Casting Resin Blanks

[Naf]

Well after a lot of help from CameronPotter I've finally made some of my own pen blanks (I think). I have only just taken it out of the cast and cut it onto blank size.
A quick question, as I bought two pigment powders, one blue and one pearlescent lilac, do I mix up the right amount of the main color and then a small amount of pearlescent, then wait until it starts to gel and then try to swirl the pearlescent mix through the main color mix?
This is what I have done with my first lot and its a bit hard to tell but it doesn't look like it swirled through very well.
As soon as I turn one I'll know for sure I guess.

Nathan

[CameronPotter]

I haven't quite got it right myself... What I call "started to gel" was too much and introduced bubbles - damn.

The swirl will stay better if the resin is gelled more, but it will also be more likely to introduce bubbles. :(

I will be interested to see your results.

Cam

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Another method I've come across uses plastic conduit for the mould. I'm gonna try some sparhky's conduit. When filling, it's a case of making both colours in plastic bags then snipping a bottom corner off 'em (a la icing bag) and pouring both into the tube at the same time. Different sized holes gives different colour ratios.

Won't be quite the swirly effect, but I'm gonna give it a try... I'll also get SWMBO to slowly "spin" the conduit as I fill to try for a spiral pattern. Hope she has enough spare rubber gloves... I expect it'll be messy! :D

[CameronPotter]

Buy a pack of the latex gloves from the supermarket. Once you have a pack you'll wonder how you ever got by without them...

Also, I have heard that the tube method makes the resin dry pretty slowly. Just keep that in mind.

(Good idea about the bags, I have only ever used placcy cups)

Cam

[Naf]

I will turn one today. As I'm on holidays SWMBO has plenty of things for me to do around the house thats's cutting into my shed time.

I guess its trial and error for the first few times. I think it hadn't gelled enough, but I think it's a very small time window that you have to get. And I can't agree more about the latex gloves, I got a box when I was using wipe on poly for another project and now I use them for everything (in the shed I mean).

Nathan

[ss_11000]

once its turned, post a pic because it sounds interesting

[Naf]

OK here it is. It turned very similar to the shop bought blanks, definately softer though. Once I'd finished turning and finishing, I turned off the lathe, look at it and almost through it in the bin because the brass tube was showing through really badly and the two different colors didn't mix very well, well thats not true, they did mix, but too much, there isnt much of a swirl in there. As I was about to bin it, I thought that even though it looks bad, it was still my first attempt, so I put it together and voila. I think I needed to put more of the base color pigment in and wait for it to gel more before I put the two colors together.

Nathan

[ss_11000]

nice attempt at it, i can see why you thought of chucking it but i think you did the right thing in keeping it.

good luck with the next batch.

[bdar]

Nathan another way to solve the problem of the brass tubes showing through the acrylic is buy using paint pens for auto touchups. One of my managers got married today on Day Dream Island, tried to save him but he went through with it. I made a cream pearl with black swirl acrylic JR Gentleman fountain pen, painted the tubes white and then glued the tubes in and when they were finished you could not see the tubes.
Darren

[Naf]

Darren, I've been painting the tubes white when I use an acrylic such as you did, with the mixture I made I thought it was a lot darker than it really was.

I made up another batch tonight, waited a bit longer after it started to gel, thought I'd have a smoke while I'm waiting, finished said smoke ...... too late, it was like putty by then. Another lesson well learnt.

Nathan

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

There's nothing wrong with it. Sure, it didn't turn out as you'd hoped or expected, but it's perfectly fine as it is. :)

For the darker semi-transparent acrylics I prefer to darken the blanks, you can simply dip them in... something (major brain fart happening here... I keep wanting to say HCl but that's definitely not it! :( I'll probably remember tomorrow. :rolleyes: ) that oxidises the brass.

Painting the tubes runs a risk of the paint delaminating from the tube at a later date, making the quality of your glue up irrelevant. Not saying it can't or shouldn't be done, but you should ensure the tubes are clean (no greasy fingerprints!) and roughed slightly (a quick whizz with sandpaper) to give the paint something to key into.

[CameronPotter]

Yeah, I prefer to oxidise.

Nothing wrong with that pen, but as you say, not much swirl.

I would add a lot more pearlescent.

I think that doing that might sort you out.

