Thread: "Gold Rush" Executive Rollerball + a few others

I like the blue one. The variation in the colour looks beautiful, almost like a watercolour.

Russell your going well mate, you may of had troubles but you certainly hung in there and made some great saves. Every pen tis a learning curve in one way or another.

Russell, you're coming along in leaps ands bounds.

The casting is going well, you're getting some nice looking blanks, that blue is very subtle.

Agree with you on the Sedona, a little fat, but then a lot of people like a more "bulbous" pen. I bought some Black Ti Sedonas in Adelaide, they are nice looking pens.

Re polishing, I use a buffing mop, as shown here, and find it gives me excellent results using white diamond polishing compound. I don't think the black pigment would give problems, but that depends what you are using. I use the Black pigment from Barnes for PR and gives a beautiful gloss when mixed 10% w/w with PR casting resin. Next batch I make I am going to try some lower concentrations.


Did you get your problems with the pressure pot all sorted?

Originally Posted by Big Shed

The casting is going well, you're getting some nice looking blanks, that blue is very subtle....
Did you get your problems with the pressure pot all sorted?

Well, what's you're missing seeing with the blue one, which would have been alright except for this, as all the white that settled on the bottom in a separate layer, instead of being swirled through. I just panicked about gelling after my first blank got ruined by a quick gel, but with the "gold Rush" blank, I'm getting the hang of it.

Also included in the picture below is that "heirloom mango", my 3rd one in a Sierra. I think I'm getting the hang of that pen now at least.

As for the pressure pot, got it losing about 1lb per hour at the moment, so I'm living with that for now. I run it up to 43psi. While I'm working in the shed, I'll top it up every two hours or so, then let it fall overnight if I don't need the pot for anything else, when it drops to about 20psi. Plenty of pressure for the time needed to set, so I'll chase the final leak one other day when I've got nothing better to do.

I've made a chipboadr platform to even out the round base, and just drilled a hole in the position of the paint pickup tube, so it's still in place & I don;t lose that much space. I've only got that base platform at the moment, but can easily make at least 3 others to stack I reckon.

Russell.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Re polishing, I use a buffing mop, as shown here, and find it gives me excellent results using white diamond polishing compound. I don't think the black pigment would give problems, but that depends what you are using. I use the Black pigment from Barnes for PR and gives a beautiful gloss when mixed 10% w/w with PR casting resin. Next batch I make I am going to try some lower concentrations.

Yeah I'm using all Barnes stuff now - it's their black liquid pigment. Didn't measure it, but a little goes a long way. I dipped a icecream stick in the pigment pot, then stirred it in 50mls of resin, and it was done. I've made a mould for a single blank to use for my experimenting, takes about 60 - 70mls for 140mm x 22mm x 17mm (keep trying for 22mm square, but shrinkage must be taking over).

Russell.

Bit of soapy water sprayed on the joints will soon find that leak. I bring my pot up to 60psi and leave it o/night, still at 60 in the morning.

I have had the same problem with the white pigment settling to the bottom of the mould, am about to experiment with some aerated silica suspension agent such as Aerosil to keep it in suspension.

Hehe! soon be selling blanks instead of making pens certainly getting fair results for your efforts indeed. And I think it will get easier as you go and start doing it without too much "by the book" as it is when starting off any thing new.

Russell, seems you are doing very well, keep going. Amos

Good job

I recommend using sedonas from Addictive. They look better than the dayacom kits.

Keep up the good work

Originally Posted by funkychicken

I recommend using sedonas from Addictive. They look better than the dayacom kits.

Sometimes depends on availability with what you can use as well,when out of stock you have to use alternatives