Thread: Taking The Next Step (Casting)

Thanks Neil,

They appear to be very dry, however I am not planning on rushing things with these anyway so will give them more time just to make sure.

Cheers
Tony.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

I assume you are casting them in tubes. Pour your resin in to half way up the tube, then put you cone in slowly whilst twisting. After they are in, top up with more resin as necessary, ensuring you overfill the tubes. You may also need some ice-cream sticks or similar to hold the cones in the mold, held down with gaffa tape or similar. Then into the pressure pot to cure.

I only hope the cones are dry. Slightly green cones make a mess with the resin.

Make sure they are set before you remove the molds from the pot, I tend to leave overnight. Under pressure the temperature reduces thus setting takes longer in the pot than outside.

Cheers

Can I use this same method with the small banksia nuts I have?
Am I going for a good fit or plenty of room around them for the resin?
Peter

Originally Posted by dai sensei

I assume you are casting them in tubes. Pour your resin in to half way up the tube, then put you cone in slowly whilst twisting. After they are in, top up with more resin as necessary, ensuring you overfill the tubes. You may also need some ice-cream sticks or similar to hold the cones in the mold, held down with gaffa tape or similar. Then into the pressure pot to cure.

I only hope the cones are dry. Slightly green cones make a mess with the resin.

Make sure they are set before you remove the molds from the pot, I tend to leave overnight. Under pressure the temperature reduces thus setting takes longer in the pot than outside.

Cheers

Same method, but leave some room around the pods, as the resin must get in sideways if you know what I mean. They will definitely float too, without holding them down.

In the process of making a circular tube rack for my pressure pot from some old bits and pieces of ply and dowel I had kicking around

So should be ready to try some pressure casting soon

Cheers
Tony

Hi,

Circular casting rack is now made, and I have the pot under pressure with a couple of pine cone and a couple of small Banksia's as an experiment.
I will post photos of the outcome later.

Cheers
Tony

Bugger if you keep this up ,on your next trip overseas they are gonna think there is no real wood in Ozzie ! lol. I dropped Neils mold off today .so even more stuff for him to play with hehe, never a boring moment Cheers ~ John

Hey Folks,

Well after weeks struggling with air bubbles, I finally cracked the problem. Took a big wad of cash on a new pale of resin to figure it out, but it looks like my stuff I was using was just too old and was just too thick. So a note to all casters out there. If you are having bubble trouble that just won't go away, check how old your resin is.

Here's my first cast with the new stuff. Looking under the microscope, apart from one bubble trapped under the wire, the rest is crystal clear

Russell.

I am now well and truly hooked on casting my own blanks and with good success. The attached photo is of some that I cast this morning.
The blanks to shown at the top of the photo had some small bubbles around the outside of the blank which scared me, but I later found out that these bubbles were due to the oil I coated the inside of the tubes with. The blanks internally have no bubbles
I am enjoying mixing and matching the colours to provide some interesting blanks.
So cheers for now and Im looking forward to doing many more.

Still got to master the WW, Pine Cones and Banksia's though

Cheers
Tony

At least you will have your own brand of uniqueness with your pens ,which is what we all strive for as individuals ,having seen these in the flesh I am certain some beautiful pens to come from this lot cheers ~ John

Dorno,

Ian I have changed the drawing and created the toolpaths to cut your mold, hopefully I will get some time over the weekend to cut it for you.

Ian, (Dorno)

Your mold is cut From what the other guys were saying you will more than likely need to use a mold release or oil the mold very lightly prior to casting. This should help with release once they have cured. If you have not already send me your shipping details and how you would like it to be sent and I will get it sent as soon as I can.

Cheers
Tony.

Those of you wondering where Ringtails' questions and answers went, I have moved them to their own thread as they really took over Tony's original thread, see here

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f204/c...roject-151180/

Originally Posted by AuS MaDDoG

Thanks Russell & Neil,

Still getting my stuff together but starting to get there, bottled up all my Pearl-Ex pigments today but ran out of the small bottles, so i will finish the rest another day.

I am going to be looking at making some casting moulds for blanks as well, thinking of making a reverse mould and then pouring in silicone to make a casting as the blanks seem to release very easy from the silicone and no need to dismantle moulds for release, what do the rest of you guys use.
Thought I would ask as maybe I am going down the wrong path



Cheers
Tony

Hi,
Do you remember where you purchased the pearl-ex from?
Thanks Ben

Ben you could check Russell (boomeranginfo) he stocks a large range I believe , Cheers~ John