[romihs]

Hello all,

Thanks for all the support!

I have de-molded the third round of E/Q.

The ratios used where:
Epoxy: 12% (I thought I was making a 10% mix, but after checking my ratios, I discovered that I actually did it with 12%% epoxy)
Small aggregate (0.18mm): 15.85%
Medium aggregate (0.49mm): 26.06%
Large aggregate (1.52mm): 46.09%

I used the calculator that Bruno had posted several pages back.

Here are the results of this mix.



The left (larger) one I built up one layer at a time, compacting each layer by pounding on it while vibrating it. Each layer was about 10mm thick.
The right one I had done in one go, compacted it by ponding on it while vibrating it.

As can be seen the surface is almost completely filled, which looks really good. The bricks need more effort to remove from the mold than with the previous two rounds of tests.
I noticed that the top 1/4 of the brick "looks" dryer than the rest of it. This I assume is due to the epoxy oozing to the bottom during curing.
I believe that this mix could be be made to pool epoxy on the surface if one can compact the Quartz well enough.....

My conclusions:
1) The epoxy ratio should be between 8% and 12%. 12% while the process of compacting the Quarts into the mold is not optimal, once this process is refined, this ration can be reduced.
2) Waxing the mold is important! (I know it goes without saying...) I'm thinking of methods of doing this successfully.
3) I need to devise a method to vibrate the mix. It needs to be adjustable in amplitude and frequency.

I went out looking for some kind of colour pigment which I could add to the E/Q, and found a brand of pigments used to die cement and concrete. I chose red, just to be different...

I have also been hunting around for a reasonably priced electronic scale. I'm currently using a standard kitchen scale with a resolution of 2g to weigh 100g of epoxy and 30g of hardener. This leaves me with an accuracy of 6% for the hardener, and the specs for this epoxy specify an accuracy of 2% or better....(chair)

That's about all for now.
I think that I will invest some time now in building a vibrating table. Will let you know what happens.
But I might end up making one mix with the red pigment, just to see how it turns out....

Regards

Sandi

P.S. I weighed two bricks of similar sizes from different test rounds:
Round 1: 486g
Round 3: 606g
Thats 25% heavier! WOW!! :banana: :banana: