Okay Friends,
Since I think Serge and I started the paint pot craze, I will explain what we are doing with them. We are casting snake skin pen blanks in polysester resin using pressure. <b>We are not using vacuum.</b> The pressure, 40-60psi squeezes the air bubbles so small that they are not seen by the human eye and the castings are crystal clear. All we are doing is (1) prepare the blank as we normally have been doing. (2) place the prepared tubes in the paint pot, (3) pour in the resin, (4) place on the pot top and secure it, and (5) pressurize it. I leave my pot pressurized for a couple of hours then remove the mold from the pot. Less time is ok, since the PR jells in about 30 minuts and is rock hard in a few hours or less. I don't think Serge is doing any stabilizing and I am not stabilizing wood in the pot either. I will leave stabilizing for someone else. For $1 a blank, I will let the professional stabilizer stabilize any wood I have that needs it.
I don't think a turotial is needed unless someone has never done any snake skins at all. Look on the IAP homepage and you will find two articles by jay Pickens. One is about casting with PR resin and has all of the info you will need. What to buy, where to get it, how much to use, how to color it, etc. Jay also has another article on embedding things in PR resin. He shows how to glud to the tubes, how to support the tubes, and even that they need to be weghted down so they don't float.
I just looked and Jay's article on casting is now in the list of articles: http://www.penturners.org/forum/portal.asp?cat=articles
Anthony Turchetta and Dana Stabb also have articles on casting polyester resin in the archive. I wish those had been available when I started casting. I do have the luxury of living relatively close to Jay and can visit him on occassion.
There is also an article by Lee Biggers on using polylurathane for stabilizing wooden pen blanks.
Maybe a tutorial on using the pressure pot is in the works, but it is relatively simple. Get one, make your blanks, place in mold and put mold in pot. Pour in the resin, place on the top, seal and pressurize.
you may want to look at this thread: http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11631
Do a good turn daily!
Don