how do you make brass tube invisible in alumilite blank

[VotTak]

I made my first alumilite cast. That was alumilite Clear with mica powder. After drilling I paint the hole with nail polish but after turning I could see parts of brass tube. Than I tried to put mica powder to epoxy and glue tube in. Still not acceptable.
Could anyone suggest some methodology to perform this simple task? Can you recommend paint to use?
Thanks

 

[thewishman]

I use acrylic spray paint, craft paint and nail polish. It takes a while for the polish to fully cure, and you usually need to drill the hole a bit larger than normal to allow for the thickness of the polish. Otherwise, the tube will scrape some of the polish off as it slides in. It is also easier to use a colored tube (nickel, black or white from the kit suppliers) or spray paint your own tubes.

 

[Brooks803]

Use more mica powder in your cast. That will make the entire blank opaque to where you won't need to paint anything. Easiest way to determine when enough is enough....add in however much you think is enough...mix well. Clean off the stir stick and submerge it back into the resin and pull it out. If you can't see the stir stick through the resin then you've added enough. If you can still see it, add more till you can not.

 

[KenV]

Many nail polishes are translucent and some are transparent. You should look for color coatings for inside the blank that are mostly opaque.

I use black colorant (made for epoxy) mixed with the epoxy when I really want the tube to be unseen, and streaks of black through the paint can give a good effect.

 

[VotTak]

Many thanks to all of you for your kind inputs. Appreciate that.

 

[TonyL]

Unless it is definitely opaque, i paint the inside of the barrel and the tubes..i don't want to see glue lines. i have also learned that some blanks are just too transparent for me to do anything with. but that is just me.

 

[bgio13]

I use Testors model paint to paint the holes in my blanks. For good measure I also dab a toothpick in the paint and use that to stir the epoxy. Hope this helps,

Bill

 

[Smitty37]

I use Testors model paint to paint the holes in my blanks. For good measure I also dab a toothpick in the paint and use that to stir the epoxy. Hope this helps,

Bill

Good Idea .... model paints are available in just about any color you want I probably have about 40 colors on hand right now....mostly acrylic but you can find a lot of testors specifically for metal.