Looking at experimenting with UV epoxy. They’re not too expensive, but wanted to know if we happened to have one lying around the space.
Also, does anyone here have any experience with adding pigment to UV curing epoxy? I’m looking at doing a project where I’ll need to add colour into lots of small divots in a piece of milled aluminium. I’m looking for an effect similar to an enamel pin, but my initial research is leading me to believe that I shouldn’t do true enameling on aluminum, and normal paints don’t bond well to aluminium . UV epoxy (rather than 2 part, for controlled curing time) mixed with pigment powder or acrylic paint and applied with a syringe seem like the direction to experiment in.
My thinking is with a 2 part epoxy, it’ll start to harden and gum up in a matter of minutes. I’ll need time to mix in my pigment and get the colours how I want them, load it into a syringe, and apply it. My understanding is that with a UV resin, it’ll remain liquid indefinitely until exposed to sunlight or UV light, allowing enough time to work with the pigments and apply it evenly over all of the divots in the piece and ensure the colours match as I’d like, without having to make up multiple batches and risk not matching colours. Though this is new territory for me, - I’m basing this off of some limited experience with 2 part epoxy in the past and some youtube videos. For reference, tis is the project I’m considering - Milled and laser-cut settlers board
You do make a good point, thanks. Really I just came to that conclusion based on some web searches. I should probably experiment with both anyways, the more I look into epoxy, the more useful it seems.
You can also increase working time by just keeping the epoxy cold (i.e mix it up in a bucket that’s in an ice bath) - it will mean its more viscous but still workable for non-structural applications. It will need to warm up to room temp to set.