Marine Adhesives

One group of cadets and technicians will wash and scrub the metal samples to remove grease and dirt. Use Scotch-Brite^TM soap pads. In addition to your metal and wood fixtures, you will test your epoxy on a rock. After cleaning and drying, get the samples ready by marking the square area to be epoxied with pencil or waterproof pen. Also mark each sample with its code id (below) and lay out a set of 5 fixtures at each epoxy station.

Another group of cadets and technicians will go outside and bring in buckets of seawater. Put the lids on the buckets to prevent splashing, and fill the buckets about half full. Collect one rock to test with each epoxy. The rock may be wet or dry when you collect it. Pour seawater into the large shallow trays to a depth of 1 or 2 inches to cover the samples. Put some seawater in the smaller storage boxes that will go in the refrigerator.

Shallow water trays for seawater shown in first photo. Cadets and technicians at work shown in second photo.

Repeat the epoxy preparation, as done last week. Mix up only as much epoxy at a time as you can use in 5 minutes. Use fume hoods as necessary. Mix the epoxy on the bench; then apply the epoxy with a stick to the submerged, wet samples. For the submerged rock sample, try to mark the rock with the letters of your epoxy (FW, 88, 911, 3070, FS, RIQ). If there is space on the rock surface, attempt to epoxy a plastic tab (provided) or other object to the rock. Keep the samples in the seawater tray until you are finished, and then quickly transfer them to a smaller covered plastic tray, filled with seawater, that will fit in the lab refrigerator. Make a note of the refrigerator temperature. There is a thermometer inside the refrigerator.