Ive experimented with various mixes myself. I bought an epoxy that was loaded with an aluminum powder designed for high strength mixes. You can buy the aluminum powder separately from WEST SYSTEMS) but I haven’t tried that. Bredderman also sells aluminum powder. You can even buy cast iron powder. I might be inclined to try it next time, maybe with the aluminum. The powders can take up a lot of the sand if your willing to spend the extra money and saturate it heavy. I also added (Hy-Tech) ceramic microspheres (expensive). The difference in results was impressive. It was very heavy, strong, and extremely rigid in my design. I wouldn’t ever mix it any other way. It turned out amazing.
Btw, a few interesting research gate articles go into depth. It has been found that addition of 15% of flyash improves the compressive strength of polymer concrete upto 30%. Addition of 15% of Cast Iron powder of size less than 0.075micron has imparted around 14% increase in the damping ratio. To increase overall stiffness steel or even stainless steel powder could be used or embedding a steel structure within the epoxy. Its a very good idea to embed some sort of rigid structure and done properly you have a small machine that could have qualities of the larger industrial machines.
It was observed, through the ternary diagram made that the proportion of stone sizes tested that resulted in the best packing was: 55% coarse, 15% medium and 35% fine. This proportion resulted in greater densification reaching an apparent density of 1.75 g/cm³. Hence such proportion of stone size was chosen to make the synthetic granite composite focus of this work by ensuring the lowest resin consumption, in this way only 19% was added to the total mass of the stones resulting in a final material density of 2.1 g/cm³, denominated composition A. For the synthetic granite composite reinforced with carbon fibers manufacturing, the proportion between the granulations of stones was maintained. Only 0.5% by volume of carbon fibers of 2.5 mm in length was added to composition A, fiber-reinforced composition being referred to as composition B. Very interesting. Anyways don’t let the forums hold you back from discovering a better EG formula.
No, the Levil is still going. I actually made the epoxy granite videos one year ago, before I bought the Levil. I just re-edited and re-uploaded them to make them less boring by cutting out a ton of dead air. So I'm working on both simultaneously, but will give more priority to the Levil.
What's the best deal you've found for roughly a gallon of epoxy? I'm considering using countertop epoxy resin kits sold at HD and online. I figure the large volume of epoxy required for countertops would translate lower pricing for the epoxy. Epoxy can be fussy and I would hate to dump $70 on a failed epoxy pour. By the way, are you planning on using a vibrator to remove the voids from the mold? I'm considering making one. It's just a scaled up rumble pad motor which has an imbalanced weight attached to the shaft end of the motor. The imbalance causes the motor to vibrate.
The best deal I found was on ebay. Its called "The Epoxy Resin Store" Platinum Clear and is $57 per 1 gallon kit, with free shipping. That's what I used in this video, although when I bought it last year, it was $5 less.
@@nickp4793 The tumblers can introduce issues too. If you agitate the mixture too much, it might cause the particulates to precipitate to the bottom of the mold, leaving less fortified epoxy on the top of the mold. I've seen a couple of videos where you can see a layer of clear epoxy on top of the mold. Ideally, you want to pull a vacuum on the mold, but it's impractical for large pours.
I'm not sure to be honest. The ones I mixed in this video seemed too soft, even after letting them cure for weeks. I'm thinking I need to re-think the design and have a metal frame, filled with the epoxy granite. Then the mixture won't be as critical, and it will be more for damping than strength.
I have not, the whole thing got put on the back burner:( On episode 9 I filled the Taig mill column with this mixture. I might have fine tuned the ratios a hair, but I used the same ingredients. Its been a couple of years, and the mill is working great.
Ive experimented with various mixes myself.
I bought an epoxy that was loaded with an aluminum powder designed for high strength mixes. You can buy the aluminum powder separately from WEST SYSTEMS) but I haven’t tried that. Bredderman also sells aluminum powder.
You can even buy cast iron powder. I might be inclined to try it next time, maybe with the aluminum. The powders can take up a lot of the sand if your willing to spend the extra money and saturate it heavy.
