Thread: Block moulds and epoxy resin - where have I gone wrong?

Danny
Do you think the issue is the polishing or the material ?

Randal

Mixed colours in Epoxy is not quite the same as with PR, due to the slow setting rate, so dark colours will take over. Some colours mix others don't and only experience will show you. I can't help much, by the time I work it out, I forget even faster . The only guidance I could offer is use only 5% dark colours (5% of total resin that is not mold).

If you want pure resin blanks I would recommend sticking to PR or use Polyurethane (like Aluminite) with much faster setting times and polish better too. I mainly make blanks with only part resin, they are all finished with an external coating, CA for pens and NCL lacquer for the others.

I've done another couple of pens to try to figure this out and have some ideas about what went wrong.

The gold-y batch of resin isn't very opaque - I thought that would be OK, because a nice hint of brass showing through would be OK with these colours, but what I think is happening is that epoxy I used to glue it in shows up in patches and is very ugly. I think this batch is a lost cause unless I paint the drill holes, which seems like it would be a pain.

The other batch is trickier, it actually looks quite good in places. In the first batch I didn't take enough care with sanding/polishing up and down the blank so ended up with some circular scratches... Why I've never had that happen with PR blanks but it showed up in these I don't know!

The other issue with the blue batch of resin is that the red does tend to disappear. I think this may just vary with position across the blank depending on where I poured much red epoxy, and also because the blue is very dark and takes over things a bit.

Cheers,

Danny

The top pen in this photo is from the same blue block, I'm actually reasonably happy with the finish on it:



Ignore the others, they're polyester or polyurethane in resin saver moulds, so not the same issue!