A few notes from a first-time caster

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TimS124

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Pulled out my good camera and snapped a couple images of the lighter blue/copper pen just now. Since the blue layered on top of, instead of swirling into, the copper, I took pics of 3 sides of the resulting pen to show the layering.
 

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TimS124

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Thank you, Clark & Chris. For my first attempts at this, I'm pretty happy with how they've generally come out and how easily the Alumilite turns. I have a quickly growing list of additional things to try/do...I'll soon be drowning in homemade blanks.
 

mchech

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Meadville PA
Tim....Thanks for documenting your venture into casting so well. I've started to experiment some with casting Alumilite. It's fun but can get expensive. After making one mold from a cutting board I found this place.

Home & Master Index freckleface.com plastic material gamma seals ball valves plastic sheet plastic rod plastic tube

I've made several molds using their 3/4" polypropylene sheet. A 12 x 24 sheet costs $15.04 plus shipping. It is so much easier to work with than the thinner cutting board material and its not textured. I looked like the Samsonite gorilla trying to get my first Alumilite casting out of a cutting board mold even with mold release. I just wonder how hard they would hit you for shipping to CA as I live only 3 hrs. from their shop in Cleveland.

Take care and I'll be following your adventure.
 

TimS124

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<snip>
After making one mold from a cutting board I found this place.

Home & Master Index freckleface.com plastic material gamma seals ball valves plastic sheet plastic rod plastic tube

I've made several molds using their 3/4" polypropylene sheet. A 12 x 24 sheet costs $15.04 plus shipping.
</snip>

Thanks for the link and glad the stuff I've posted is useful! :)

I found some smooth cutting-board-like material from the local TAP Plastics place. I don't recall the price though but I got enough to make a stack of molds. I'll be slicing into it soon to create a different sized mold...aiming for less waste along the edges while still allowing full 3/4" wide blanks.

My current mold is a hair too narrow for that. I can get 3 blanks across just barely but I'd like to be able to shave off the outer edges of the block before slicing the blanks out. The outer edges don't have much swirling/character and even though they'll be turned away while making a pen, I'd like to have enough width in the block to shave maybe 1/8" off those sides to improve the changes of a wider pen not running into the lame edges.

If I switched to slicing the blocks on my bandsaw, I could potentially cast a block that's 3 blanks wide by 3 blanks thick (plus blade clearance and side-shaving). I'd have to reshape the caddy as well, but that's trivial.

Next round of experimenting will explore stirring/swirling options. If it works, I'll post details.
 

JTisher

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Tim....Thanks for documenting your venture into casting so well. I've started to experiment some with casting Alumilite. It's fun but can get expensive. After making one mold from a cutting board I found this place.

Home & Master Index freckleface.com plastic material gamma seals ball valves plastic sheet plastic rod plastic tube

I've made several molds using their 3/4" polypropylene sheet. A 12 x 24 sheet costs $15.04 plus shipping. It is so much easier to work with than the thinner cutting board material and its not textured. I looked like the Samsonite gorilla trying to get my first Alumilite casting out of a cutting board mold even with mold release. I just wonder how hard they would hit you for shipping to CA as I live only 3 hrs. from their shop in Cleveland.

Take care and I'll be following your adventure.


You should get half off on their shipping. I live about 30 min. from their shop and fed x takes it to Columbus then PA. on their way here.

They do have excellent prices though.

Joe
 

scjohnson243

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Jun 24, 2014
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<snip>
After making one mold from a cutting board I found this place.

Home & Master Index freckleface.com plastic material gamma seals ball valves plastic sheet plastic rod plastic tube

I've made several molds using their 3/4" polypropylene sheet. A 12 x 24 sheet costs $15.04 plus shipping.
</snip>

Thanks for the link and glad the stuff I've posted is useful! :)

I found some smooth cutting-board-like material from the local TAP Plastics place. I don't recall the price though but I got enough to make a stack of molds. I'll be slicing into it soon to create a different sized mold...aiming for less waste along the edges while still allowing full 3/4" wide blanks.

My current mold is a hair too narrow for that. I can get 3 blanks across just barely but I'd like to be able to shave off the outer edges of the block before slicing the blanks out. The outer edges don't have much swirling/character and even though they'll be turned away while making a pen, I'd like to have enough width in the block to shave maybe 1/8" off those sides to improve the changes of a wider pen not running into the lame edges.

If I switched to slicing the blocks on my bandsaw, I could potentially cast a block that's 3 blanks wide by 3 blanks thick (plus blade clearance and side-shaving). I'd have to reshape the caddy as well, but that's trivial.

