# Glow in the dark powder + Epoxy. What epoxy?



## bstrickler (Aug 24, 2009)

Hey guys,

I just tried putting some GITD powder and mixing it with some epoxy, but I ran into a bad problem. The epoxy hardened before I could put it on the heatsink!!!!!! I didn't even give it 10 seconds before I was putting it on the heatsink. It was hardening as I was mixing the powder into the epoxy!

Within 5 minutes, the epoxy was hard as a damned rock. Now I have what looks like a green radioactive lugie, lol.

What epoxy works with the GITD powder you guys use? I used United Nuclear's Europium-based GITD powder and some clear epoxy I had in the computer room (dont know the brand or type, because the shrinkwrap was gone).


~Brian


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## nautilus1950 (Aug 24, 2009)

I use DevCon's 2 Ton clear epoxy. It slightly gels up in about 5 mins, but still ok to work with. Hardens in 2hrs, and totally cures in 6hrs. 


https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/790510&postcount=6

A slower cure epoxy is the way to go.


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## greenLED (Aug 24, 2009)

Glowinc.com's GID powder + slow-cure clear epoxy works wonders.


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## Sgt. LED (Aug 25, 2009)

Oh yeah! V10 green and Devcon 2-ton is perfect. :twothumbs Get modding.


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## bstrickler (Aug 26, 2009)

I'll have to hit up Ace again, and see if they have the 2-ton clear epoxy in-store *crosses fingers*. $2.50 for a 1oz (29mL) pack online. Plenty for me ($18 for a 50mL at the local industrial machinery/metal shop. Overpriced.)

I just hope I won't need to spend more money on glow powder. Hopefully the stuff from UN will not make the DevCon stuff a rock instantly. Only time I can think that'd be useful is when you want the stuff to bond to something instantly (i.e. some kind of prank on someone.)

~Brian


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## VidPro (Aug 27, 2009)

also dont forget Silicon, if it is in a protected location, and you can spread toothpaste, clear silicoln can hold a LOT of GITD powder, before you get a sandy blob. also clear silicon seems to be really clear, works great in internal places, and it spreads like peanut butter instead of honey. and it will peel back off of places you didnt want it to be in.


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## J_C (Aug 27, 2009)

bstrickler said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> I just tried putting some GITD powder and mixing it with some epoxy, but I ran into a bad problem. The epoxy hardened before I could put it on the heatsink!!!!!! I didn't even give it 10 seconds before I was putting it on the heatsink. It was hardening as I was mixing the powder into the epoxy!
> ~Brian



While a slower setting epoxy seems a good option, I suspect you mixed in the wrong order. Mix the GITD powder into one part of the epoxy before adding the other part of the epoxy.


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## greenLED (Aug 27, 2009)

J_C said:


> While a slower setting epoxy seems a good option, I suspect you mixed in the wrong order. Mix the GITD powder into one part of the epoxy before adding the other part of the epoxy.



Doesn't make a difference, in my experience. I've always added the GID powder to the epoxy mix; never had an issue.


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## J_C (Aug 27, 2009)

greenLED said:


> Doesn't make a difference, in my experience. I've always added the GID powder to the epoxy mix; never had an issue.



It definitely can make a difference. In the former case you are using up the remaining time in liquid state mixing in powder. In the latter you have that time back to put the epoxy where you want it. I actually prefer epoxy that I barely have time to apply before it's setting up, why would I want to wait longer to continue whatever I was doing?

Depends on which epoxy, how much of it there is (in bulk the heat accelerates the curing), ambient temp, amount of hardener mixed in, let alone age and type of epoxy regardless of having a roughly similar # minutes till set claim. "Set" can mean different things with epoxy, some is barely rubbery and others hard as a rock.


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## Sgt. LED (Aug 27, 2009)

greenLED said:


> Doesn't make a difference, in my experience. I've always added the GID powder to the epoxy mix; never had an issue.


 
That's what I have always done as well and nobody ever complained about how my stuff turned out!

Of course I would NOT to try this method with a fast set epoxy. I appreciate the extra time the 2-Ton gives me to perfect things.


