Thread: Resin or polyester casting

G'day Konstantin,

Welcome to the pen forum, for cost effectiveness it would be cheaper to purchase pre cast snake skin blanks through Rick - Scrollzilla on the forum here. With Rick in America it would be quick service to order from them. Casting takes a lot of work especially when it come to quality casting. Then there is the expense, resin, vacuum pump, vac chamber, gauges etc. All I can say their quality is fantastic, service as good as the quality and they are nice folks into the bargin. Have a look at some of the pictures of the skins that have been posted and see what you think.
Darren

Originally Posted by bdar

G'day Konstantin,

Welcome to the pen forum, for cost effectiveness it would be cheaper to purchase pre cast snake skin blanks through Rick - Scrollzilla on the forum here. With Rick in America it would be quick service to order from them. Casting takes a lot of work especially when it come to quality casting. Then there is the expense, resin, vacuum pump, vac chamber, gauges etc. All I can say their quality is fantastic, service as good as the quality and they are nice folks into the bargin. Have a look at some of the pictures of the skins that have been posted and see what you think.
Darren

Got to agree with Darren


Welcome to the forum Konstantin I think you might be our first from Mexico

Enjoy

Welcome Konstantin.

I have being playing around casting my own snake skin blanks using shed skins. I will post mine when finished, but basically I did the following:

1. coat the sleeve with white epoxy
2. turn round & remove any lumps by sanding on lathe
3. glue the skin on with clear epoxy
4. turn 12mm square timber into small cones at one end to fit into sleeves
5. glue the cones in the ends of the sleeves with a little CA
6. place cones/sleeves in 12mm plastic U channel with ends sealed with gaffa tape
7. cast using Diggers clear casting resin
8. cut off cones and trim ends of blanks

But, I do agree with the others, it's better to buy the pre-made ones. Better quality and certainly less hassle.

Good luck

Hello Konstantin,
Welcome to the group. Thank you all for the compliments. Casting your own blanks can be quite challenging, but also rewarding. There are a few posts on here that have links to tutorials on this. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Cheers,

Rick

Interesting approach Dai, I didnt think about "coat the sleeve with white epoxy", I tried to glue the skin to the bare tubing.
Yeah the whole process I did was a mess, specially the resin part. So far on the local market I have found a couple of clear resins, some local brands and in two varieties, 12 hours set and 24 hours set.
Do you have any pointers as for getting zero bubbles in the resin?
Do you use an oven to cure the resin ?

Also I have this skin which I liked the looks but it is quite stiff and though I sanded the back of it to thin and make it more flexible it did not become soft.

At first I thought about vertical mold for casting but the horizontal U channel sounds much more cast-friendly.

I agree about cost effective casting, it is in a dedicated manufacturers hands, for variety of reasons, space, quality and lets not forget health too.


Thank you.
Konstantin.

Edit:
How do bare skin pens looks like? Practical?
I know that skin wears off quite soon and refurbishment will be often, but out of pure curiosity, anyone makes them, buys them?

Originally Posted by konstantin

Do you have any pointers as for getting zero bubbles in the resin?
Do you use an oven to cure the resin ?
How do bare skin pens looks like? Practical?

I heat my resin with a hair dryer to make it thinner and makes the bubbles move quicker. I then hit the surface with a small flame gun (uses a cig lighter) to burst the bubbles. Have to be careful, the stuff is flamable & the surface catches fire every now and then , certainly wouldn't risk the oven.

Bare skins - Do you mean shed ones. If so, cast in clear resin with white background, they are similar to real skins but the colours are no where near as prominant.

Hope you don't mean bear skins