Trick to filling epoxy syringes??

[SV Siren]

I have two small areas of delamination on my foredeck, and I plan on using syringes to inject epoxy through small holes. What I am trying to find out are there any tricks to filling the syringes with thickened epoxy that work well? I would rather not make a huge mess of things, or get more epoxy on me(rubber gloves) that actually in the syringe.

[GordMay]

See ➥ A Gadget for Easy Syringe Filling | Epoxyworks

[motion30]

West marine and I understand that Sherwin-Williams both saw epoxy in a tube that mixes as it dispenses. No mess at all

[Crew of Turning]

You could also evaluate West System 6-10 which is a premix in a caulking tube design. Mixing only occurs in the nozzle which is washable. I am not sure you can obtain as small an orifice this way for your project though.

[UNCIVILIZED]

I'd be tempted to put the thickened epoxy into a cake frosting dispenser, the type used to write things on cakes with. And use this either to fill a bunch of syringes at once, or use it in lieu of a syringe. But the trick in both cases, is to work quickly, lest a large volume of epoxy decide to go exothermic while you're holding it.


Also, ensure to well tape off the deck in the area you're working on. To even include taping over the holes in the deck, & then cutting holes in the tape to correspond with the holes in the deck. That way you won't get epoxy on the deck in the vicinity of the holes. And I suppose that you could paint the deck with PVA as well, for similar reasons.

[SV Siren]

Thanks Gord..this was the only gadget I came across in my search last night.

Uncivilized....I have thought about this idea as well, I might have to purchase a cheap piping bag, and fill them this way...I won't use my good baking pipe..my wife would kill me for using it. I did come across empty caulking tubes on Amazon, and Defender that would fit the bill for less than $5, and with two tubes I should be able to do everything I need to.

Crew and motion...I looked into those, they aren't cheap($25), and I have a lot of epoxy and thickening agents on hand...so I'd prefer to use those...but the Six-10 stuff would work if I didn't have the supplies already...they look pretty slick though.

The deck is going to be painted anyways..but I like the idea of covering around the holes to reduce sanding afterwards.

[Matt Johnson]

Pull the plunger out, place a dime sized glob on a stir stick and push it in the tube.... kind of a scrapping motion from front to back of the tubes end. Repeat until full. It's quick and easy....but messy.

When finished, just pull the plunger out and in a few times, remove it and wipe the head with a paper towel. That's all it takes to be able to reuse them.

Matt

[John_Trusty]

Great points, but here's another ... Have a knife ready to cut the tip off of your syringe to push out the thickened epoxy. I invariably mix it too think, and it's just stuck in there.

[fSymo]

Ziploc bag, cut off a tiny portion of the corner, squeeze into syringe/hole before it goes exothermic? Used it for cooking purposes... not sure how well it would work for epoxy mixes because of the heat, but at least it's a cheap try.

[Russ]

Did this once on large deck area with many holes and using the L shaped rig to clean out dead balsa from under deck area about 3x10 feet made 50 holes, huge pia.
Later cut the whole repair area out and did it right with honeycomb to replace balsa, then re glued deck. Point is I was impressed how little the epoxy I injected spread out. Virtually nothing. Dont bother or do it right. Injecting just doesn't work unless area is really small
Russ

[rognvald]

Siren,
I have been using an artist's palette knife for almost 30 years. I prefer the triangular shaped head that approximates the ID of the syringe. You can also use it to neatly remove excess epoxy that needs to be removed from the surface you are filling. I hope this helps. Good luck and safe sailing.

[George DuBose]

I did a lot of work last winter with West System G-Flex which is quite thick and even more difficult to work with when the temperature is cold.

I used a very large syringe to suck up the hardener and then a different large syringe for the resin.

If you can find a syringe that is at least 1" in diameter, cut of the tip so it is 1/8-1/4" and you should have no problem pumping it into a smaller syringe.

G-Flex comes straight or mixed with collodial silica which makes it even thicker.

G-Flex works great on bonding difficult materials, like HDPE, teak, other oily woods, wet wood, etc. It even sticks to the mixing cups...

[bailsout]

The West System with the 205 hardener I just sucked into the syringe with the plunger. If it won't go in that way how would you hope to get it out? I must be missing something here.

[JOHNMARDALL]

Epoxy mixed in anything other than small quantities, spread thin, is quick to heat up (exotherm) and boil, creating a weak foam when it hardens, and a big mess where it overflows. Cooling the components in a bucket of ice before mixing will give you some more working time, but you'll still need to use small quantities and work fast. As others have suggested, you may be disappointed at how little of the epoxy will penetrate and permeate the delaminated area, and even if you can find voids to spot fill, if the core is wet, it won't do much good, so if the delamination is localized, you may be better off cutting and lifting the outer skin and replacing the core completely.

Good luck
John Mardall
Vetus Maxwell Group

[jhulmer]

I have done this hundreds of times now in my deck repair during refit. You don't want it so thick that you can't suck it up in to the syringe. You want it to flow some to the voids.

my mix:
5 pumps of west sys epoxy and 5 pumps 206 hardener
5 tbls of 404 high density filler (1:1 on pumps)
10 tbls of 403 micro fibers (2:1 on pumps)

you can adjust this thinner of thicker if necessary.

I drill out the hole to 3/8" diameter on deck but not through the inside liner and if necessary I will dig out any coring to form a column in the core. countersink the hole a little for more surface area and fairing.

Holes through the deck I put masking tape on the bottom of the hole and remove it soon after the mix has kicked.

Using West Sys syringes, cut the end off about 3/8" from the tip and stick it into the epoxy mix and while drawing the plunger back move the syringe back in forth in the mix to prevent sucking in air.

inject into the hole and let it settle and continue to dose the hole until it won't take anymore. Then dob it up proud of the deck to make it easy to sand flush later.

Tf you need to inject under pressure to make the mix fill a cavity some distance from the hole you on have to drill the hole the size of the syringe tip so you can jam it in the hole.

this has work very well for me.