Colouring Araldite
 

Morning all,

I need to colour some araldite black (I can use either slow set or quick set in this particular application), however, I note a recent post warning against using water-based acrylic paint to colour araldite as it extends drying time significantly.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience colouring araldite with spirit-based dyes and how this impacts on drying time.

thanks
Bruce

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

A little bit of Humbrol enamel doesn't affect the setting of Araldite. Use just enough to blacken it and no more.

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

I have successfully coloured Araldite black using a spirit based wood dye.

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

There are dyes for colouring resin for glassfibre work. Probably the minimum bottle size will be too much, but long term effects have been tested on millions of boats.

David

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Mixing in some lamp black (finely divided carbon dust, or soot) should work, but could make it electrically conductive.

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

I wonder if you could stir-in some crumbled up watercolor paint?

Black realised via carbon-black/graphite inclusion could be an issue if the colored Araldite was used somewhere exposed to significant voltage or RF currents.

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

G'day from Australia Bruce,

I use black oxide pigment powder available over here from any hardware store and usually used for colouring concrete. It is cheap and available in small containers and can be used to colour all types of concoctions.

Peter

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

If a reasonable amount is needed, you could use potting compound, which is a type of epoxy resin and can be purchased in black (pre-coloured). It comes in set quantities though, so may be too much in one go, depends on your application.

Dave

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Thanks all for this wealth of suggestions.....I've both spirit based dye and standard gloss black enamel in the workshop so will have a play with both.......dye for resin sounds interesting too and last time I looked these dyes were available in quite small bottles. I still have a small bottle of orange resin dye (fibreglass kayak repairs) that I've been using for something like 40 years and many many often quite substantial repairs - it goes a very long way.

I'll report back when the job is complete......

Bruce

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

I used to be a porcelain restorer, and always used artists' powder paint to tint Araldite. It works with either the rapid or slow setting types and costs next to nothing.

Barry

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Useful hint, I still have an assortment of tins of Windsor & Newton and Rowney powder paints I bought years ago for the kids when a local crafts shop closed down. The kids didn't use them all up. The next time I need to do a crockery repair, I will try using the white powder.

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Let us know the results Bruce (it was me who had the 2 week wait for 'Docrafts Artiste All purpose acrylic paint' to set properly. Possibly this was the time taken for all the moisture to disperse)

This week has been 'araldite week' here, and has made me yearn for a 'medium' brand to be invented- somewhere between the 2 hours and 14 hours variants- the 14 hour one seems to take a day or more to lose it's tackiness!

Dave

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Chimney soot? (and it's free!)

Alan

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

(May end up being acidic and semi-conductive though!)

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

I've been given a collection of 'Milliput' 2-part resin fillers in various colours - I used the white version to repair a mobile leisure washroom basin for a Customer - there's a black version available:

https://www.milliput.com/black.html

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Guy

(Usual disclaimer i.e. I have no commercial connection with this company, I'm just a satisfied user)

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Black toner powder as used in laser printers works well

Chris

Re: Colouring Araldite
 

Well.......after spring rains and a lot of back-breaking garden digging and planting I've managed to get back to this project.

I used standard "24 hour to full-strength araldite" and the remnants of some black enamel paint that I've had for at least 40 years. I mixed the araldite and paint in three batches, being particularly unscientific about how many drops went into the mix each time. The outcome is fantastic, at about 18 hours now it is solid as a rock, and regardless of the amount of colouring added to each mix all have set solid. The choice of long set araldite rather than 5 mins was the right choice, I couldn't have done this job in 5 mins.

The job involved inserting the araldite into a 12 mil deep x 4mil slot in strips of timber. I did this by decanting the araldite directly into a suitably sized syringe, dripping the black paint from a screwdriver into the syringe and mixing it in with a bit of thin wire on which I'd bent a bit of a tab so it would "grab" a bit as it mixed. I really liked this way of applying the araldite (or any other glue), it gives a lot of control over how much glue is applied and allows a bit of "suck back" if it has gone on too thickly in an places.

BTW the gluing project was the final stages in the renovation of a Lenco GL-75 where I'd revived and strengthened the well-worn original plinth through building a heavy-weight plinth inside the original, and added a SME3009 tone arm. The SME arm necessitating lifting up the perspex cover a little for clearance. I did this by adding a wooden strip (black to match the bottom of the plinth) around the bottom edge of the cover. I'd routered a 4 mil slot and the job was to attach the wooden strip to the perspex - I thought about silastic which would have given a fairly solid attachment but in the end opted for araldite to get a more solid attachment that would add support to the perspex cover.

Bruce