casting problems

[elody21]

I tried to cast snake skin in acrylic. I glued the skin to the blanks and then cast it in acrylic. My problem is that as the acrylic set it srunk and pulled away from the skin leaving space and a cloudy look between the skin and acrylic. Does anyone know why sometimes this method works and sometimes it does not? I have had mixed result casting other items for pen blanks. I was wondering if maybe it has to do with the amount of catalyst? The more catalyst the harder the acrylic gets so maybe it shrinks more also? I noticed on the snake skin blank, it also shrank down! When I poured the acrylic it was at the top and this morning it was at lease 1/8 to 1/4" down the tube! If I can figure out why it does it I hope to be able to prevent it. Thanks Alice

 

[Fred in NC]

Alice, what did you use to glue the snake skin to the tube ?

 

[elody21]

I was trying to think of a glue that was not messy and gave a tacky surface to be able to adjust the skin. I use a child's glue stick! It worked really great!! This has happened with other items where I did not use a glue stick.

 

[its_virgil]

I would suggest to glue the skin with CA and if using polyester resin m(I've not used any other kind)...7 drops catalyst per ounce of resin. I've not noticed any shirnkage but too much catalyst has caused myh PR to not be as hard as I like. Contact the maker of the resin and ask about catalyst use....the # of drops change with the ambient temperature. But I use 7 drops per ounce in my heated shop.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by elody21
<br />I tried to cast snake skin in acrylic. I glued the skin to the blanks and then cast it in acrylic. My problem is that as the acrylic set it srunk and pulled away from the skin leaving space and a cloudy look between the skin and acrylic. Does anyone know why sometimes this method works and sometimes it does not? I have had mixed result casting other items for pen blanks. I was wondering if maybe it has to do with the amount of catalyst? The more catalyst the harder the acrylic gets so maybe it shrinks more also? I noticed on the snake skin blank, it also shrank down! When I poured the acrylic it was at the top and this morning it was at lease 1/8 to 1/4" down the tube! If I can figure out why it does it I hope to be able to prevent it. Thanks Alice