Casting some Aluminium Honeycomb

I scored some 6mm aluminium honeycomb panels 300x300x25mm a while back. Yesterday I cut two of the sheets in half, made molds to suit from corflute polypropylene sheeting, then cast them in Bright Blue Pearlex/Reflex Violet Pearlex/Translucent Scarlet Red dye and Bright Red pigment mix/Black pigment and a little Red pigment mix. I've cut them into large blocks (~45x25x150) blocks and will wait a while before I sand them to size (this is because epoxy can move in time as it fully cures). The blocks can then be used whole, or cut in half for knife scales, or cut in half the other way for large pen blanks.

Here are the offcuts, the larger ones I can use as pen blanks, sanded and a quick coat of clear lacquer to give you an idea of what they will look like.

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Always pushing the boundaries and pioneering ideas..... Love your work Neil, and as always, very professional looking final products!

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Originally Posted by Gabriel

Always pushing the boundaries and pioneering ideas..... Love your work Neil, and as always, very professional looking final products!

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Thanks mate. Aluminium honeycomb panels have been cast for a while now on the US forums etc, just I have been unable to get any till now in the smaller quantities. My last resort was getting my son in Seattle to send some from Amazon, but with the Chinese connection it worked out heaps cheaper anyway.

Nice going Neil. I'm curious if you mix the resin and pour it over the honeycomb in the mould or do you pour the resin into the mould first and then lower the honeycomb into the resin? Would it make a difference to keep bubbles/voids forming?

Pete

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Originally Posted by QC Inspector

Nice going Neil. I'm curious if you mix the resin and pour it over the honeycomb in the mould or do you pour the resin into the mould first and then lower the honeycomb into the resin? Would it make a difference to keep bubbles/voids forming?

Pete

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The honeycomb is in the mold and I just pour the warm resin over the top whilst on the bandsaw table, with bandsaw running that helps with bubble removal, then place the mold into my pressure pot at 75psi that crushes any remaining bubbles.

Sort of looks like snake skin to me. I'm having trouble visualizing what a turned section will look like.

Been casting a few panels and decided to make a couple of cutting board molds rather than using the sacrificial corflute panel molds. Cast another panel in neon pink and neon green. Each half panel took 1.2 litres, and yes they are bright :U

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I have saved some fairly heavy duty honeycombed cardboard for the same use and have given thought to
using coreflute for the same purpose.

Be interesting to se your finished pens.

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Originally Posted by artme

I have saved some fairly heavy duty honeycombed cardboard for the same use and have given thought to
using coreflute for the same purpose.

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One thing with the core flute is be careful with large pours. I've found it is fine for the smaller molds but the big ones it tend to bend/deform from the weight/heat of the cast. I ended up making some more cutting board molds for these honeycomb casts. I find the epoxy shrinks a bit and the whole cast comes out by knocking the mold on the ground

Well I ended up casting 6 slabs, each a different colour, giving 6 knife scale/pen blank blocks ~45x25x150 from each
Black with some Red, Blue, Neon Green

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Purple, Red with some Black, Neon reddy Pink
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I bought a Kershaw Chill, a small flip knife, but didn't like the black G10 scales and decided to make new ones from one of my scale blocks. I used some 0.6mm aluminium sheet glued to the back of a 5mm slice to give them strength, but also to enable me to counter-bore the C-Tek and use the existing tiny bolts. It is only a small knife, 9.8cm long closed/17.8cm open, so good for a female especially in the bright pink scales. It only took one 5mm slice to make both scales. Finished with Rustins Plastic Finish

Closed
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Open
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finished scales and with old G10 ones
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