Next round of experimenting will explore stirring/swirling options. If it works, I'll post details.

Old Post here, but I'm curious how you are doing with this Tim, post more pictures!

:) Thanks
 

TimS124

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Old Post here, but I'm curious how you are doing with this Tim, post more pictures!

:) Thanks

I've been spending way too much time helping replace a large deck that was hiding a fair chunk of water damage. It's finally going back together and I'll hopefully soon be back in the shop working with my new mold.

I didn't make the mold 3 blanks tall but it will easily make blocks big enough for 2 blanks tall with more room to avoid spilling as I move it to the pressure pot.

Part of the reason for not making it taller was hearing from Curtis that he only makes his blocks one blank thick (even though his default mold would allow thicker...that's apparently slop-protection room).

I made a new caddy with the air shield layer much higher so I can easily get the taller mold under in it.

I gave one of the blue & copper blanks to a buddy that learned pen turning from me and convinced him to try it. He's turned acrylics in the past and really prefers woods so talking him into trying it wasn't easy. He was working on slim lines at the time so that's what he made with the blank...which ended up being really cool.

Turns out, near the middle of those blanks, the blue and copper are swirled nicely. The assembled pen immediately replaced his normal carry/user pen. :) I need to convince him to send me a photo one of these days...

I've also been busy with a new teaching gig at a local maker space....picked up two classes: ShopBot Safety/Basic Use and the same for their Wood Lathe.

In the mean time, I found a couple local sources for small pine cones and some other cartable materials to play with...
 

scjohnson243

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Great! keep us updated, I have been making my "Starting casting" list and am going to start buying in the next few days! This post was EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write it!

Now, ignore your responsibilities and start casting and take pictures. :)
 

TimS124

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Asheville, NC
Finally had a quiet weekend all to myself (at least until about dinner time this evening)! Slipped into the shop last night after outside temperature fell to something reasonable (and remembered to keep my resin in the HOUSE instead of in the GARAGE this time..difference of at least 25 degrees!).

Sadly, something had caused my Alumilite Clear B Side to turn into very thick gel. From what I've read, apparently it was stored wrong. Ah well, soaking it in hot water eventually returned it to normal(ish). But, by then, it was very late AND I needed to let the B Side cool before using it...so, packed everything away and went to bed last night slightly disappointed.

After breakfast this morning, back in the shop for a rematch! :biggrin:

I had several color combinations I've been itching to try and had to settle on just one for starters.

I consoled myself while the B Side was soaking last night by re-watching one of Curtis' videos on casting with Alumilite. Picked up a couple subtle things I'd missed the first time I watched it and decided I'd try it his way (mixing all the A & B together, then splitting it to add color, etc). He's been casting Alumilite for 7+ years and the videos are very helpful (despite having the nasty side effect of creating serious shop-envy). :)

I had a new mold I wanted to try...taller and narrower than Curtis' posted design. I wanted to be able to make custom bottle stopper blanks as well as experiment with 2-blank thick castings...

I measured the inside width and length, figured out what depth I wanted to fill to initially, multiplied all that together and then times 0.554 to figure out how many ounces I'd need. The formula is somewhere on Alumilite's sight I think, or you can find it in a post Curtis recently added in another thread on casting. Very helpful tidbit to know!

I wanted to experiment with some Duo-Tone powders I'd recently picked up...they're from Pearl Ex and looked interesting. That meant using Alumilite Clear and I like to tint the resin as well with dyes because it's one more thing to experiment with.

I set up two spare cups and had the dyes already sitting in the bottom of each cup before mixing A&B sides together in a larger cup. I'm slow at dispensing the amount of dye I want and figured this would let me drop in what I want without feeling rushed.

I added some florescent green and regular green dye (about 4 drops of florescent green and a couple of regular green) to the green-purple Duo-Tone and added a few drops of florescent yellow and plain white to the purple-brass Duo-Tone cup. Each cup would end up with about 6 1/2 ounces of mixed resin so I targeted roughly 6 drops of dye (1 drop per ounce was mentioned in Curtis's video).

Mixing A & B with no dyes in the way definitely makes it easier to see if you've stirred enough. I've yet to have a problem with not mixing enough when adding dye to the A Side in advance but pre-adding the dye to A means you mix one cup, set it aside, mix the other...and if it's too warm in your shop/garage, the first cup might go off faster than you expected (as reported by me in a different thread a while back).