I also added (Hy-Tech) ceramic microspheres (expensive).
The difference in results was impressive. It was very heavy, strong, and extremely rigid in my design. I wouldn’t ever mix it any other way. It turned out amazing.
Btw, a few interesting research gate articles go into depth. It has been found that addition of 15% of flyash improves the compressive strength of polymer concrete upto 30%. Addition of 15% of Cast Iron powder of size less than 0.075micron has imparted around 14% increase in the damping ratio. To increase overall stiffness steel or even stainless steel powder could be used or embedding a steel structure within the epoxy. Its a very good idea to embed some sort of rigid structure and done properly you have a small machine that could have qualities of the larger industrial machines.
You can refer to the article through Google.
“Synthetic granite composite for precision equipment structures”.
It was observed, through the ternary diagram made that the proportion of stone sizes tested that resulted in the best packing was: 55% coarse, 15% medium and 35% fine.
This proportion resulted in greater densification reaching an apparent density of 1.75 g/cm³. Hence such proportion of stone size was chosen to make the synthetic granite composite focus of this work by ensuring the lowest resin consumption, in this way only 19% was added to the total mass of the stones resulting in a final material density of 2.1 g/cm³, denominated composition A.
For the synthetic granite composite reinforced with carbon fibers manufacturing, the proportion between the granulations of stones was maintained.
Only 0.5% by volume of carbon fibers of 2.5 mm in length was added to composition A, fiber-reinforced composition being referred to as composition B.
Very interesting. Anyways don’t let the forums hold you back from discovering a better EG formula.
Thanks for the info. I'll look into metal particles. When I searched a year ago they seemed hard to find. I'll check out the West Systems site.
Following with interest.
Thanks. Its a fun ride, ha ha.
Did you scrap the Levil CNC retrofit? It looked to be a solid base over attempting to casing your own.
No, the Levil is still going. I actually made the epoxy granite videos one year ago, before I bought the Levil. I just re-edited and re-uploaded them to make them less boring by cutting out a ton of dead air. So I'm working on both simultaneously, but will give more priority to the Levil.
Have you looked at engine block filler for some of your smaller voids? May be worth some experimenting
I have not. I'm not familiar with that product, I'll look it up. Thanks!
What's the best deal you've found for roughly a gallon of epoxy? I'm considering using countertop epoxy resin kits sold at HD and online. I figure the large volume of epoxy required for countertops would translate lower pricing for the epoxy. Epoxy can be fussy and I would hate to dump $70 on a failed epoxy pour.
By the way, are you planning on using a vibrator to remove the voids from the mold? I'm considering making one. It's just a scaled up rumble pad motor which has an imbalanced weight attached to the shaft end of the motor. The imbalance causes the motor to vibrate.
The best deal I found was on ebay. Its called "The Epoxy Resin Store" Platinum Clear and is $57 per 1 gallon kit, with free shipping. That's what I used in this video, although when I bought it last year, it was $5 less.
I probably should make some sort of tumbling device. Haven't gotten around to it yet.
@@nickp4793 The tumblers can introduce issues too. If you agitate the mixture too much, it might cause the particulates to precipitate to the bottom of the mold, leaving less fortified epoxy on the top of the mold. I've seen a couple of videos where you can see a layer of clear epoxy on top of the mold. Ideally, you want to pull a vacuum on the mold, but it's impractical for large pours.
How are you going to evaluate the best mix of epoxy granite?
I'm not sure to be honest. The ones I mixed in this video seemed too soft, even after letting them cure for weeks. I'm thinking I need to re-think the design and have a metal frame, filled with the epoxy granite. Then the mixture won't be as critical, and it will be more for damping than strength.
have you tried more since then? any expirience with fibre in it?
I have not, the whole thing got put on the back burner:( On episode 9 I filled the Taig mill column with this mixture. I might have fine tuned the ratios a hair, but I used the same ingredients. Its been a couple of years, and the mill is working great.