Fill epoxy or CA

[bigcountry11]

I have some blanks I turn, especially some stabilized ones, that in the middle have gaps, or loose pieces fall out. Also when doing inlay kits, there are gaps.

I have been filling with epoxy and native material, usually wood or antler depending on the project. But the epoxy I use to glue up tubes to blanks seem to never cure real hard.

Thinking of using CA maybe Loctite gel to fill. Any advise?

 

[Dave Turner]

I use CA to fill any voids that crop up. If it's noticeable area, I'll mix in a little sawdust or acrylic dust that I obtain by sanding the blank to "color" the CA. Just lay the sawdust in the hole before dropping on the CA. If the first application is not enough, I'll just repeat the process until the void is filled higher than the surrounding blank. Then I carefully turn it flush with a carbide tipped tool.

If it's a very large defect, then I'll do as you do and actually CA in an appropriate piece of the blank, but that has rarely happened for me. I use epoxy to glue in my tubes, but not for anything else.

 

[KenV]

Mark, I tend to use System 3 T-88 structural epoxy with black colorant as the default filler. Always turns and cuts clean, and the black fills the gaps in laser cut blanks looking good. Get the better epoxy for surface applications.

Black fill is just right on wood like mesquite.

Colored nuggets work as well.

West System epoxy is also excellent.

 

[Garrett'sWoodworx]

Mark: It has been my experience that when epoxy doesn't harden it generally means that it either wasn't mixed completely, wasn't mixed accurately (hardener/resin ratios were wrong) or it was old. For small voids I generally use medium CA, larger voids get packed with sawdust or pieces of the surrounding material and then doused with thin CA. Big gaps and areas I want to add color (contrast) to usually get epoxy colored with a dab of acrylic paint in the appropriate color. Hope that helps!

 

[scotirish]

Crack filling

I use CA glue to fill small cracks and epoxy to fill larger cracks. I define them as small = thin with almost no opening. Larger are, obviously, all other others. I also add color to the epoxy that I mix up to enhance the piece. This also looks better than simple epoxy fill.
Ron