ET500 Rapid Clear Epoxy Adhesive

There is no practical minimum bond thickness for this adhesive although you do need to ensure that *some* adhesive is present, which is why glass spheres are sometimes used to prevent the adhesive from being scraped off completely. Essentially though, as long as an even thin film is applied the bond strength between the two materials will be good.

Yes, certainly. In fact the easiest way to do this is to simply leave the static mixer nozzle in place after you use the adhesive. The adhesive that's in the nozzle will have been mixed and so will cure but the glue at the start of the nozzle will be unmixed and not cured meaning the nozzle will twist off perfectly and the glue inside will have been protected from the atmosphere and so will be perfectly preserved ready for use.

A typical application of the adhesive is approximately a 0.5mm thick layer. At this thickness, one 50ml cartridge would cover an area 30cm by 30cm; a 400ml cartridge would cover an area approximately 90cm by 90cm.

For best results when gluing over a large surface area, use a spreader to help ensure the adhesive is laid down in an even layer.

Yes ET500 can be pigmented. We have a range of Easy Composites Epoxy Colour Pigments that will work well. Alternatively, for transparent tints try our range of Easy Composites Translucent Tinting Pigments.

Yes, ET500 would make a good alternative to Araldite and could be used for all of the same applications. Given its fast cure, it's more similar to Araldite Rapid, rather than the normal slower Araldite.

As for using it without a mixer nozzle, yes, you can certainly do this. Again, it would be much like Araldite where you would squeeze out equal amounts of resin and hardener (A and B in Araldite world) and then mix them thoroughly on a clean surface. Squeezing equally is much easier using a dispenser gun, even when you're not using the mixer nozzles. The twin tube cartridges do come with a cap which can be placed back on to the tube. I don't recall if the cap can be accidentally turned around but if it can then you'd need to make sure you don't ‘cross it over’ when you put it back on the adhesive.

Yes. Once fully hardened, the ET500 adhesive can, like most cured epoxies, be drilled. You would typically use a metal cutting HSS drill bit and starting with a small pilot hole, work your way up to the bigger hole sizes. Be careful not to use too much speed or pressure to avoid the resin being damaged by heat.