Thread: What do I need?

i checked the local super cheap today and they have pressure pots in stock but they are dear as sin, $205 on special, i am sure you will find ebay much cheaper

MIK

Originally Posted by MBUMIK

i am playing at the moment trying to get the embedding thing working but with not too much success

my casting kit includes
measuring jugs
paper cups

I had to stop and think at this one ..
paper cups are often lined with wax.. and this can break down when hit by resin. Mixing
wax into your resin can cause all sorts of problems with your casting. Also the glue
that holds the seam together may not be compatible with resins.

Just a couple of things that came to mind.. sometimes it's a little thing that wouldn't
seem important that can give you the most headache.

You're right about the #5 recycle symbol, those work fine. I've found sleeves of the
clear plastic cups for around $1 or less (check dollar stores or overstock stores) and
since they're clear, you can see your mix before you pour. I like the 9 ounce wide
mouth cups, plenty of room to work and they're wider than they are deep.

I have used many different mixing cups/containers in the past. The biggest problem is when I poured as I generally got drips going every where. Flexing the cup to form a sharp spout sometimes lead to the cup cracking and resin pouring around the molds instead of in them

These days I use a small transparent blue plastic measuring cup from Bunnings that is only $0.60. It holds around 300mls, has level/vol indicators on the side, and a long spout for easy pouring. I buy 10 at a time and rotate them. After a while the resin builds up, and by flexing the sides and pressing on the bottom the resin comes away, giving you a brand new cup again. Warning - don't try and help with resin come free by heavy handed techniques (like tapping with a hammer ), when the resin cracks, often the cup does too

Thank you for all the information so far.
I had a look at SC site and there pot were $@05 and I had a look at Ebay and some were $99 so I might try my luck there first.

Is there anything else I will need that has not been mentioned yet?

Originally Posted by Rum Pig

Is there anything else I will need that has not been mentioned yet?

Yes you can fly me to Darwin to help you
David

Looks like you've got lots of goold advice.

Did anyone mention disposable gloves? The stuff gets everywhere, mostly on you. Large bottles of acetone to clean up with are good too.

When the pressure pots are on sale at super chepa, they're usually around $100, or you get the combo deal with the compressure, tools etc for about $250 I think, which is a great price compared to the "normal" price for all that gear. I think they had one of those sales at mine just before Christmas.

Your biggest problem up there is probably going to be getting your resin cheap, unless you have a boat manufacturer or someone locally. Ordering through Barnes is going to hit you with postage. The small cans of diggers stuff you get in the hardwares is hugely expensive.

Regarding cups, I just get the plastic party cups from Crazy Clarks - 50 for $2 or something like that, around 220ml each, or 25 for $25 for the 400ml ones. Clear or white, both work. The 400ml are easier to use, but the smaller ones are handier. My moulds are around 300-500ml, and since I'm usually doing two colours, I just mix a batch in each cup then pour together.

I've taken to actually dipping the cup into the resin pot to fill it up, rather than pour out of the resin pot. Sure the cup gets all sticky on the outside, but as I said, everything gets sticky anyway, and the cup gets thrown away, whereas a sticky resin pot lid setting on your is not a good thing when you want to get more resin out.

Oh, mixing sticks. I get a pack of 200 paddlepop sticks also from the cheapy store for $2. They're also my spoons for getting the Pearlex and Polyester Pigments (was that mentioned too?) out of their jars.

You can also look for PSTF dyes if you want tinted colours. They're very expensive though. I just got some Pearlex from Dharma as well. Currently, you can get them, delivery included, for about half the price we pay locally. My originals I got when the $$ was way down and it wouldn't have been so economical then. I'm almost considering getting the large bottles you can get of the stuff too, as I seem to go through it pretty quick to get it opaque enough to not show the tube through.

Paper towels - lots and lots of paper towels for cleanup too. I highly recommend getting a set of the plastic 3ml pippettes you can get in packs. Barnes has them too, or several other suppliers. They are perfect for measuring MEKP and PSTF dyes without mess. I bought a pack of 100 and I've used about 5 of them so far in a year. I also use then to lubricate my drill bit with water as I'm drilling too. They have lots of uses. If only the darn mice would stop chewing holes in the ends of them!!

Do you realise what you've got yourself in for??

Russell.

OK I have just bought my 10ltr pot
I had a look at Barnes web site and there are a number of resins available witch do I use
And what size should I buy to start with?

i just got some of their clear casting/embedding resin

you will also need to get MEKP, but from what i have read MEKP is MEKP so it wont matter if you buy it locally from someone who sells fibreglass resin

i got the 4Kg size due to the price, much cheaper than the 1Kg size, i think i will save up to get the big one next time

MIK

MEKP is that a catalyst?

Another newbie question. How many pen blanks would 1kg make on average?

MEKP is the catalyst

not sure how many you would get out of the 1Kg size, depends on a lot of factors, the biggest one is the size of the molds

out of 19/20mm conduit i would make a guess at 35ish maybe a few more

sorry mate i just pour, mix and pour, never taken any notice of the quantities i will have to take more notice next time

MIK

That is good enough I just wondered if it was worth getting the 21kg but that is a lot of pens so I will probably buy 4kg that will do 140 so that should be plenty to start.

my guess is nowhere near 35 blanks. I think 1 blank is around 70ml so 15 blanks are 1050 ml thats just over your 1 kg so after all that not many blanks at all.

Ian

I use about 80-100mls per blank, being about 22mm square x 135mm long. You could get it down to probably 50 - 70mls if you used 20mm tubes @ 125mm long. Depends how wasteful you are too

Any clear casting resin should do, just make sure it doesn't have any wax in.

Russell.