Cam

[Naf]

Well after wasting a fair bit of resin using a mould that is around 4 pen blanks wide, it was starting to get very expensive. So I searched the house and the shed to find a mould that would equal one blank, that way I can get more experiments out of each can of resin. I couldnt find anything, then thought what if I rout a channel in a piece of thick pine and use that. So thats what I did, and it actually worked fairly well as a mould. I thought it might seep into the pine, or heat up too much and who knows what might happen, but that didnt happen, it did stick in there fairly well but I cut it out on the bandsaw and all was OK.
By the way the blanks still look crappy, but looking better that previous attempts.

Nathan

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I gather you didn't think to line the timber mould with glad-wrap/cling-film/whatever you call it in your neck of the woods?

[Naf]

I'll give the glad wrap a go, If it had of shrunk a bit more i think it would have come out easily.

Here's my latest attempt, I am sort of pretty pleased with this one. Its not what I was after exactly, but atleast it wasnt a total waste.

Nathan

[jmk89]

Here's my latest attempt, I am sort of pretty pleased with this one. Its not what I was after exactly, but atleast it wasnt a total waste.

Nathan

Nathan
Either it's a very small pen or we're missing a picture.:D

[Naf]

Oops I'll try again

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

There's some nice fleck in that. I gather the photo doesn't do it justice? They rarely do.

Hmmm... I wonder how some aluminium foil would go, lightly crinkled and cast into a resin block? Cameron? You reading? Any ideas?

[CameronPotter]

I am reading this now (getting ready to show off my latest creation)...

A few comments.

Naf, for moulds, you can use PVC pipe, but I prefer to make swirls in my block so I make the block bit (probably 6ish pens), then cut it up on the bandsaw using a metal cutting blade on SLOOOW.

I like the flecks too.

As for the foil, I have though about this, it might be hardish to get right as the foil might introduce bubbles. You would have to be very careful about this. Also, the foil might cause the blank to come apart as the resin may not stick to the foil properly.

This could be overcome by perforating the foil to allow the resin to pass through. As for avoiding bubbles... It could be set under pressure to crush the bubble down, or the foil could be carefully covered in resin before adding it to the mould. I have though about doing exactly this with a single piece of cloth (soak it and put it in a mould).

The only thing is that resin is taking so long to set here now (as it is getting cold) making resin stuff doesn't make much sense anymore. :mad:

Anyway, I will look forward to seeing other people's efforts.

Cam

[Naf]

The fleck is an accident in a way, I was trying to create swirls by mixing a deep blue and lilac pearlescent pigments seperately and then waiting for it to gel and then swirl, as you can see it didnt really work, the two mixed together even while sitting, do you think it hadnt gelled enough or maybe something I'm not doing right?

Also while reading another thread someone mentioned a place called "solid solutions" in Bentleigh, Victoria. It will work out alot cheaper now. At the moment I can only find Diggers resin in 500ml cans, they also have the pigments.

Nathan

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

As for the foil, I have though about this, it might be hardish to get right as the foil might introduce bubbles. You would have to be very careful about this. Also, the foil might cause the blank to come apart as the resin may not stick to the foil properly.

Another thing I've been thinking about is setting up a mould (PVC pipe, jus 'cos it'll fit ;) ) inside a bell-jar and pulling it down with the vac pump. The reason I've been thinking about this wasn't so much because of bubbles, but to see if it has any effect on setting. 'Tis too cold here for resin now (which is why I'm asking instead of trying for myself) but perhaps if lower pressue = lower boiling point, that may xfer over to lower gel temp?

That it should also remove bubbles is a nice bonus. :)


The only thing is that resin is taking so long to set here now (as it is getting cold) making resin stuff doesn't make much sense anymore. :mad:

Exactly! :(

[CameronPotter]

I have used a mason jar to do exactly that. There is a post of my set up here somewhere...

However, the problem is that if the bubbles can't escape, pulling a vacuum actually INCREASES the size of the bubbles. ie If there is a bubble under the foil and the foil is stopping it from rising, then the resultant bubble with enlarge with the use of a vacuum.

I haven't noticed that it speeds the setting time or anything of the like.

