Thread: First success at casting

Hey all,

This weekend I was lucky enough to host a small forum get together. Once I heard Dai Sensai was in town, I jumped at the opportunity to pull out my pressure pot to learn from the master. I haven't had any success on my own casting waste wood blanks so learning from a seasoned professional could be just what I needed.

Saturdays shenanigans can be followed here,
Melbourne based get togethers


On Sunday wandered over to the pressure pot - it had dropped from 40 - 38 psi, so nothing really in the scheme of things...
I opened the pot, and thats where I came across a couple of problems. The small paper cup with seed pods had not set at all (maybe we forgot the MEKP with all the chit chat going on), and the other 2 molds were a little sticky.
I did a quick search on WWF, and a recommendation of placing them in the oven at 100 deg for 20 mins seemed like the solution. Apparently its a fairly common issue. The only problem with this solution is that I wish to stay married - so after some consultation from other folks, putting the resin in the sun for a few hours seems to also be a problem solver. Lucky the Melbourne weather has been great the last couple of days!!!

All dry.....almost.JPG

So after a few hours in the sun, then taking the molds off, and another couple of hours in the sun for the edges, I had 2 very nice looking blocks of timber in resin!!!

Dry blocks.JPG

Then cut it all into blanks,

Rough cut.JPG

gave them a sand and a light coat of clear acrylic and I reckon they look pretty darn good. The Gold/pink seems to have a lot more swirl where the blue seems to have absorbed most of the pink that went in (or maybe when I turn them I'll get a nice surprise)

Finished Blanks.JPG
Close up red mallee burl.JPG
Close up mystery burl.JPG

I have drilled/glued tubes into one of the blanks, and hopefully will get a chance this week to turn it and show off a finished product of all our handywork (Actually, basically Dai Sensai)

Thanks

Gab