mini cone cast

[paulm]

Looks good Don - thanks for sharing.

How did you put the cones in the resin?

Reason I ask - I actually make paperweights with military badges using resin and used to get a lot of bubbles until I was advised to soak the badge in resin first, moving it genly until no air bubbles, then add it to the resin in the cast. I found this reduced the air bubbles greatly.

I hadn't used the ultrasonic bath, but will do that now - thanks for the tip.

Personally, for casting blanks, I can't understand why people would use a pressure pot. For Stabilizing, yes, but not for blanks. IMHO of course.

cheers,

Andy C

Andy, you use a vacuum for stabilizing to suck the resin into the wood and a pressure pot to reduce the size of any bubbles that are in the resin when casting. Had you have used a pressure pot when doing your paperweights you wouldn't have had any bubbles.

 

[Baldy]

Looking good but cannot wait to see the final pen

 

[donwatson]

Looks good Don - thanks for sharing.

How did you put the cones in the resin?

Reason I ask - I actually make paperweights with military badges using resin and used to get a lot of bubbles until I was advised to soak the badge in resin first, moving it genly until no air bubbles, then add it to the resin in the cast. I found this reduced the air bubbles greatly.

I hadn't used the ultrasonic bath, but will do that now - thanks for the tip.

Personally, for casting blanks, I can't understand why people would use a pressure pot. For Stabilizing, yes, but not for blanks. IMHO of course.

cheers,

Andy C

I poured resin over the cones, held over the mould, so the mould filled and at the same time the cones got soaked.
I held the cones with a pair of fine tweezers while doing this.
Andy, I was advised of the Ultra Sonic Cleaner by Paulm.
It had just appeared in Aldi that week and I managed to get one before the old codgers had descended and scooped them all up

 

[AndyC65]

Andy, you use a vacuum for stabilizing to suck the resin into the wood and a pressure pot to reduce the size of any bubbles that are in the resin when casting. Had you have used a pressure pot when doing your paperweights you wouldn't have had any bubbles.

Paul - thanks for clearing up my confusion re pressure/vacuum.

My point was that when casting paperweights, which are deeper than pen blanks, I don't get any bubbles - without using a pressure pot.

Unless making blanks commercially, is a pressure pot absolutely necessary - and if there are a bubble or two - can't they be filled with CA?

Not challenging - just wondering.

cheers,

Andy C

 

[paulm]

Paul - thanks for clearing up my confusion re pressure/vacuum.

My point was that when casting paperweights, which are deeper than pen blanks, I don't get any bubbles - without using a pressure pot.

Unless making blanks commercially, is a pressure pot absolutely necessary - and if there are a bubble or two - can't they be filled with CA?

Not challenging - just wondering.

cheers,

Andy C

I'm pretty new to casting myself Andy but think I understand the principle of it and some of the resins. The thing is that with the water clear resins at the correct temperature, they are reasonably thin and allow any bubble to rise give then time they take to set and by vibrating them with an ultrasonic cleaner it encourages the smaller bubbles to rise. The problems arise when the resin is quick setting or there are bubbles trapped in places like yours were. By pressurising you reduce the bubble considerably... at 15psi the bubble halves in size.
I agree that holes can be filled with ca and that is what I do if I get any but by pressurising I minimise the bubbles and if there are any, the size of them.

Basically as you say a pressure pot isn't necessary and neither is a ultrasonic cleaner but when I've put my time and effort into making the blanks, some of which take a time to make and are fairly costly, I want to minimise the possibility of failure.

I'm not an expert by far but for me its about peace of mind.