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Epoxy Failure
Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 8:39 pm
by irisher
After long period of procrastination I decided to fix my HPA bbmg. The swivel joint on the paintball remote snapped completely in two. The first thing I did was embed both ends of the remote in a section of 1/2 pvc with liberal amounts of JB-Weld. This held but leaked out almost instantly. The next logical approach was to JSR it. I created a mold and poured in a 1/2 inch layer of marine epoxy. Today during leak testing the assembly failed catastrophically it exploded flinging the entire Co2 tank and bracket in to the air leaving the the other end still in its cocoon of epoxy. My question to the epoxy experts is why this happened and what is the best approach to fixing it?
Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:42 pm
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Ok, when I post something like
this, it's generally to show people what
not to do
In the case of such pressure bearing components, the mould itself is important as unsupported, the epoxy alone just won't cut it. Whatever you make must be encased in some sort of pipe that would be able to take the pressure anyway, properly roughened of course.
This would be a correct use of epoxy for HPA:

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:14 pm
by irisher
It did not break the mold, it just pulled out from the assembly.
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:33 pm
by jackssmirkingrevenge
irisher wrote:just pulled out from the assembly.
Did you roughen it properly first? Smooth metal parts will eventually slip out if not prepared, I usually use a small file to make numberous shallow grooves.
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:32 am
by psycix
You can also reinforce the hold on the epoxy with bolts.
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:10 am
by kenbo0422
Set screws... drill and place shallow set screws into the pipe and swivel assembly, then epoxy.