Thread: Pigments for casting

Originally Posted by schaf

As a follow up to Fred"s great report on the pressure pot.

I have purchased polyurethane resin for casting blanks and ,unsuccessfully,tried different coloring mediums,such as acrylic artist paints and also oil paints. I have asked the supplier a lot of questions and the pigments are very expensive.I suppose they will last a long time.

Do you think that pigments marketed as "polyester resin pigments" would be compatible with polyurethane resin. I can buy polyester pigments much cheaper.

Terry

G'day Terry, not sure what the polyester resin pigments are dispersed in, read somewhere they use DPM ( dipropylene glycol mono-methyl ether). I suppose the only way to find out is to suck it and see. I have purchased some water clear PR (polyester resin) as well as some standard PR casting which has a slight brownish cast to it, but is OK for using with colouring.

There are a few good articles on casting in the IAP library as well as a few videos by grub32 on Youtube. Let me know if you can't find them and I'll put up a link.

Our seppo friends seem very fond of Alumilte when they use polyurethane but I don't think that is available here in Oz.

I have also purchased some Pearlex pigment from Barnes, but have yet to start mixing any witches brews. I'll report on my mixing and casting adventures in due course.

I assume polyurethane resin is the same as Clear Casting Resin? The latter is what I've been using, but I'm out of it at the moment so can't check the label.

I got small jars of "Polyester Pigment" from the same supplier here in Perth, and they had a big range of colours. Not very expensive and you need to use so little they are going to last a long time.