Justin,
You have convinced me that you know enough to be dangerous.
Can you connect the dots? Where does celluloid fit in? Are there advantages (structurally) to one plastic vs. another as "pen making material"? Does one offer a better opportunity for "depth" in the colors (more transparent, probably)? Will any resins be better than others in the heat? How hot does it have to get to make the various plastics "tacky"?
ANY and ALL information will be used, by me!!!!! And thanks!!
Celluloid was one of the original thermoplastics. I believe it's been around since the mid 1800s. One of the ways to distinguish real celluloid is by the smell. This is because it was originally made with camphor and nitrocellulose, plus nitrogen, dye, and alcohol. A very volatile combo!
A really neat website with a timeline of plastic development and a little bit about all the different plastics is
http://www.plastiquarian.com/ind3.htm
As far as one being better than the other....We could have the perfect pen resin developed to our specifications, however companies like CCP and Reichold usually require a minimum order of 50 tons or so! That's why they usually deal with middle men like Composites ones or their competitors.
For the small guy it's really hard to get something custom developed. The guys at Alumalite have taken an interest in the pen turning world, by asking our opinions of products like the new Crystal Clear resin, however the cost makes it hard to swallow for someone just starting out and prone to messing up their first dozen or so casts.
As you and Dawn and many others have realized what we really have is a guessing game, certain things work well, but others do not. And certain things effect resins differently. A change in humidity and temperature can have a different effect on the resins, which causes changes in your other processes down the line.
Honestly I think right now the best bet for penturners is to look into swing resins. Swing resins have the ability to take a much higher load of fillers than regular resins. They are commonly used in the manufacture of cultured marble and like products.
I have a call into Composites One and CCP to see if they still sell a swing resin that we could use at a price that is reasonable. ItsVirgil and Oklahoman currently use this resin with good results.
The next step after that would be experimentation to figure out what additives do what to the resin. Powdered stone to make turquoise blanks, powdered metal to make damascus blanks, so on and so forth.
They make webbing and marbling compounds for use in gel coats, adding those to the matrix may add the veining that we're looking for, or it may not allow the resin to gel at all.
One thing I intend to try is Vacuum infusion. I used this process in making carbon fiber parts for cars and motorcycles in another life, and it may work for stabilizing woods or other materials like micarta. It's very cost prohibitive though, as there is a lot of consumable material costs.
I honestly feel as penturners we have just scratched the surface of what is available to us. I'm also curious if there are any water clear vinylester resins or epoxy resins that are turnable. I haven't honestly researched it that much.
So...did I answer your original question..not specifically, because that would take lots of research that I'm not yet commited to doing. :tongue: The Holy Grail is out there. It's just going to take dogged determination and deep pockets to find it.
