ResinSaver mould to the rescue

**Big Shed** · 15th September 2010, 10:52 PM

Decided to play with some WW casting, using PR (not rich enough for PU), using some of the off-cuts from the block of Brown Mallee I got as present the other day.

The Cigar Americana is quite slim, and short, FP which really has to have the cap posted be write with. It uses the normal 10mm Cigar tubes, but somewhat shorter.

The OD of the cap fittings is 12.6mm, leaving a wall thickness of 1.3mm min on the blank, but the lower barrel fittings are 11.4mm OD, leaving a wall thickness of 0.7mm.

Let me tell you this is not the best pen to try your first WW blank on!

Cap went fine, but the lower barrel was another story, was almost there and a large chunk of resin and Mallee burl flew off. As the cap looked rather speccy, and it was the only blank I had, I decided to look for the bits and see whether I could put Humpty back together again. Well, almost. Some smaller bits were missing, but really too big to "fudge" with CA and shavings/dust.

The I remembered that some time ago I had bought 4 ResinSaver moulds from Charlie and decided to give the Cigar one a try. The lower barrel tube was just a tad shorter than the cap tube on a normal Cigar.

Glued as much as I could back on the tube, mixed 2 more lots of clear resin and Pearlex, put the tube in the mould and poured the 2 colours.

This was late in the day and with all the trouble my brain didn't work too well. Put the mould, as well as a Sierra one, in the pressure pot and put my normal pressure in (70 psi).

As I was was laying in bed that night, a little light went on the dark brain cavity, oh no, should have only used about 20 psi, or no pressure at all!

Anyway in the morning took them out, and you guessed it, quite a bit of resin in the tubes

Drilled the resin out, re-turned the blank and you couldn't see it had been repaired.

Will put the end result in another thread.

One drawback of the ResinSaver mould is that they are set up to do pairs of tubes, even for the Sierra, so even if you only want one, you're doing 2 because of the low connection between the 2 cavities.

No biggie, but if I ever make one of these myself, I will do the same as I saw another bloke on another forum do in the last few days, make individual cavities. Oh and his cavities were square as well, saving a bit more resin and a bit less resin to be turned off.

The pink mould is the Sierra, the other the Cigar, nifty idea these. I will be using them a lot more, now that I have broken the ice!

**NewLondon88** · 16th September 2010, 01:30 AM

Nice save! Where's the pen?

Oops on the 70psi .. yeah, silicone compresses under pressure, so it's not the best
for worthless wood. But I'd use the Resinsavers for repairs if I were the type to ever make
a mistake

Did you have any trouble matching the color? Although I should know better, I'm not
in the habit of writing down what I do.. I just figure I'll remember. Yeah, right! Maybe
20 years ago..

I'm not familiar with the Cigar americana .. is that something local? Now I know another
kit that can use that mold. Cool! There's so many names to keep track of, I should
make myself a chart of which kit can use which mold..

I also see in the third pic a spot I must have missed trimming. When the molds
come out, I take a pair of scissors and cut the flash .. trim them up. it's only for
aesthetics, doesn't affect the mold at all, but it looks cleaner. I see a ragged divider
on that one, so it must have gotten by me.

Nice colors .. is that PR dye or is that a PU dye? Some of the PU dyes give a deep
rich color, more than the normal PR dyes I've been using.

**Big Shed** · 16th September 2010, 09:34 AM

Did you have any trouble matching the color? Although I should know better, I'm not
in the habit of writing down what I do.. I just figure I'll remember. Yeah, right! Maybe
20 years ago..

Charlie, as a retired chemist, the answer is yes, everything I do in the casting area is documented in my little black book. Wasn't really necessary in this case as the blank was only made a couple of days before, but......

I'm not familiar with the Cigar americana .. is that something local? Now I know another
kit that can use that mold. Cool! There's so many names to keep track of, I should
make myself a chart of which kit can use which mold..

Made by Dayacom, sold by Timberbits

Like I said, they use 10mm tubes, but they are somewhat shorter so you have to trim the ends to remove excess resin.

I also see in the third pic a spot I must have missed trimming. When the molds
come out, I take a pair of scissors and cut the flash .. trim them up. it's only for
aesthetics, doesn't affect the mold at all, but it looks cleaner. I see a ragged divider
on that one, so it must have gotten by me.

Bit slack on the QC Charlie

. I think you were pre-occupied with your new laser at the time

Nice colors .. is that PR dye or is that a PU dye? Some of the PU dyes give a deep
rich color, more than the normal PR dyes I've been using.

Not "dyes" Charlie, but Pearlex pigments. Always amuses me how you seppos talk about dyes when you really mean pigments.

Care to comment on why you have the low part in the connecting bridge between the 2 cavities?

**NewLondon88** · 16th September 2010, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Care to comment on why you have the low part in the connecting bridge between the 2 cavities?

It is there to keep the two tubes together so they don't get mixed up. It is a small enough
bridge so that it doesn't use much resin, but large enough to keep them from becoming
separated (and possibly mixed up with other, similar castings) until you're ready.

As for why it is in the Sierra, which has two identical tubes, it was simply a holdover
from the other molds for the sake of consistency.

I know some people have blocked it with silicone so they can pour one tube. I just
keep one half as a 'spare'. When I want to pour just one, I throw the spare in the other
side and pour 1/2 the amount of resin.

**Big Shed** · 16th September 2010, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by NewLondon88

It is there to keep the two tubes together so they don't get mixed up. It is a small enough
bridge so that it doesn't use much resin, but large enough to keep them from becoming
separated (and possibly mixed up with other, similar castings) until you're ready.

As for why it is in the Sierra, which has two identical tubes, it was simply a holdover
from the other molds for the sake of consistency.

I know some people have blocked it with silicone so they can pour one tube. I just
keep one half as a 'spare'. When I want to pour just one, I throw the spare in the other
side and pour 1/2 the amount of resin.

Thanks Charlie, that is what I decided to do, you can see the spare half in the first pic

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