting the two parts in a bath of solvent - it would have needed gallons of the stuff. John (above) gave me the clue what to do ! The fracture surfaces had a coat of the epoxy resin, but with insufficient hardener, so I just painted over them with a brush coated with neat hardener and then clamped the job up again. I won't touch it for a day or two, but I'll post the outcome for anyone that's interested.

Jim

brushed with hardener? are you sure you have epoxy?

cant brush that,,and without mixing its not gonna set.

Quite. If it is epoxy, I'd mix some fresh, put lots on the wood and mix again in situ. Then clamp the joint up.

NT

Yes. Epoxy is Ciba-Geigy MY753 Hardener is Ciba-Geigy HY931

(A wonderful, very-low viscosity product pair, sadly no longer available)