aweiss44
Member
last night I decided it was time to try some casting again. I had a great piece of cherry burl that was thoroughly dried. and a piece of mango which was dried.
I used alumilite clear.
I used alumilite blue dye, and alumilite pearlescent pigment.
I added the dye to the A side, until I had equal weight for parts A and B.
I thoughoughly mixed both parts together, added the pearlescent powder, stirred a little more, and poured into my mold. set it into my pressure pot, and pressurized to 100psi.
I left it overnight since I did this rather late.
This morning I dropped the pressure, removed the piece and it looked good. nothing tacky, nice color etc. I cut it into workable blanks, drilled it. epoxied in my tubes, and this evening I turned them down.
once turned down, i was ticked, as all the "seams" where the alumilite met the wood either had tiny air bubbles(which I could deal with), but the big issue was where the alumilite met the wood, it was no longer transparent, but it was almost opaque. it basically changes from a vivid color to a pastel color.
I know my blanks were dry and the alumilite was mixed good. i didn't add anything different than alumilite products. the only thing I can think of that I've read before was that I should have put the wood in a warm over for a bit prior to casting.
Does anyone have any experience with why this may have happened, or more importantly what caused it? At the moment, I'm thinking maybe moisture played a part, but I did this in my basement, where teh temp was around 70, as was teh temp of the materials. I also have a water seperator on my compressor, but it's a cheaper one. I appreciate any sufgestions. I can get pics if needed.
I used alumilite clear.
I used alumilite blue dye, and alumilite pearlescent pigment.
I added the dye to the A side, until I had equal weight for parts A and B.
I thoughoughly mixed both parts together, added the pearlescent powder, stirred a little more, and poured into my mold. set it into my pressure pot, and pressurized to 100psi.
I left it overnight since I did this rather late.
This morning I dropped the pressure, removed the piece and it looked good. nothing tacky, nice color etc. I cut it into workable blanks, drilled it. epoxied in my tubes, and this evening I turned them down.
once turned down, i was ticked, as all the "seams" where the alumilite met the wood either had tiny air bubbles(which I could deal with), but the big issue was where the alumilite met the wood, it was no longer transparent, but it was almost opaque. it basically changes from a vivid color to a pastel color.
I know my blanks were dry and the alumilite was mixed good. i didn't add anything different than alumilite products. the only thing I can think of that I've read before was that I should have put the wood in a warm over for a bit prior to casting.
Does anyone have any experience with why this may have happened, or more importantly what caused it? At the moment, I'm thinking maybe moisture played a part, but I did this in my basement, where teh temp was around 70, as was teh temp of the materials. I also have a water seperator on my compressor, but it's a cheaper one. I appreciate any sufgestions. I can get pics if needed.
