Microballoon mixture for wood

Eugenia Stamatopoulou <stamatopoulou [at] deste__gr> writes

>This query is posted on behalf of Maria Filipoussi
>
>    Does anybody have information about epoxy resin/phenolic
>    microballoons mixture as a filler for wood objects? I am looking
>    for a commercial brand name and suppliers in Europe.

I also have had good luck with Ciba's Araldite 1253 and find its
working properties to be very nice, as mentioned by others.
According to the MSDS, this is an aromatic epoxy bulked with (in no
particular order) titanium dioxide, amorphous silica, iron oxide,
and phenolic resin (presumably as spheres or balloons).

My colleague Lisa Ellis and I did some tests a while ago to see if
B-72 would be a suitable and reversible barrier layer for this
material when used on wood.  We found that, used together, the bond
strength is very good, and that the bond can be reversed easily in a
xylenes vapor chamber (a chamber of xylenes is a nasty thought, but
it should be safe for most furniture varnishes and paints).  I now
use B-72 in almost all circumstances as my barrier layer if I want
to use Araldite.  You can have a look at the test results at
<URL:http://www.wag-aic.org/2002/WAG_02_ellis.pdf>  or in the Spring
2004 JAIC.

Arlen Heginbotham
Associate Conservator
Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation Department
J. Paul Getty Museum
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1000
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1687
310-440-7178
Fax: 310-440-7745


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:50
                 Distributed: Thursday, April 13, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-50-003
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