gawdelpus
5th October 2009, 12:12 AM
Found a little time this week to have a try at "clear casting" had some diggers clear cast and fixer for a few months, finally had a try at this aspect of the pen crafting .
Found a mold at Big-w for $1 .50 .looked like silicone for Ice making :) well the :diggers" said water clear on the label .:) I had a couple of sierra tubes so turned up some dowel plugs for each end and the middle . Just fitted neatly into the mold and the larger diameter kept it from bottoming out ,and also central in the mold. Next I used some medium CA on the tubes and sprinkled with craft glitter as best I could, my fingers looked pretty colorful at the end hehe. I had determined that I needed 20 mills of compound to fill and cover the tubes and wood, was not sure on the activater for this amount ,so got it wrong , I used 2 drops,should of been about 6-8 I found out later. It took about a day to set and I removed the new casting on the second day was slightly tacky but hard,it is no longer tacky so will try and turn tomorrow, I really don't expect that I can make a pen from this as it was really only a proof of concept,but we shall see ,I might be surprised in the end, all in all was a worthwhile project for future reference ,I am thinking more for labels or stamps or whatever ,there are plenty of good acrylics available to cover most needs for pens , but this could cover more specialised needs .I Just took the photos with flash ,not cropped a lot so you can see the mold as well . Cheers John .
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/gawdelpus/1stcast2.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/gawdelpus/1stcast.jpg
Found a mold at Big-w for $1 .50 .looked like silicone for Ice making :) well the :diggers" said water clear on the label .:) I had a couple of sierra tubes so turned up some dowel plugs for each end and the middle . Just fitted neatly into the mold and the larger diameter kept it from bottoming out ,and also central in the mold. Next I used some medium CA on the tubes and sprinkled with craft glitter as best I could, my fingers looked pretty colorful at the end hehe. I had determined that I needed 20 mills of compound to fill and cover the tubes and wood, was not sure on the activater for this amount ,so got it wrong , I used 2 drops,should of been about 6-8 I found out later. It took about a day to set and I removed the new casting on the second day was slightly tacky but hard,it is no longer tacky so will try and turn tomorrow, I really don't expect that I can make a pen from this as it was really only a proof of concept,but we shall see ,I might be surprised in the end, all in all was a worthwhile project for future reference ,I am thinking more for labels or stamps or whatever ,there are plenty of good acrylics available to cover most needs for pens , but this could cover more specialised needs .I Just took the photos with flash ,not cropped a lot so you can see the mold as well . Cheers John .
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/gawdelpus/1stcast2.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/gawdelpus/1stcast.jpg