Proud to be an American!

[RSidetrack]

Okay - a little late for fourth of July :biggrin: This Gatsby pen is made from a mold I cast with red/white/blue model paints and resin. Yes the paints you paint your model cars with. I have another thread in the Casting and Stabilization section for further reading on that experiment

The only thing I don't like is how the white turned some of the red pink

The photos don't do it justice but there is no purple, just pink lol

Anyway - here she is!

 

[RSidetrack]

Either everyone saw this pen in the casting and stabilization section or no one liked it :rotfl:

 

[ctubbs]

That is one very cool and busy pen. Neat job on both casting and turning.
Charles

 

[glycerine]

Hey, just an FYI if you like using paints to color your resin... you can usually pick up a small sample container from Home Depot or Lowes for a couple bucks. It's much larger than the small model paints and you can get them to mix you a custom color. I've done that before for custom colored resins. It's much easier for the store to match the paint than for me to try to match the color with pigment powders!

 

[RSidetrack]

Hey, just an FYI if you like using paints to color your resin... you can usually pick up a small sample container from Home Depot or Lowes for a couple bucks. It's much larger than the small model paints and you can get them to mix you a custom color. I've done that before for custom colored resins. It's much easier for the store to match the paint than for me to try to match the color with pigment powders!

That's some good advice, never thought of that.

I picked up some acrylic paints today to see how they do but I may try lowes next time. Though $0.39 for 2oz of acrylic paint isn't too bad - granted it depends on how it mixes (haven't tried yet)

 

[workinforwood]

Pretty neat looking pen. The red turned pink and the blue settled to the bottom of the mold, or vise versa, because you didn't wait long enough or time your cups right. It's tricky, because in order to keep colors separate, the resin must be gelling so when you pour them together, the different colored resins flow around one another rather than mix together. Also, if you pour too early, if one color is heavier than another, the color will sink to the bottom and you'll end up with a layered pour. The difficulty is that some colors can gel much faster than some others, especially with PR. So you need to know how long it will take. I find that white always gels faster with alumilite, but no matter what, everything will be gelling within about 4 minutes, so I stir other colors first and white is the last cup stirred. With alumilite, once you pour there's not much else you can do, but cap it and pressurize. With PR, when you pour during a gel, the colors will stay separated but they will still swirl around, yet the swirls will be fuller, and if you want the swirls to be finer, then you can stick in a Popsicle stick or some tooth picks and stir things up a tiny tiny bit, just enough to create finer lines in your swirls.

 

[RSidetrack]

Pretty neat looking pen. The red turned pink and the blue settled to the bottom of the mold, or vise versa, because you didn't wait long enough or time your cups right. It's tricky, because in order to keep colors separate, the resin must be gelling so when you pour them together, the different colored resins flow around one another rather than mix together. Also, if you pour too early, if one color is heavier than another, the color will sink to the bottom and you'll end up with a layered pour. The difficulty is that some colors can gel much faster than some others, especially with PR. So you need to know how long it will take. I find that white always gels faster with alumilite, but no matter what, everything will be gelling within about 4 minutes, so I stir other colors first and white is the last cup stirred. With alumilite, once you pour there's not much else you can do, but cap it and pressurize. With PR, when you pour during a gel, the colors will stay separated but they will still swirl around, yet the swirls will be fuller, and if you want the swirls to be finer, then you can stick in a Popsicle stick or some tooth picks and stir things up a tiny tiny bit, just enough to create finer lines in your swirls.

Good info! I will do that with my next attempt - I just did another red-white and blue, but I did it with acrylic paint. Turns out it is water based, I am having a very hard time getting it to set up. Been over an hour and still not even gel like - colors have pretty much mixed. Looking forward to seeing how it ends up mixing :wink: Sometimes the best creations are the accidents.

I will try and wait for it to gel more. I am always afraid of waiting too long - I did wait too long one time and well, I am sure everyone has experienced that - pretty much ruined the mold. I try to sit and stir every couple minutes - but typically it takes a bit (15 min or so) before it is even worth doing that. I messed up and waited 30 min when it had gone too far :redface:

Edit:
Okay - found out my catalyst went bad - no big deal I had another bottle, but that is why I think I have had a couple failures.

Red-White and Blue using your suggestions will be next. The one I had that was taking forever to set up, all colors merged, it is more of a whitish redish purplish color lol.

 

[workinforwood]

I've had my share of flashed off cups, or flashed off mid pour too. You pretty much have to just sit there with the cups and wait and feel them and stick your stir sticks in them to test how they are thickening up, it's just how it is.

Acrylic is not a good choice for any resin. Use oil base paints. You can go to ace hardware and buy the tiny pint size cans for $4-5. That's not a ton of paint, but it's way more quantity than the testor bottles for only twice the cost

 

[toyotaman]

Wow, you guys make this casting look so easy. I wish I had someone to actually show me this process. It looks complicated. We have a local woodturners club here but nobody does casting. I need to make a trip somewhere and learn this. It's been eating at me for over a year now.
Donny

 

[RSidetrack]

Wow, you guys make this casting look so easy. I wish I had someone to actually show me this process. It looks complicated. We have a local woodturners club here but nobody does casting. I need to make a trip somewhere and learn this. It's been eating at me for over a year now.
Donny

I can definitely say from my perspective it isn't easy It is definitely fun and it tests your creativity. Casting one color is very easy - even with some pearl. The multiple colors is where I am falling apart and how I have gone through almost 2 quarts with a total of 2 (yep 2) acceptable blanks. The one was a solid color, and the other was this red/white/blue (and it still wasn't what I was trying).

If you really want to try it I highly encourage it - it's a little frustrating at first, but when something comes out it is so gratifying. I have only been casting for a week, and while I have only had 2 good blanks - I keep on truckin

To start off casting is pretty easy though for the simple one color. I mean, my one blank I had that came out good was just blue with white macro-pearl - and I love it!. Also - YouTube has a couple good tutorials on it.