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## supasizefries (Aug 27, 2009)

I have some v10 on order. Can't wait to experiment on my RiverRock 2AA Nightfire with focusable optic. I figure the optic will better utilize the glow. I'll try the devcon 2 ton like people have suggested here. Has anyone experimented using grease on parts where you don't want the epoxy to stick?


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## Crenshaw (Aug 27, 2009)

Ive used 5 min epoxy (selley's) and v10 on the back of an E01 before, and also on the back of an L0D. Worked fine, although you want to be snappy with it if you want it to even out nicely

and make sure the epoxy is clear......

I mean, you'd think everyone would know that from the start right? 

:hahaha:

Crenshaw


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## bstrickler (Aug 27, 2009)

J_C said:


> While a slower setting epoxy seems a good option, I suspect you mixed in the wrong order. Mix the GITD powder into one part of the epoxy before adding the other part of the epoxy.



I mixed it with the DevCon 2-ton 5-minute stuff (Ace didn't have the regular stuff, and I wasn't about to drive 30 minutes to spend $20 vs. $5 on half the amount of epoxy), and the DevCon stuff worked perfectly fine. It didn't become an instant rock, like the other crap.

The only thing I screwed up was that I mixed *JUST* slightly less epoxy than I needed, so now the epoxy is 2 different brightnesses. Oh well. It doesn't show up through the lens (KD aspheric with P7). 

The glow powder definitely makes it easier to find the light at night. I might have to do this to all my flashlights, lol.

~Brian


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## J_C (Aug 28, 2009)

bstrickler said:


> I mixed it with the DevCon 2-ton 5-minute stuff (Ace didn't have the regular stuff, and I wasn't about to drive 30 minutes to spend $20 vs. $5 on half the amount of epoxy), and the DevCon stuff worked perfectly fine. It didn't become an instant rock, like the other crap.
> ~Brian



Different epoxy for different applications, sometimes it's good when epoxy sets really fast. Fortunately we have forums like this so the right one for an application can be found.


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## greenLED (Aug 28, 2009)

J_C said:


> It definitely can make a difference. In the former case you are using up the remaining time in liquid state mixing in powder. In the latter you have that time back to put the epoxy where you want it. I actually prefer epoxy that I barely have time to apply before it's setting up, why would I want to wait longer to continue whatever I was doing





Sgt. LED said:


> That's what I have always done as well and nobody ever complained about how my stuff turned out!
> 
> Of course I would NOT to try this method with a fast set epoxy. I appreciate the extra time the 2-Ton gives me to perfect things.



I'm with Sarge on this one. I've tried it both ways with long-curing epoxy, and it hasn't made a difference. 

After comparing results against vs the 5 minute type, I found the longer-curing epoxy gives cleaner surfaces and allows more time to work with, so I stuck with it (pun intended).


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## LuxLuthor (Aug 28, 2009)

greenLED said:


> I'm with Sarge on this one. I've tried it both ways with long-curing epoxy, and it hasn't made a difference.
> 
> After comparing results against vs the 5 minute type, I found the longer-curing epoxy gives cleaner surfaces and allows more time to work with, so I stuck with it (pun intended).



+2


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## Crenshaw (Aug 29, 2009)

I have figured where a fast curing epoxy works best.

I added tritium to my Quark, in the Lanyard clip hole. If the epoxy would take too long to set, it would flow all over the place

Crenshaw


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## J_C (Aug 29, 2009)

greenLED said:


> I'm with Sarge on this one. I've tried it both ways with long-curing epoxy, and it hasn't made a difference.
> 
> After comparing results against vs the 5 minute type, I found the longer-curing epoxy gives cleaner surfaces and allows more time to work with, so I stuck with it (pun intended).



I think some people misunderstood. When you have a very fast setting epoxy, that is when it is helpful to mix additives in before mixing the two epoxy parts. Really no reason not to if it's a fast setting epoxy. If it doesn't set "too" fast, do it either way.


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## [email protected] (Aug 30, 2009)

Will this stuff be good?


