What happened?

Hmm, I'm starting to wonder if the cleanup thinner is doing something weird. When my gun washer solvent gets old it doesn't want to rinse epoxy away. Thinners, acetone, alcohols and the like are very hygroscopic, and once they have a significant amount of water in them they won't work to clean paint, especially epoxy.

If there was a ball of goo in the gun the whole time, I don't think you would have been able to spray the material, that's another reason why I think it might have happened at the cleanup step.

What I would have you do is use 870 to clean your gun next time. I know that's doesn't seem to practical from a cost standpoint, but doing it just once would eliminate some variables.
 
I will try that. I do buy a more a slightly more expensive thinner for cleaning my gun (I'm a hobbyist so doesn't hurt the pocket). It's labeled as being 100% since what I was buying before always left too much water (I assume) residue in the gun. I do spray the Naked Gun stuff from Kleen at the very end to flush orifices and then fill with a little reducer to run it through the gun. Maybe the combination of so many chemicals did something although I do run reducer last.

Maybe it was a fluke, who knows. I need to paint may last couple of parts in a week or so. Will try a small sample and see what happens.

BTW, one possibility: since I finished all big parts of my project and only have a few little ones, I disassembled my spray booth and with it my good water traps/regulator and desiccant drier. I am just using a simple small water trap/regulator for these small parts. Since this is Florida (= humid) I wonder if the ball was a spit of water that made it to the gun and just made a mess. That would make sense if someone confirms that water will coalesce (maybe not the right term) and cure the primer that way.

I can also try to put some water with primer in a cup and see what happens? We may have the answer. Maybe .....

Chris
 
Pretty sure it has to be something like that, since as far as I know, just epoxy+activator simply isn't capable of that behavior. A lot of us wish there was a way it could cure fast, but it just doesn't. The majority of the issues we deal with regarding epoxy are regarding slow cure/low temps.
 
Is this what happened?
 

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I put just a little Speed clear (slow) activator in some epoxy I mixed yesterday. The reaction as immediate.
 
I'm actually, I believe, fairly good at cleaning my guns. But hey, I sprayed these parts at lunch break so I was I bit rushed so maybe.....

But yes, the stuff I got kind of looked like that gooey mess but maybe just a 1/2" ball and some film stuck to the cup's wall. Very hard to clean.

Chris
 
The goal was to see what would happen if regular activator was accidentally added.
I just checked it and it's nearly solid. At this point, I'm pretty sure nothing is going to touch it.
 
What the heck... I have never tried that. Hey, look, a new accelerator for the epoxy!

Kidding, obviously.
 
I have to laugh at reading this.
I had the very same thing happen to me long ago.
I bought a new gallon of 2K primer, so I thought.
When I mixed activator with it the stuff started setting up immediately,
it was just like what was described, a stringy sticky goo.
I first thought I mixed it wrong and cleaned my gun and remixed 3 times before
double checking the can, it was lacquer primer, I didn't even know it was available.
I now have a gallon of guide coat.
 
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