Varnish Cure Time?

[Eric Page]

I've searched the forum but haven't found a ready answer. Does anyone know how much cure time is required for the varnish before clamping parts against it? I'd like to get back to installing controls, but the next step is putting in the rudder pedals. I don't want to do that too soon and find that the varnish wasn't cured and is ruined if I have to take the pedal brackets out later.

EDIT: I've been able to keep my garage at ~60-70 deg F for the last several days, so it hasn't been curing in ambient outside temps.

[taff]

What brand / make, name varnish are you working with?

[bumsteer]

Eric

Probably not an answer to your question, but the Poly-fiber manual shows full cure to develop solvent and chemical resistance is 7 days at 70 degrees

Rick

[Eric Page]

What brand / make, name varnish are you working with?

Sorry... It's the Kitfox-supplied Poly-Fiber varnish, EV-400.

[taff]

Sorry... It's the Kitfox-supplied Poly-Fiber varnish, EV-400.

Looking at the PolyFiber manual; for EV-400
I saw this.
You can accelerate the epoxy, normal cure time is 7 days.

Apart from the environment, the film thickness has a lot do do with the speed of curing.
The thicker it is the longer the cure.
But I am sure that PolyFiber has averaged the cure time of 7 days.

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1131

[jrevens]

Hi Eric,

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't hesitate to install the pedals now if you wanted to. Full cure with full chemical resistance, etc. is one thing, but by now it's likely that any volatile components have evaporated. The epoxy will continue to cure regardless of further exposure to air. That's just my opinion, FWIW.

[taff]

Hi Eric,

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't hesitate to install the pedals now if you wanted to. Full cure with full chemical resistance, etc. is one thing, but by now it's likely that any volatile components have evaporated. The epoxy will continue to cure regardless of further exposure to air. That's just my opinion, FWIW.

I fully agree!
I was playing on the safe side and referring to the EV-400 data.

I used to work for a paint company (making car repair paint) and I hated it when people had complaints after veering off from the tech data sheet. You never found out how far they veered off
Tech data sheets are written based on lab results and and standard operating processes for where the product is going to be used.
Change the mixing ratios or the environment and sometimes its chancy.

It's an epoxy, so it will continue to cure even if something is clamped or bolted to the component underneath.

[Eric Page]

Beauty -- thanks, guys. I'm into a couple of other items, but I won't wait to install the pedals once those are done.