West System small batch scale

[Larry Edgerton]

I stopped at my friend Mark Kurz's shop yesterday to chat and he showed me this item. Mark builds championship winning wood race boats and uses a lot of epoxy. I was looking for advise on a finish when I spied this scale.

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/pumps-and-metering-equipment Scroll to the bottom of the page.

What it is is a scale the size of a calculator with some other stuff such as mixing bottles that allows you to mix as small a batch as you need. There are many times that I know that epoxy would be the best choice but do not want to waste a whole pump so I use something else. This will allow me to use it more often with less waste. I ordered one as soon as I got home.

Larry

[Peter Quinn]

Nice link Larry, interesting tool there. I have a few small bottles of system 3 epoxy with drip type tops like mustard containers I use when I need a teaspoon or so, would be nice to have the ability to mix the west systems that way Nd not burn up the expensive product.

[John Schweikert]

Larry,

Curious how much the scale was. I do a lot of epoxy with my boat build and woodworking projects. I bought a digital kitchen scale a few years ago which has worked well for $20. Epoxies have different ratios for volume and weight. It does help to reduce waste for small mixes to have a scale. I use pumps for larger mixes into unmarked and graduated cups.

[Tom M King]

For small batches, like working on golf clubs and other jobs when a little dab will do you, I use duo-tube epoxies with a gun, and sometimes even with a mixing nozzle.

http://www.golfworks.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_ESG2 3M makes a large variety of epoxies and adhesives that work with such a gun. I keep the 5 gallon West setup for working on old houses, but the duo tubes get the call for many small jobs. All that I've had will have a shelf life of years.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I would imagine that the extra added benefit of the scale would be the much more accurate weight measurement of the resin and hardener vs. the volume measurement.

[Wade Lippman]

$50 will pay for a lot of wasted epoxy.

[Michael Peet]

I have one of those little scales, as I am always working with pretty small amounts when I use epoxy. Works pretty well but the auto-shutoff is too short sometimes.. Occasionally it turns off before I finish doing the math for how much of the other component I need to weigh out.

Mike.

[Sam Murdoch]

Larry,

Curious how much the scale was. I do a lot of epoxy with my boat build and woodworking projects. I bought a digital kitchen scale a few years ago which has worked well for $20. Epoxies have different ratios for volume and weight. It does help to reduce waste for small mixes to have a scale. I use pumps for larger mixes into unmarked and graduated cups.

I use a 3 lbs digital scale. It is now how I mostly calibrate my epoxy use. Unless I am doing a project that will entirely use up a quart or more I no longer use the pumps. The scale is very accurate and there is no mess. I am now a happy West System user and even good with System 3 again.

And I use the scale for S&H calculations too. :)

[Bob Michaels]

I use a lot of west system in pump cans for restoring window sills, door jambs, etc on historic buildings I own. For very small batches I just use their G-Flex product 1:1. Squirt out an inch of epoxy and an inch of hardener, mix and you're done. This stuff lasts forever unmixed and very flexible in use with there powdered additives. Great product.

[Ken Combs]

Great idea. Similar scales are available for lots less money. Look on the 'bay for jewelry/gold scales. They range from 100-1000 grams and most are under 10 bucks, shipped!

[Keith Pleas]

I actually bought this kit a few years ago...not sure where the little cups are, but I still use the mini-scale. Except it's on my boat, so I bought another cheap mini-scale for home.

The only thing you really need to know is the mixing ratio for 105/207 (http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/Product-Data-PDFs/TDS%20105_207.pdf):
Mix ratio by volume (300 Mini Pump ratio)···· 3 parts resin : 1 part hardener
by weight ················· 3.64 : 1
Acceptable ratio range by weight ················ 3.41 : 1 to 4.16 :1