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turnerted
27th January 2018, 09:51 PM
G'day .
Small disposable paper drink cups are about 3/4 filled with gumnuts and about 10ml of clear epoxy casting resin is poured over the nuts to glue them all together and stop them floating, then into the pressure pot .
Next day the cups are topped up with resin and again preasurised .Next day the plug is removed from the cup by cutting down the side with a knife and pealing off the cardboard .
After standing for at least a day for the resin to cure , the top surface is sanded flat on a linisher then the plug is held in a chuck and drilled and tapped to suit the bottle stopper mandrill, ie a suitable sized bolt with the head cut off .The stopper is shaped with a carbide tool and a negative scrapper .Flaws in the surface are repaired with 5 minute epoxy . The finish is two coats of polyurathane painted on .
Hope this is of interest .
Ted
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Nubsnstubs
28th January 2018, 01:16 AM
Good looking stoppers, Ted. The explanation is good also. I have just one question. Do the gum nuts have any meat? in them, and if so, how does it react when you turn your castings and expose it?

I ask as I cast a magnolia pod once, and there were several seeds hidden that when turned exposed the meat? and it fell out after drying. It also left an oily residue on the outside on my turning. Needless to say, I abandoned that project until I further educated myself. ................. Jerry (in Tucson) USA

artme
28th January 2018, 06:29 AM
Great looking stoppers Ted and a clear explanation, .:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

I guess the two step casting is to [revent air bubble problems.


Thanks for your input Jerry. I was looking at magnolia casting and now am aware of a potential glitch!:2tsup:

Gabriel
28th January 2018, 11:47 AM
Love the thought of 2 pours to stop floating..... I'll keep that one in the vault (the door is constantly left open on that one though)

Cheers!

turnerted
28th January 2018, 02:24 PM
Thanks for the comments .
Jerry Some gum nuts still have their seeds in them but usually not a problem . As I said, small voids that appear when turning are fixed with 5 minute epoxy , which cures clear.
Artme The two step pouring is mostly just to stop the nuts floating , Sometimes I will do a third pouring if the resin level drops too low after the second pouring .
I have now adopted this two step process when casting bits of burl for pen blanks .

smiife
28th January 2018, 05:46 PM
Hi ted , thanks for the wip , will have to try this one day ,
They look great well done :2tsup:

brainstrust
3rd February 2018, 04:14 PM
very nice, great gift for the wine lovers too :2tsup:

Fumbler
4th February 2018, 11:10 AM
I once offered to make some for some friends but "the wine doesn't last long enough to need one"

good job