What a sweetheart! Seeing Neve makes me happy.
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I did try this. I stirred gently for a couple of minutes. The pour is still twice as deep as the 10mm recommended by the seller, but I live in hope.
As I’ve been letting the resin cure in my bedroom I’m taking the mild headache I woke up with this morning as a warning. Both trays are now airing in the bathroom with my wife’s permission and plenty of through draught. Resin is nasty stuff.
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outside would be best ! might have an extra bug or two in the cube . maybe a fan blowing the fumes out ,that stuff is nasty .
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You’re right. They’re spending the night in the garden shed.
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Crafsman always talks about “release agents.” One that I remember is rubbing alcohol and dish soap in equal parts, but I don’t think that was resin. Maybe petroleum jelly, but it has to be before the pour. I’m sure it will be fine, and if the first round doesn’t quite work out it just makes the eventual success more appreciated.
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if the molds are flexible silicone you should have no problem getting the cubes to come out even without release agent . silicone has an oil to it , only after awhile of using mold will you have to apply release . if some resin does stick be careful what you use to clean molds . no lacquer thinner or acetone I found out the hard way , it strips the oils from the silicone and the resin sticks bad .
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this companies site has a lot of good information and casting
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Careful. Make sure it wont bind to whatever mold you use. Use of release agent is the way i typically see.
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The problem at the moment is failure to solidify. As I’m trying to perfect a process, I’m keeping unnecessary steps out. Release bugs will be addressed as and when they occur. At the moment there isn’t yet anything to be released. The resin once set will be good and hard.
Edit: from context I hope it’s clear I’m talking about release of the resin from the mould. I’m not treating this project as the kind of thing that has development and release phases. It’s just me mucking about in the bathroom to take some of my idle doodles closer to reality. In particular, I encourage anybody interested in these ideas to adapt them with or without acknowledgement. If you think you can make a million from them, feel free.
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Time.
Take your time and don’t worry about failure.
Potting a volume is much more complex than coating components.
Without an accelerant or catalyst you’ll just have to wait.
It’ll happen. JFDI!
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Thanks for the encouragement. It keeps me going.
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You kiddin, im checking this thread constantly. You are doing things that i only talked about and was too lazy/dumb to pull off.
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Hello…i would like to add into the question for my case. Is it conceivable to utilize epoxy or polyester surfboard sap for preparing sound fequency PCB’s?
What about the precious stone epoxy utilized for embodying creepy crawlies, and so on?
Some other minimal effort choices, beside adaptable elastic/silicone?
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The stuff I’m using is for laminating tables but the company says it has received photos of jewellery-style items from purchasers. I’d say if you have a source of resin and you are able to work with it safely, give it a go.
My stuff would be fine if I stuck with 10mm thickness, but for practical reasons I think 20mm is preferable. My technique is closer to resin jewellery than normal layering, but that’s because I think it could look very beautiful and withstand a lot of wear.
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I took another look at the second and third vitrines. The second one is still gelatinous after 49 hours but the third one is tacky. The third one, remember, is the one I prepared last night, paying more attention to the mixing process.
They’ve both been in the garden shed, which is closer to 10C than the more or less constant 20C in our house in the current weather. This obviously isn’t going to help, but I consider my family’s health to be the most important consideration here (not to mention the parrots and budgies) and all curing must take place in the shed.
As Sandy (@Farabide) has suggested, some form of accelerant or catalyst might be beneficial. I want to avoid the risk of having my shed catch fire so I’m not going to try heat. This calls for more research.
Another possibility is to see if there is a maker space available at the moment. There are two that I know of locally, but one is in a basement and I don’t think I want to risk killing off a whole generation of local artisans.
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Well I’ve watched a lot of really boring videos. I hate it when people just yatter on. Scripting is important.
Looks as if 20C is a little on the low side. I should aim for 25C, and below 15C is not really viable.
The gelatinous consistency is due to bad mixing. I’ll need to work on mixing technique.
I fancy my resin is thickening in the bottle so before using it I need to heat it a little. The obvious method would be to float the measured resin in a sealed vessel on hot water. The hardener also needs to be warmed to keep a consistent mixing temperature.
Mixing needs to be quite thorough and the final pour should be straight from the mixing vessel, not using a scoop or the stirrer.
It follows that the item to be dunked should also be warm, as should the mould.
For curing in the shed, I think I’ll need a warm water jacket. I’ll have to top up the water to keep it warm. For now, at least, I’ll still rely on the ambient air circulation. Also, I will need patience.
I’m very cautious about fire hazards so I’m staying away from exothermic hardening agents and I’m not going to use any heater other than a water jacket.
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sounds like you are on the right track . I have mostly used urethane resins in silicone molds . but what you are doing sounds very similar and yes the mixing is MOST important and proper ratios when measuring . it seems odd that temperature is a problem the resin its self when it " kicks off " makes exothermic heat [ I think thats the term ] . have you tried setting them in the sun ? just don’t get it to hot it will bubble .
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This is Wearside, not Chattanooga.
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Try to find a cheap thermaly insulated lunchbox just big enough for your icecube trays.
With the exothermic curing this should keep everything at a nice temperature even in your garden shed.
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To clarify, in summer here at 55N the weather is variable just as it is all year. There are nearly always many clouds here on the coast so direct sunlight is not consistently available. The most consistently warm places are inside our brick-built houses, and the range we’re comfortable with is 16-20C. Outside houses the night time temperature is in the 11-16C range even in high summer, hence the problem with curing resin outdoors.
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