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Product Testing
The following tests have been carried out by Coastal Epoxy Restoration. They are very basic and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. The tests were done at my restoration facility with very little scientific equipment. "A picture is worth a thousand words" I am simply trying to show the penetrating ability and flexibility of these products. The long pot life is what makes this product unique. For a conclusive scientific study visit www.woodrestoration.ca.
Capillary Action and Penetration Tests
The purpose of this test was to see the penetrating abilities of CPES. This involved placing wood with various degrees of rot in a container containing Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer and watch it wick its way up and inside the wood. As you can see it wicks just like water only a little slower. It is possible to see how areas of deteriorated wood are saturated before areas of good wood. Some containers were clear one litre round plastic containers and others were rectangular in shape. Some of the CPES was died blue so it would be more visible.
In the right photo we see Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer wicking its way up some wood with the more porous wood winning the race. I tried to keep about one to two centimetres of liquid in the bottom of the trays. I myself was surprised how rapidly CPES wicked up the wood. Some wood was completely penetrated over a four hour period. That is one of the components that allows our product to penetrate so well: its extremely long curing time. It took over one week for some of this wood to (DRY OUT) and that is for the Solvents in Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer to evaporate.
This is a good picture of how CPES follows the path that the fungi and bacteria have created in the wood. One side is fairly solid and the other is quite rotten. Note now the epoxy on the rotten side has wicked up much higher than the side were the wood is still fairly solid. On the adjacent piece you can see the CPES wicking up between the growth rings in the wood itself. This particular container has clear penetrating epoxy sealer that was died blue thus it is much easier to see.
These three photos illustrate over time how Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer wicked all the way through this piece of wood. This old piece of cedar was not in as good as shape as I had originally thought. This test was conducted over a time period of three to four hours. I removed the wood from the container when it was completely saturated.
Here is a photo of the above wood cut in half. You can see the how Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer has completely saturated the wood. The colour is slightly green, I initially died the CPES blue with food colouring and when combined with the natural colour of the wood you see the resultant colour. The piece of wood on the bottom of the photo is untreated.
This container of Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer has two new pieces of teak in it. This photo illustrates why paint and varnish stick so well to wood that has been treated with CPES. The fibers on the surface are bonded together thus giving the top coat something stable to bond to. CPES still allows the wood to breathe and absorb moisture but at a much reduced rate. Extreme expansion and contraction of the wood is reduced thus topcoats last much longer. Remember, the epoxy glue on the surface continues to cure after the topcoat is applied. The paint becomes glued to the wood!
Flexibility Testing
The above left photo is the jig I used to fabricate some rectangular panels using our Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin. The photo on the right is just the resin with no sawdust added. The center photo is a mixture the same resin but with fine sawdust added. The jig consisted of plywood with a sheet of polyurethane (when cured the polyurethane sheet peels off like tape from both our Fill-It epoxy filler and Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin). I then nailed mouldings on the plywood and poured in the mixture. The end result below speaks for itself.
You can see the flexibility. The more sawdust you introduce to the Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin the more rigid the cured epoxy will become. Both resultant cured epoxies are extremely tough. As I have mentioned in the projects forum when the Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin is mixed with fine sawdust it becomes very hard but flexible at the same time. This is the perfect product for repairing rotting planks on boats or fixing large cracks in log homes. Just think of the time and money that can be saved by restoring a section of planking on a boat hull with rot rather than having to replace the whole plank. You can now restore logs or sections of logs in log homes rather than having to replace an entire log, and remember when this product has cured it will bend not unlike the wood itself.
These two photos further illustrate the flexibility of the product. I basically put two 1/8th wooden dowels that were treated with CPES on a clear plastic sheet about one inch apart. Then, part A and part B of the Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin were mixed and poured it between the wooden dowels. You can see how much flexibility there is and It also illustrates how well it bonds to wood that has been treated with CPES.
The above two photos demonstrate the flexibility of our Fill-It two part epoxy wood filler. It has been coloured pink for illustration purposes. Two quarter inch pieces of wood trim were placed on a sheet of clear plastic and then the area between was filled with Fill-It(see photo on the right). Because our products do not stick to plastic it's easy to mold them to any desired shape... i.e. fine carvings in wood or following the contours of logs when using it to fill the cracks in log homes. The filler can be screwed into and nailed when a pilot hole is drilled. Please see PRODUCTS for more information on the home page. On the immediate right you can clearly see the two parts before they were mixed together.
This is a nine ounce piece of woven glass seam tape impregnated with our Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin, note the flexibility.
These two photos illustrate not only flexibility but also how rigid our Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin is. The left photo is glass mat that has been impregnated. The right photo is two layers of the nine ounce seam tape impregnated with the resin. Remember cure times and strength are exponentially greater with thickness. That is to say something that is twice as thick is not twice as strong but exponentially as strong. This can also apply to cure times as well.
