west system epoxy

[robin]

Hi, was thinking of using west system epoxy for my all wood bow glue up, has any body tried this epoxy before.

Any experience and feedback most welcome.

Thanks RT

[milehi101]

I have used West Systems Epoxy on wood bows and it works great.  Get the slow dry catalyst and you have plenty working time and it penetrates well.  I
dont think I would leave the bow in a closed car on a hot day because it could soften and come apart at high temperatures.  You can call West systems and they can tell you more about its resistance to high temperature.

[macbow]

I've heard of using it for making the two piece risers.
You'd be better off using smooth on ,unibond or Titebond 2 or 3.
These are all proven glues.
Besides the west system is pretty expensive.
Hope they are available locally.

[monterey]

I used it on a glass lam project quite a few years ago.  A typical Bingham 68" LB.  The glue was provided by a fellow who was interested in licensing the glue for bow building.  I barely got the bow layed up and the remainder (in a plastic cup)was melting the cup!  

I always feel stressed during a bow lay up, but this one was super stressful!  If they have a slower reacting catalyst, that would be helpful BUT, Smooth on is such a superior product that I use nothing else anymore.  The other product I have experience with is Versamid, but again, the smooth on is in my opinion superior.  The versamid is a runny consistency (as is the West System).  Smooth on is a bit thicker and easier to apply.

I would not hesitate to use it for a riser lay up IF I had it on hand or got a fantastic deal on it.

I kept that bow around for about a month and shot it quite a bit.  It shot just fine and I saw no problems with it.  About six months later the fellow I built it for said it broke while his brother was stringing it.  Coulda been the glue and coulda been the brother!

so, that sums up my experience

[LittleBen]

I tend to agree with the proven glue theory.

A good quality epoxy is expensive ... and a bow is a major time investment on top of materal costs ...

I'd never forgive myself if my dream bow blew up because I was trying to experiment.

[robin]

Thank you all for your feedback.....cheers"

[M60gunner]

Have seen it used for an all wood laminated bow. Bow broke before it was really tillered. This was in a shop class I was taking at college. I did some research on the West System glue and found it was not a " flexible" glue. But the two bow makers were not convinced until their bow broke.

[Mark R]

I'm a believer in using smooth on for (almost) all my bow building projects, although I experimented with west system (flex) epoxy on a high bred lam bow using horizontal bamboo lams which is a no no, but I've been shooting it for 3 years now, and letting friends with 30" draws shoot it, and it's fine. This was an experiment with left over parts, I just clamped it to my bottom form, no top form you can feel the clamp dents in the belly.It shoots great and even had offers to buy it. Just sayin

[rainman]

Used to use it when I was a manager for Woodcraft and could get it at cost.  Unibond is much cheaper and better at gap filling.

[Troy D. Breeding]

I used it to build my strip canoe and it worked fine for that. I tried gluing a few strips together like building a bow limb. It failed even after being in the clamps for 24 hours.

Like Monterey said, it melted a plastic cup when I tried using in the cup. Afterwards I switched to a metal cup. Not sure I really trust any epoxy that heats up that much on a highly stressed joint.