It was Pound Store epoxy. The sort that does set good and hard; but strictly whenever it wants to, not necessarily in the amount of time stated on the packaging. Or maybe they are relying on looser definitions of "workable", "setting" and "set" than I am. Anyway, don't take whatever it says on the card too seriously. You can practically feel how long the "workable" phase is going to last as soon as you first mix the resin and hardener, if you've done it enough times; but how long you've got to apply it, before it begins setting in earnest, is still no reliable indication of how long that setting is going to take.
The idea of mixing the resin and hardener on a beermat with a matchstick, for disposability, was my dad's; which he learned from his dad. Not wanting it to stick awkwardly to the inside of the bin liner and in so doing reduce the space available for rubbish, was my initial primary motivation for waiting for it to set hard before disposal. The thought then occurred to me that if the unused mixture on the beermat had set hard, then the adhesive
in situ ought also to have set similarly hard. Then the thought occurred to me that the materials being adhered together were utterly dissimilar, the beermat was exposed to the atmosphere, it must have sat in direct sunlight for an hour ..... which, if any, of these factors might have had the greatest influence on setting time? Then the thought occurred to me that
sod it, I don't even know how long it's been that hard anyway; but I do know I need a crap, and right now probably is as good a time as any to try it out. Hence my willingness to accept the lousy proxy, on the basis that the errors probably cancelled one another out anyway
P.S. I have chain-smoked weed all day, and wolfed down not one, but
two hashburgers™ ..... Man, if I had my shit
properly together, I'd be
dangerous!