This is a perfect example of how versatile our Layup and Laminating Epoxy Resin is when mixed with sawdust or any other filler. Through many years of expansion and contraction, Epoxy developed Large gaps(see above photo) between the lap strake hull and the spray guard. The bronze fasteners were still very solid but because there was no wood, and it was not possible to tighten the bolts that secured them to the stringers, the spray guard was very loose. The mixture was poured in from the top and the sides and bottom were taped off to keep the mixture from flowing out. After curing, I had a perfect repair with no worries about rot or the fasteners working loose again.
These two photos show how adaptable our Fill-It epoxy wood filler is. It can be nailed and screwed provided a pilot hole is drilled. For further information and testing please see the PRODUCTS page.
The Photo on your left and below is what you get when Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES) is allowed to remain in a clear plastic container while the solvents evaporate out. The flexibility of the cured epoxy is clearly evident, this is part of the reason as to why CPES works so well when used in the restoration of wood. This cured resin acts like the natural glue in wood (Lignium) and bonds the fibers back together. The CPES on the far right is dark blue because of the dye that was added for visual purposes.
Often I am asked "How much product do I need?" or "How do I get CPES into those isolated areas deep inside large beams?" Another question is "Can severely rot damaged wood be restored?" I will try to answer some of these questions in the following forum. The two pieces of wood shown above are from the same beam that was once a fence along the side of my house. It is easy to see how some sections were still in great shape after ten years and how some areas have extensive damage.
The first step was to remove any rot that would come off by hand or by light scraping with a wire brush. If the wood has deteriorated to the point that it has become totally rotten crud (If you can scoop it out with your hand) then it must be removed. Sections that have been removed can be replaced with Fill-It epoxy filler or if very large areas have to be removed as in log home restoration, you would loosely place pieces of wood soaked in CPES in the area of missing wood then pour in Layup and Laminating Resin(mixed with sawdust). This the cheaper method as not as much product is required because the scap wood used takes up a lot of the volume. You now have a permanent cost effective repair that will last a lifetime.
Then next step is to drill holes into the area that is to be treated. A general rule is the larger the beam being restored the larger the hole that you will require. In this case I used 3/8 drill bit. For large beams I would recommend up to one inch and a hole spacing of six to eight inches. Funnels were then inserted and the test started. The CPES was dyed blue using food colouring so it would be more visible as the product is light amber when cured.
For the following test I used our cold weather version. The temperature for this particular day varied between eight and ten degrees Celsius, this would give me a penetrating window of six hours. You will see that this was plenty of time to fully saturate the wood.
We see that it only took half an hour for CPES to penetrate two to three inches into the wood. Within three hours you can see how the wood has been almost totally saturated. I did NOT apply any Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer to the outside of the wood; all the dark areas have been saturated from the inside out. This product has a strong tendency to follow the same path that the Fungi have created.
After six hours of saturation we can see how effective Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer is at penetrating rotten wood and returning some structural strength. I have no doubt that if I used a brush and applied generously to the wood from the outside every fiber in this piece of wood would be saturated with CPES and the wood would be totally restored. In cases where extreme penetrating is required, I would then use the warm weather version as this would have a pot life of sixteen hours. This is the key to CPES, the long pot life allows for deep penetrating before the epoxy has cured. A total of over 14 ounces of CPES was absorbed by the wood adding to the weight as well.
The left photo is the restored wood cut into thirds. It’s easy to see how all the wood has been saturated. The right photo is the solid wood. You can see how even it can benefit from treatment. The large green area in the middle is some CPES that leaked out of the funnels and was then absorbed by the wood via the cracks in the knot. It is surprising how much was absorbed in this manner.
The above two photos are sections of my boats hull "EPOXY". The left is of the inside and the right is the outside. The hull of Epoxy is lap strake construction, meaning that the plywood planks overlap each other and are screwed together so they will not leak. After many years of flexing and wood deterioration these seams begin to leak and are very problematic. One generally repairs this type of joint with a caulking compound and by filling the gaps with some type of filler or, by the addition of new wood on the inside then using long screws from the outside to further squeeze the seam tight. These repairs never last as the fungi beneath the joint continue to thrive and destroy the wood. I do not know of any other product that can effectively and permanently repair this type of seam in this manner. CPES was simply applied to the inside of the hull and over time penetrated the joint. This did two things first, the fungi was encapsulated so its progress was stopped. Second, the joint was re-sealed as CPES leaves behind a thin flexible film of epoxy that bonds the wood together and stops air and water from penetrating the joint so no more spores can make there way into the wood. There was no sanding involved, no cutting of v-grooves as other epoxy manufacturers suggest. Quick simple and permanent!