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## greenLED (Aug 30, 2009)

IMO, as long as it doesn't have a UV filter, and it cures in such a way that lets you work the GID powder and complete your mod with ample time, yes.


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## Oznog (Sep 2, 2009)

J_C said:


> It definitely can make a difference. In the former case you are using up the remaining time in liquid state mixing in powder. In the latter you have that time back to put the epoxy where you want it. I actually prefer epoxy that I barely have time to apply before it's setting up, why would I want to wait longer to continue whatever I was doing?



It makes a difference. But I'd say you've got it backwards, actually. NEVER add powder before mixing.

Have the powder ready and measured out.

The problem is, if you add the powder before mixing, then the surface wicks up whichever Part you added to it and has a fairy strong sticking force. Once wetted with pure Part A, I don't think a few seconds of stirring will result in a particle surface with evenly mixed Part A and Part B. As such, the mix will be slightly off due to how much Part A the powder absorbed (well, mixing by eye with stuff squeezed out of tubes is never an accurate process) and the strength may be lower because the bond strength on the surface of the granules is not as high as it could be due to the mix being very heavily Part A right there.

So, mix, then add powder is my recommendation.


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## J_C (Sep 2, 2009)

Oznog said:


> It makes a difference. But I'd say you've got it backwards, actually. NEVER add powder before mixing.
> 
> Have the powder ready and measured out.
> 
> ...



Certainly different epoxies could have different viscosity, but offhand I suspect you had an old batch or it was simply too thick to be ideal for the job, I've never had a problem mixing several types of fillers first. The strength will be highest if the solid particles are thoroughly wetted with the base, then the hardener portion added, essentially what you referred to as absorbing it. Mixing in the other part doesn't need to be precisely 1:1, if it's a little off it won't be a problem and it's not difficult to get it pretty close to 1:1.

If it actually starts to harden within a few seconds of stirring as you wrote, it is another indicator you not only have the wrong epoxy, (or too old and drying out) but should add solids to only one part first. The theory about what might go wrong, doesn't pan out in real life while this topic alone is evidence of what happens if a fast enough setting epoxy is not mixed in the right order.


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## bretti_kivi (Sep 2, 2009)

I splurged some GITD into plastic padding's single-component "clear" epoxy and that was great - took 10-15 to set, nice sandy consistency. That's on the back of some Stainless steel on my keyring. Only drawback: it gets dirty.

For the Mags, I'll be half-filling the heatsink with either PU clear or epoxy resin - no glue here, it's the real stuff - before mixing another batch and THEN adding GITD powder. I did quite a lot of work with 2K resin over the summer and had something like 30% of my batches fail miserably, mainly because either I wasn't working accurately enough with measurements or I didn't mix it well enough. Extremely annoying, but I've learned my lesson now: anything to go in goes in after mixing and mixing doesn't take thirty seconds.

Bret


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## sparkysko (Sep 5, 2009)

Always add your filler to the epoxy after it is mixed. Fillers will inhibit and in some cases prevent the mixing of the epoxy if added before mixing (Such as chemicals added to thin the epoxy). You can warm the epoxy in warm water to thin it out to aid in mixing (But this will drastically shorten the cure time)

Also, fillers such as powder will speed up the curing reaction (I've cured 2 hour epoxy in 5 minutes with microspheres). You should be aiming for a peanut butter consistency if you want to add max filler. 

If you go to a local hobby shop you can get 8 ounces of epoxy for under $20 as well as graduated mixing cups and popsicle sticks to stir it. "Finishing Resin" will be the thinnest. You can speed up the curing time by heating it, as long as you keep it under 140 degrees F (It will smoke beyond that). Acetone or vinegar can clean up uncured epoxy.

Always wear gloves, and preferably work in a ventilated area. Normal epoxy doesn't smell as bad as polyester resin, but it is much worse. Everyone will develop an allergic reaction to it eventually, given enough cumulative exposure. Don't breathe the sanding dust, as it will have uncured hardener in it, which will also increase your cumulative exposure.


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