Thread: Label Casting ?

Are you sanding the tubes as well to give it something to bite to as well?

Tubes are sanded, the second time, with the CA applied the paint and label glue were perfect. The whole lot slid out of the reasin without a mark.

Sorry I'm not quite clear - did the tube and label slide out, or did the label stay in the cast and just the tube come out?

If the label stayed behind, was there glue residue on the tube?

Also, was the CA applied over the label, or under?

Russell.

Russell

With no CA applied the tube slid out from under the label. It lloked like the label glue was th eproblem at this stage.

With CA applied over the label, the whole thing, tube paint and label slid out of the resin. It was in good enough condition to reuse.

Mike

The label glue is a problem. Most of the glues soften up under heat. (and the resin can
generate a LOT of heat when it cures) Think of duct tape once it has gotten hot .. it
never goes back to being like new even after it cools off.

I've had the same situation you have .. cast looks fine but the tube will slide out, leaving
a nice looking cast with nothing to attach the pen parts to.

The 82xx series Avery labels are recommended by others who cast. They also say that
the tubes should be powder coated, not painted. That's what stopped me from casting
any further; I'm not set up to powder coat and I'm not in a position to buy the equipment.
The person who was advising me says that "painted tube = failure"

Others have said to coat the label with CA, some said use white glue. This should stop
the label from discoloring or becoming translucent from resin seeping into the label. The
tube can show through a wet label.

Mag, I don't see where you say you CA glued the lable to the tube. Would that work?

What Newlondon said. I have yet to try with a factory label, only did my home-made paper & glue job. Will report back when I get some results.

Russell.

Some people have also said that putting glue over the label might leave ripples on the
surface, marring the finish. Another successful caster says to paint the tube with
uncatalyzed resin before putting it in the mold.

The resin is cured by heat, and the catalyst in the rest of the resin will generate enough
heat to cure the thin layer of resin around the tube. With enough heat, you don't even
need a catalyst. Perhaps the catalyst itself is doing something to the glue? Dunno, just
passing it along.

Another tutorial here, this one is on snake skin casting, but the same principles would
apply (I think)

http://www.redriverpens.com/pdf%20fi...inTutorial.pdf

Seems to have worked so far.. still a few problems, but they're getting worked out.

Was that one done by painting the tube with uncatalysed resin?

That pen looks good, a nice match of colours between the kit and label and there's certainly no distortion that I can see.

Good to see you're getting some out NL, I'm yet to get anything printed on the labels you sent me, my move back into the working world has caused more hiccups in my spare time than I first thought.

How's the seam going?

Russell.

Managed to turn one that worked fine with one coat of Ca prior to pressure casting.

Unfortunately a small air bubble formed when I was sanding the blank square after polishing.

The stickers didn't really look as good as I wanted (Acceptable but thats all) so went on line and found some Photo Paper stickers which I will try over the next week.

Mike

Well the black doesn't really match.. it seems a little more gray than the kit parts, so I
probably won't use that combination. The ends are a bit ragged, too. I need to figure out
how to seal the ends so nothing gets in there, or so it doesn't 'chip out' when milling the
ends. I turned the mill around backwards and put sandpaper on it .. (poor man's
sanding mill) but I think the dust got under the edges.

Yes, this is with the uncatalyzed resin painted on. Seems to keep the bubbles from
forming on the tube itself. (mostly)

Seam seems to be OK, I use a set of colored Sharpie markers to match color.. although black is black, that's easy. The purple one I did looked fine before casting but the resin seems to have leached the purple so there's some purple, some red and
some blue. Gotta work on that, still.

To make sure the seam didn't unroll, I rolled it in wax paper and put a rubber band
around it, then it sat around for a couple of days while I did other stuff.

No distortion that I can see, I didn't coat with glue.

Like I said .. still a work in progress. At this point, it's just the excitement of seeing
the logo on a pen body.. cold be a logo or a photo . .artwork .. a signature?
Anything you can get out of a printer..

Originally Posted by NewLondon88

Well the black doesn't really match.. it seems a little more gray than the kit parts, so I probably won't use that combination. The ends are a bit ragged, too. I need to figure out
how to seal the ends so nothing gets in there, or so it doesn't 'chip out' when milling the ends. I turned the mill around backwards and put sandpaper on it .. (poor man's sanding mill) but I think the dust got under the edges.

Looks OK in the pic, which is all we have to go on. Slightly greyer but not enough to be worrisome. Although on closer inspection I can see what you mean by ragged edges.

Like I said .. still a work in progress. At this point, it's just the excitement of seeing the logo on a pen body.. cold be a logo or a photo . .artwork .. a signature? Anything you can get out of a printer..

Hmmm... I wonder how embossing would work? It'd add a 3D touch to, say, a logo for a bit more interest. I think one problem would be filling the air gap behind the embossing with resin so it doesn't become sucked flat again when vac'd down.