What is your favorite medium to color your resins?

[wiz9777]

So far I have cast a bunch of blanks with "Castin' craft" and "pearl-ex". I have been using pipes and silicone bread molds. I picked up a pressure pot, and today I am starting to experiment with stabilization and casting coffee beans.

I love the blanks that I have been making (the wife loves them more, she keeps stealing them for her projects). I want to color them with something other than pearl-ex. I have been scanning the library, but haven't found the answers I was looking for. What is your favorite medium to color your resins? Can you use acrylic paint or should you use oil paint? What about food coloring?

Thanks for your help.

 

[TerryDowning]

I have used ceramcoat acrylic paint successfully with fiber glass resin for coffee bean blanks. It is opaque, so reverse painting is not required.

I have also used the castin' craft brand of dyes for clear PR, these are translucent.

I also use embossing powder instead of PearlEx (way cheaper).

 

[PTsideshow]

To avoid problems and chemical incompatibility, use the proper dyes for the resins you are using. If you have a Hobby lobby near you print out the 40% coupons and buy the casting craft dyes or the ones for Alumilite.
Acrylic paint is a WATER BASED Paint it doesn't mix with the solvent based resins! Why put yourself through the PIA of the resin not setting up, and ruining the material. casti8ng can have enough of problem inducing things when you use the correct materials!
:clown:

 

[frank123]

Hobby Lobby has the Alumilite dyes in the Modeling section. Alumilite PU resins in that section too.

I've had good luck using these dyes with both PR and PU resins.

I've used other stuff from paint to air float charcoal and metal powders as well and like the effect using dyed resin with a different color mica added to it.

 

[Brooks803]

Us composites and Illstreet Composites both sell PR pigments. They're solid colored and no pearl.

 

[commercialbuilder]

I have used artist oil paints to color the pr with good results, you can buy the tubes at Michaels pretty cheap on sale. I use the middle grade, it is very easy to get disolved in the pr and it does not take very much to get the basic color and you can add a small amount or mica powere for a little shimmer. I take a wood stick that i bought at Michale that looks like a long coffee stirrer and I mark the stick off in 1/4" sections and measure the color that way so I can repeat the color. You can combine the colors to make any shade or color you need, I just measure out the colors and mix on a plastic sheet to get the color I want then add it to the pr and mix well befor adding the Mek. I have not had any problems with the castings not setting up. I have used the paint in the pr from Michaels and the similar 51 but have not tried it with Alumilite.

 

[gregmoser]

My results weren't as good....

I also use embossing powder instead of PearlEx (way cheaper).

New to the forum and wanted to throw in my experience into the mix... I tried embossing powder (once I found it at michaels....) and my results weren't as good. It seemed to be "suspended" in the mix and not incorporated. Not that bad, but I wasn't thrilled. Pearl-ex seemed to be absorbed and became part of the mix.

I've also used oil paint with good results as well as powder coating paint with decent results (Harbor Freight has em for like 4 bucks for a big container)

I've only been turning for a few months and just started venturing into the casting portion of the hobby to make it less expensive to whip up pens.

 

[Jim Burr]

Pearl ex is great...but spendy! Coastal scents mica powder is very reasonable but doesn't have the "pop" or "bang" that Pearl ex has. I mix pearl ex into the mica powders for the added wow! For just flat colors, powder coat powder from HF works really well...and it's cheap to!

 

[JimMills]

using ink

So far I have cast a bunch of blanks with "Castin' craft" and "pearl-ex". I have been using pipes and silicone bread molds. I picked up a pressure pot, and today I am starting to experiment with stabilization and casting coffee beans.

I love the blanks that I have been making (the wife loves them more, she keeps stealing them for her projects). I want to color them with something other than pearl-ex. I have been scanning the library, but haven't found the answers I was looking for. What is your favorite medium to color your resins? Can you use acrylic paint or should you use oil paint? What about food coloring?

Thanks for your help.

I have used ink refill kits from Walgreens to make just about any color I want.
The ink won't desolve in the resen but if you use alcohol you can make any color then pour into resen

 

[Lenny]

All I have used so far is US composites resin and pigments and Coastal Scents mica pigments. Someday I want to try the pearlX.

 

[frank123]

Alumilite dyes, powdered metals, pearl ex, powder paint powder, air float charcoal, artists pigments, combinations of these (I really like stuff like black Alumilte dyes with green or blue pearlex in PR resins), anything with color to it and no water. I have no idea what would be compatible with water, but Alumilite didn't seem to like it so I never tried water based stuff on anything else.

I suppose it just amounts to what you like and what you have readily available.

Different colorings -especially the metal powders- seem to change the finished characteristic of the resin.

(Don't use powdered zinc, that stuff is dangerous in its own right.)