The Coffee Baron

[JayDevin]

Well Here is the Coffee Baron,
it has some issues.I cracked it while assembling. the finish went funky and I will cast ground coffee as well as beans next time. I should have known this blank was cursed, this is the group that blew up while casting!!! Comments Welcomed!

 

[Mather323]

Very interesting, I love all of the the great ideas everyone comes up with. I have been inspired by all of your creativity!!!! I agree with your idea to put in the grounds. Way to think out side of the box![]

 

[ElMostro]

Jay, only problem with also using ground coffee is that it kind of blends the whole thing togetehr and makes it hard to distinguish the individual beans, it also floats (DAMHIKT) so the best thing to do is mix the ground cofee with the resin first so it soaks some resin up and then add the beans. I have not had mine explode like yours though so maybe the coffee beans you used are cross bred with popcorn.

For a finish I use thin CA once before I start sanding so it soaks into the exposed beans and then sand to 12000 MM and finish off with med CA/BLO finish...several coats.

Nice pen by the way.

 

[JayDevin]

Eugenio, thanks for the tip....I am plotting and planing the next cast of beans....

 

[bitshird]

Jay, I like the effect, Not sure why the beans would explode, or cause the PR to explode, it doesn't get that hot, it's a great looking pen though

 

[R2]

That's a great pen!![][][^] But it's not the Coffee Baron because I met him inBrazil![][][:0]

 

[leehljp]

I am currently doing a very similar cast. My SIL works at a Starbucks while working on his graduate degree and His birthday in mid-Jan. I have already made a Latte and will post some picts of it when I finish the coffee-black pen. Mine are cigars.

ON the first "coffee black" cast, I painted the inside of the tube with dark brown and it just did not look good. I painted the next one black and it looks a lot better.

I remember you posting of the "blow up." On my first cast, the beans "floated" to the top and stood up out of the mold. The bottom of the cast had at least 1/8 inch of clear plastic and no beans in that section. For the next batch, I took some wax paper, laid it over the top of the beans and cast, put a board on top of that and weighted it down. Then vac'd for about 10 - 15 minutes then pressure overnight. I have three different kinds of plastic casts and the one that I am using for clear takes about 12 hours to set good. The Latte colored cast takes every bit of 5 - 7 minutes to set and 1 hour to harden.

The reason I decided to vac the clear is because I noticed quite a few air bubbles in the casts and since it takes 12 hours to cure, so I figured it certainly can't hurt for 15 minutes, the bubbles might rise to the top and it appears to have helped.

I have "fiberglass" that I tried also but it is slightly "blueish" tinted and decided I didn't like it with coffee.

 

[badger]

That is a pretty awesome looking pen. I never thought of using beans as a medium, only the grounds.

I live up here in the home town of starbucks, and I've been wanting to make a coffee pen for a while. I thought that making a "coffee" ebony would quite cool.

I am new to the clear casting, but not to resin casting. I was very glad to see the articles you guys have on clear casting, that's so awesome. My question, coffee related, is this: If I do coffee grounds (spent of course) will the resin soak all the way into the grounds, so I don't have to worry about the finish wearing through and getting brown all over the user?

badger

 

[gketell]

Good job Jay!

GK

 

[leehljp]

Originally posted by badger
<br /> My question, coffee related, is this: If I do coffee grounds (spent of course) will the resin soak all the way into the grounds, so I don't have to worry about the finish wearing through and getting brown all over the user?

badger

I haven't done a coffee gounds. But as to coffee beans, because the casting does not soak all the way through (or even part way through, I put a CA finish on it. If I did grounds, I would look at it as I turned it down and decide then if it needed a CA, lacquer or Mylands finish.

Of the three different kinds of resins that I have, only one is thin enough to "soak in" but it "sets" in 5 to 7 minutes which negates time to pressurize and really make it soak in. the other two are more molasses like and it would be hard to soak in, even with pressure, in my opinion. I do use pressure to shrink bubbles on the two thicker resins.

 

[Ligget]

Good thinking, pen looks good from over here Jay![][8D]

 

[johncrane]

About all you can do is keep trying Jay[]