robutacion
Member
Hi there,
Bottle Brushes are native to Australia and the variety existante, is just mind bothering (have a look here) however, they are quite common everywhere and I have a front garden full of the red and pink (flowers) ones..!
I have been looking at its seeds kebabs type formation and wondering what to do to make them into a cast pen blank. Most of what I have in my yard is from a variety that have small seed bunches, usable but not as ideal as some other varieties called the "Stiff Bottle Brushes" seen here, these produce slightly longer and bigger bunches/kebabs, better suited for the intended purpose.
I have plenty of these available to me locally so, I start doing some experimentations with a hand full of these bunches I collected earlier. Bottle Brushes are an evergreen plant so, you don't find these "bunches" dry, they are either in the plant and geen (mature or forming) on they (the round little seeds) fall off when dry and get only a stick as a branch.
I never saw these cast before (who would ever think of such thing...?:biggrin
and got me excited about a new Resifill pen blank so, I attempted to dry it (a bunch of 6 or 7) in the oven so, I had it going almost all day at 60° as I wanted to cast it Saturday evening for a Sunday "revelation" and in the afternoon to turn it and enjoy my work.
Well, from the oven only 2 of these things survive, the rest just self destructed from the heat, out of these 2 pieces, one was the size I wanted, the other was a little smaller (diameter and length wise), even these 2 required some reconstruction work with some thick CA and accelerator before I cast them.
Yesterday afternoon, was time to round it and see what I had but, I forgot one damn thing, was to sand the cast ends until I would find its centre, as these things grow in a stick so, I could use it as the blank/nut/pod/"thing" centre. I forgot that the single mold I used was filled a little too much so the cast was far from square and that I had no idea where the centre was, that had to be the singlet most important detail, for the successful of the blank...!
I got my 40 grit flap disc and I went for it, unfortunately, 1,800 rpm fast I could see what I was removing, until I stopped just after it got round to inspect and soak with the 5 cps CA but by then, was too late, the bigger/better half of the pod/"thing" was almost gone on one side and hardly anything on the opposite side while the other half, (small pod/"thing") was not as bad but, still too far gone to allow turning on its centre and show any of the stuff (round type nuts) that grow on the stick...!
So, attempt/experiment #1 failed, it still gives an idea of what may look like but, the blanks needs to be made for the exact centre of the stick from where the round seeds are attached to, the target is to have the blank perfectly centered so when the hole is drilled, it will follow the centre of the stick/twig, allowing for a symmetric (or as close too) look of the seeds as the blank/barrel is turned into the final size.
There are other castings made with other stuff that, can resemble in some way, the look I expect to get when I have another go at them and correct the learned mistakes, one of the bigger problems is to avoid the little round seeds to fall out from the stick, while trying to dry the whole thing, maybe a little CA halfway in the drying process, I will thing of something, as always...!
So for now, enjoy what I done so far, and ongoing project, remember that...!:wink::biggrin:
Cheers
George
Bottle Brushes are native to Australia and the variety existante, is just mind bothering (have a look here) however, they are quite common everywhere and I have a front garden full of the red and pink (flowers) ones..!
I have been looking at its seeds kebabs type formation and wondering what to do to make them into a cast pen blank. Most of what I have in my yard is from a variety that have small seed bunches, usable but not as ideal as some other varieties called the "Stiff Bottle Brushes" seen here, these produce slightly longer and bigger bunches/kebabs, better suited for the intended purpose.
I have plenty of these available to me locally so, I start doing some experimentations with a hand full of these bunches I collected earlier. Bottle Brushes are an evergreen plant so, you don't find these "bunches" dry, they are either in the plant and geen (mature or forming) on they (the round little seeds) fall off when dry and get only a stick as a branch.
I never saw these cast before (who would ever think of such thing...?:biggrin
and got me excited about a new Resifill pen blank so, I attempted to dry it (a bunch of 6 or 7) in the oven so, I had it going almost all day at 60° as I wanted to cast it Saturday evening for a Sunday "revelation" and in the afternoon to turn it and enjoy my work.Well, from the oven only 2 of these things survive, the rest just self destructed from the heat, out of these 2 pieces, one was the size I wanted, the other was a little smaller (diameter and length wise), even these 2 required some reconstruction work with some thick CA and accelerator before I cast them.
Yesterday afternoon, was time to round it and see what I had but, I forgot one damn thing, was to sand the cast ends until I would find its centre, as these things grow in a stick so, I could use it as the blank/nut/pod/"thing" centre. I forgot that the single mold I used was filled a little too much so the cast was far from square and that I had no idea where the centre was, that had to be the singlet most important detail, for the successful of the blank...!
I got my 40 grit flap disc and I went for it, unfortunately, 1,800 rpm fast I could see what I was removing, until I stopped just after it got round to inspect and soak with the 5 cps CA but by then, was too late, the bigger/better half of the pod/"thing" was almost gone on one side and hardly anything on the opposite side while the other half, (small pod/"thing") was not as bad but, still too far gone to allow turning on its centre and show any of the stuff (round type nuts) that grow on the stick...!
So, attempt/experiment #1 failed, it still gives an idea of what may look like but, the blanks needs to be made for the exact centre of the stick from where the round seeds are attached to, the target is to have the blank perfectly centered so when the hole is drilled, it will follow the centre of the stick/twig, allowing for a symmetric (or as close too) look of the seeds as the blank/barrel is turned into the final size.
There are other castings made with other stuff that, can resemble in some way, the look I expect to get when I have another go at them and correct the learned mistakes, one of the bigger problems is to avoid the little round seeds to fall out from the stick, while trying to dry the whole thing, maybe a little CA halfway in the drying process, I will thing of something, as always...!
So for now, enjoy what I done so far, and ongoing project, remember that...!:wink::biggrin:
Cheers
George
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