Thread: What do I need?

So resin is the same weight as water. I could work out what I get from 1kg now
I will be mainly trying wasted wood type stuff so the 4kg should still be fine for first round

Thank you for all your help I will be asking many more questions in the near future

i will have to fill up a tube tonight to measure how much resin is in each blank, but i am sure i was getting around 17 blanks from a 500gram tin

1kg is not quite 1ltr but close

MIK

22 blanks out of 500ml, thats using 19/20mm conduit for the mold

of course the bigger the mold the more resin

MIK

How do you get your blanks out of the conduit? or do you sacrifice the conduit?

i tape the bottom with gaffa tape to seal the end, 1 strip across the bottom and 1 around

after about 4 hours a sharp rap on the bench will knock it free, if not then i use the bar that came with the lathe for knock stuff out of the MT to give them a helping hand

the resin shrinks a little as it sets, it doesn't stick to the tubes at all, i purchased 4 X 4m lengths and cut them all at 6" thinking that i would break a few here and there, not one broken as yet

MIK

So to embed something as long as it fits in the conduit then you just need to pour resin over the top and away you go.
Only if conduit was square

Originally Posted by Rum Pig

So to embed something as long as it fits in the conduit then you just need to pour resin over the top and away you go.
Only if conduit was square

Err, in theory yes, but remember, you'll be drilling a hole through the middle of the blank, then turning away most of what's there. So if you're talking about small things like hundreds & thousands, then it's easy. If you want to embed something bigger, such as the Redback on the toilet seat, it takes a little more planning :P

Russell.

i am only playing with embedding at the moment

for most embedding that i have done i made some molds out of the white plastic cutting boards

i do have to remake them, i made them just a bit deeper than what i wanted the finished blanks to be, i didn't allow for -
Vacuum - the air escaping causes bubbles rising through the resin, and the resin jumps out all over the place
Pressure - you need extra resin in the mold, it is amazing how much disapears into the wood, the first WW i made i didn't even think about adding extra, the mold was only half full when i opened the pressure pot, fortunately the resin sticks to itself so i just made another batch and poured it over the top

this is only what i have found, neil (dai sensei) has done lots of embedding and should be able to add his experiences as well

MIK

So that could be away to get a cool effect by slowly adding more resin and each time a different colour so as you turn it away all these different layers start to appear

Originally Posted by Rum Pig

So that could be away to get a cool effect by slowly adding more resin and each time a different colour so as you turn it away all these different layers start to appear

Sounds good in theory, and I do this with the littl ebits of leftover resin after each pour. But so far, all of my results have been rather *meh*.

Russell.

that would have to be the way that they make that blank i have seen with the thin strips of color sort of looks like a sideways licorice allsort

For WW blanks I only use pressure these days, the highest your pressure vessle can handle, the vacuum caused more problems than it solves.

My new molds have a well for extra resin, as MIK mentions, it is amazing how much the level can drop under pressure. I found it impossible to predict, so some come out with almost no resin lip, others with a large lip of resin which must then be cut off. Cut off bits get thrown in my left-overs jaw for throwing into the moulds next time I have excess resin (I add black tint to make chips stand out).

Thanks for that Neil
What is your mould made from?

Originally Posted by Rum Pig

What is your mould made from?

Fuzzy green stuff that grows on cheese

Russell.