If you want, you can build an "oven" for resin from a largish box and a lightglobe or two. Then if you want to get really fancy you can insulate it and add a thermostat. I would have done this by now, except that there isn't much point as I am not going to be able to take it with me when I leave. :(

Cam

Cam

[Grizz]

Hi guys,

I just got onto this thread and making resin blanks sounds interesting. Don't know if I should say this as I don't know your histories, but I found this link:
http://www.sydneywoodturners.com.au/site/articles/designs/pens/pens.html
I've probably shown my total ignorance of what research you have all done and apologise for any offence I may have caused, but it does look like a reasonable idea. Especially mixing the colours before pouring into the moulds.

Grizz.

[Naf]

Grizz, I also found this site. I made the jigs to the same specs as the one on the site. It is a much better way to fine tune as you can use just a small amount of resin, which keeps the cost of experimentation down a lot.
The blanks turned out a bit better this time, still not what I'm after exactly, the different colors are still mixing after they've been poured into the mould.

Nathan

[CameronPotter]

That is why I recommend bigger blanks - less mixing of colours... then cut it up with a hacksaw or a bandsaw on slow speed.

Cam

[Jenny Brandis]

Another method I've come across uses plastic conduit for the mould.

Suggestion only as I have never tried this

If you are going to make it round to start with, why not insert the pen tubing in so that the stuff sets around it?

plug the end of the pen tubing with 1cm araldite or similar, three quarter fill the conduit mould, insert the pen tubing plugged side down.

or

araldite the tube to the basecap of the conduit, pour the mix around it


saw the conduit in half lengthwise beforehand and use clamps to hold it together while the stuff sets. Undo the clamps to release the pressure on the mould, should make removal easy and mould reusable?

[Jenny Brandis]

try http://www.modelit.com.au/ for the resin etc

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Suggestion only as I have never tried this

If you are going to make it round to start with, why not insert the pen tubing in so that the stuff sets around it?

plug the end of the pen tubing with 1cm araldite or similar, three quarter fill the conduit mould, insert the pen tubing plugged side down.

Hmmm... I'd planned to use 1m(ish) lengths of conduit and simply cut the blanks to length. But your idea has merit. Abit more initial work, perhaps, but it saves several steps later. :) Methinks I'll have to give it a try.

Not too sure about aralditing the tube ends though... I may try the good ol' potato plugs first. I've always got a few spuds lying around after all. :D

[CameronPotter]

Makes it hard to get a swirl in your pattern though...

Depends a bit on what you are looking for I reckon.

Cam

[Naf]

Cam, next time you make a batch of resin blanks could you post a pic of one, maybe I can see what I need to do from that. I still can't stop the 2 or 3 different colors bleeding together after puring. Or is that inevitable, and I'm asking for too much? I don't mind the way they are turning out, but it's not exactly what I want.
With the pouring around the tube idea, Carrolls Woodcrafts sell Opalac pen blanks with the tube already in them, and they are only 40cents dearer than the solid blanks. I'm plugging Jim here coz that's one heck of a bargain. And it leaves you with spare brass tubes for those little mistakes we sometimes have.
Nathan

[CameronPotter]

Yeah, mine bleed together too much too...

Here is a set of piccies that I have taken:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/photo_album_view.asp?cname=Main+Album&mid=2308&cid=2513

I have had balnks that didn't bleed at all, but they had great big air bubbles. Damn!

Cam

[Naf]

Thanks, those pics actually help a fair bit, I like the pink with the blue speck, good idea Cam.

Nathan

[CameronPotter]

No probs. The pink was actually meant to be red - but I think that it must have reacted with something or other as it is definitely a very pink pink...

[DJ’s Timber]

Hi there I am new here,

naf
have you tried waiting for the resin to start going off before pouring. It sounds like it is a bit runny

Cam
try putting your moulds on some machinery that has a low vibration to rise your air bubbles out of the resin

cheers DJ

[rodent]

try this.pens.jpg (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=25175&stc=1&d=1150642243)

[neon007]

i have been making handles for knives with pearls and resin for years. I have found that the best results come from just mixing the pearl and resin then add the hardner, pour on the mold and just let it set. hope that helps

[Naf]

Neon, do you have any pics that you can post??

Nat

[rodent]

try gluing the sparkles on the tube before you cast

[neon007]

What kind of pics do u wanna see???

[Naf]

Any pics to do with your castings.

Thanks
Nathan