My First Castings

[eharri446]

Here are some pen blanks that I made over the weekend:


View in Gallery

They are made using Alumilite Water Clear and were dyed with Alumilite dyes. Two of them contain Jacquard Pearl in them and the other two have automotive paint additives. The second red one has Vampire Blood Halo Red metal flakes from CustomPaintingPearls.com. The last one has a blue to green chameleon powder mixed in it.

They were cast in 7/8 inch pen tubes from Woodcraft.

 

[thewishman]

Looking good. My favorite is the first one on the left.

 

[tomtedesco]

Very nice, partial to green myself.

 

[bmachin]

Really nice blanks.

One suggestion: When it comes time to re-order, go with Alumilite Clear rather than Water Clear. Clear was designed with pen turners in mind. Lots of threads here about the differences.

Bill

 

[TonyL]

They will make some nice pens!

 

[eharri446]

Chris,

That one is made up of red, blue, and yellow dyes, with a different pearl in each color. It would look a lot better if I would have been able to pour it in a flat mold and swirl the colors the way that I wanted them. However, it did come out rather nice.

Bill,

I am just using up the Water Clear that I have. I have either one or two gallons of clear that I purchased during the bash.

Also, using the water clear that I already had allows me to make mistakes as I learn how to do castings correctly.

Just for general information the third one is two ounces of Alumilite with 16 drops of Alumilite blue dye and Jacquard Aztec Gold pearl. It is so dark that it almost looks black. If you take into the sunlight, then you can see the blue color come out.

 

[bmachin]

Great. Alumilite's shelf life of 6 months is very conservative although I have kept it too long. Try to keep it out of the sun, keep it as cool as you can, and keep a layer of Bloxygen of canned air in the partially used container to keep moisture and and oxygen out.

Try 1/2 tsp of Pearl-ex super copper per 50 grams with no dye. Large flake size, big time swirl effect.

Lots of good stuff on resin casting and mold making (although not pen related at all) here:
Guerrilla guide to CNC machining, mold making, and resin casting

Again, Really nice blanks.

Bill

 

[magpens]

Great results !! . Thanks for posting !!