Originally Posted by
JS440
CA activator is more appropriately called "accelerator". CA will cure without any additional chemicals, although the more viscous it is, the longer it will take to fully kick without accelerator. It's worth having a bottle on hand, even if you rarely use it. It won't go bad. Epoxy is good for structural joints, or when you need to fill a small gap, but (just my opinion, I know many will argue) skip the 5 minute epoxy... the slow cure/24h stuff is much stronger, especially when working with porous materials.
You won't get any arguments from me on that. I use almost all medium and slow West Systems in my builds. Interestingly, West Systems, regardless of the hardener, cures in 24 hours. It just starts to cure faster with the faster hardeners