West System 206-B Slow Hardener

I'm almost at the end of this can. It's not something I use often, but when you need epoxy, West System is a good choice. I undoubtedly will buy this again.

Nice to get it at home versus finding a West Marine supply store 2 hours away. As always, product does what it says it will and work s perfectly. Just you wish it was a little cheaper as the price seems a bit inflated but about the same that you would spend at a store.

I use this with the 105 resin to fill cracks and imperfections in solid wood. You can either dye it to a color you want or use it clear as is. You’re going to end up with a lot of bubbles as with any epoxy, but I use a small torch with indirect heat to pop those and get a perfect finish every time. It’s difficult to work with so if it’s your first time I would recommend watching some videos on YouTube or something to learn more before you dive in. But the product works exactly as intended. Don’t expect to fill a large crack all in one pour. Work in stages or you’ll end up with voids. Get the pumps that they sell as well in order to get the perfect mix and make it easier on yourself.

I have been using WS 206 Slow hardener for epoxy fiberglass work for years. I like the slow, because I'm generally not in that big a hurry to require a 'Fast' hardener. I think you end up with a finer, stronger epoxy cross linking using the Slow compared to the Fast. The Slow does not create amine blush, which must be washed off between applications or a poor bond will be created. I use only with metered pumps which allow a 'one pump' of hardener to 'one pump' of resin delivery.

Woah, once I finally got the lid off, I didn’t notice any odor. I had some leftover resin from other kits that I ran out of hardener for and this is the ONLY company on Amazon that I could find to purchase just the hardener. Yes, I know that there’s no good reason to come up short on hardener, but anyway, a leaky pump that defied theLaws of physics was a culprit on top of mixing by weight instead of volume. When working with less than 20ml, it’s difficult to pour and I have yet To find a pump that’s able To Effectively Pump thick resin. Anyway, back to this product, it has a slightly amber tint that doesn’t really change any color additives I used but forget about true colorless clear casting. Fast! Very fast! I only had 18ml in med cup and it was cured in 15 minutes and yes, I mixed it correctly at 5:1. It was still tacky and solid. So, maybe 10:1 if you need more working time. That’s been an hour ago and it’s touchable and not even tacky.

Product was fresh. I've used seven gallons of west system epoxy on my boat rebuild project. So I had to purchase 205 and 206 hardeners in the quart size seven times. This is only the second time that the hardener wasn't colored amber. (which is still ok to use according to West System tech support) It turns that color from age. This has changed my way of shopping on Amazon which is turning into a dumping ground for old and expiring or already expired products. I bought a quart of gelcoat from a third party seller that had the expiration date sanded off. I didn't discover this until nearly a year after I purchased it. Since I had no experience with fiberglass before this project, I didn't know that gelcoat has a shelf life of about one year.

The epoxy has an excellent bond strength. The cure time is a bit slower than I would like, possibly due to cold weather (50 deg). This is while using the fast hardener. Easy to work with, but if you want to use less than the pre-metered pump doles out, it is a bit more difficult. It does seem to bond a wide variety of materials together. Overall a good product.

West System has always proven to be a reliable epoxy product. Amazon Prime offers the best price by far after others want to charge 25%+_ for shipping.