I like Curtis' "mix all your A & B then split it for dying" approach (with the slight tweak of having the dye already waiting in the cups the mixed resin will be split into).

The dye likes to stick to the bottom of the cup. So, be sure to stir really well (a narrow spatula, rubbed repeatedly on the bottom, would be much handier than my full sized spatulas which are a bit bit for the cups I'm using).

I poured all of one color into the mold (I think it was the green-purple), then added the other while trying various things to see if they'd affect how the two mixed/swirled. If the cup is held higher above the mold, you'll get a thinner and faster stream which should punch deeper into the first color...go lower for a slower stream if you want it to accumulate higher. Sadly, I couldn't tell how deep it was going...going to have to try with the initial pour just being clear some day to better visualize the effects!

I also deflected the second color's stream several times by letting it hit a spatula or tongue depressor held just barely above the surface...that seems to spread out the incoming resin quite nicely, but again, I had no way of seeing how deep that would going or if it was just sitting on the surface...

After all of the second color was streamed in, I used the tongue depressor to stir/swirl a bit...made sure to not just go side-to-side, but to try using it to lift whatever was at the bottom upwards (hoping to avoid some of the pooling I've seen with other pours I've made).

The colors in the cups looked GREAT! The resulting block looks really cool (despite the weak phone photo attached here). The bottom has a different effect but it's also pretty cool and has real promise.

I don't think I can cut this one into pen blanks...I'm thinking maybe knife scales or something else that will keep a wider chunk of the cool effect showing. I'll slice into it next weekend most likely and decide then whether to slice it thin or use it thicker.

The translucent resin and the Duo-Tone powders give an interesting "depth" to the block. I'm really hoping that shows up in whatever ends up "wearing" pieces of this block...
 

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TimS124

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Slight clarification on what you're seeing in the photo. There are a couple of spots that look like clumps of yellow/brass. They're glare from the light hitting some surface divots at weird angles. There are no chunky bits of brass/yellow on the surface (though there is a small spot of poorly mixed florescent yellow dye on the bottom in one corner that looks really cool).
 

scjohnson243

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Cant wait to see what that looks like split up - it looks like you are getting the same sort of effect I am getting consistantly... My colors tend to "blend" together.. I'm trying to find a way to make them seperate better, (The blanks are looking cool that I have made so far, I made 3 different ones tonight and I'll post pictures tomorrow) - I just wish I could get the look the way I have it in my head... I think BSea gets the effect I'm looking for, and I have spoken with him a few times about coming to visit to compare notes a bit... Anyway, cant wait to see yours opened up!
 

TimS124

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I'm not yet certain what to expect when I swirl/mix/swizzle since every time I pour, I'm trying something different (and taking notes in case something actually works one of these times). I have some more mixing/pouring/swirling ideas in mind for future experiments...just haven't had enough time to try them all yet.

This one will sit for a week before I cut into it. It'll be a busy week so I hopefully won't notice the time passing. :)

I just pulled another experiment out of the pressure pot. It's another take on the blue & copper I've posted previously about. I'm still trying to dial in the colors/effects I want.

This time, I once again mixed all of A&B together in a large cup, then poured about half(ish) into each of two waiting cups that had some dye already waiting.

Florescent orange dye in one cup along with copper metallic powder and some Pearl Ex antique bronze (pretty sure that's the one...my notes are in the shop...whichever bronze is darkest).

Second cup had some white dye and I added Turquoise Pearl Ex plus Macropearl from Pearl Ex. I wanted to lighten up the Turquoise and give it some pearl effect....I think it worked pretty well.

I poured in the blue, then drizzled/poured/whatever the copper into it. Last time, the copper went first and mostly sat on the bottom. I reversed it on purpose but had a similar problem afterwards.

I thought I'd over-stirred the mix since the top was almost solid copper by the time I was done. But, once the block was set and removed from the mold, I could tell they'd mixed better than previous attempts but still not what I expected.

I think I need to switch to 70-80% blue and the rest copper to get better veining (almost like the gold veins in some of the Trustone blanks, but bigger/bolder).

I've attached a top view, one side view (other side is remarkably similar), and bottom view. You can see the stir marks in the bottom view clearly and slightly in the side view.

The prior attempts at copper worked "OK" on a cigar pen and really nicely on a slimline. The mixing was just about perfect near the center so the slimline showed it best. A buddy used one of those blanks on a slimline and it really came out nice! It immediately became his carry pen and I'm still trying to get even a phone photo of it. :)

I may mix up one more batch today...have to decide which of several experiments I want to try to figure out before deciding which colors to try...
 

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