Paint under alumilite

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mbroberg

mbroberg

IAP Activities Manager, Emeritus
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Columbus, OH
I'm wandering around Hobby Lobby right now. This past week I started experimenting casting alumilite. I know alumilite does not like moisture. Is there a certain type of paint that can be used to paint tubes or foil prior to casting in alumilite? Edit in: I saw the results when Testers was used. Even when allowed to dry for a week the resin turned white.
 
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I used the Ceramcoat acrylic paints with alumilite all the time and have not had any trouble. I typically let them dry an hour our so before I glue in the tubes.
 
I may be reading this wrong, but I presume you are asking about painting tubes before casting while Mark seems to be talking about painting a tube before inserting into a drilled hole in an already-cast blank.

I've been researching the same thing & I don't think that any acrylic paint would be suitable for the former case.

I'm just trying to start doing some casting myself & was planning to use Alumilite for both worthless wood and tube-in casting, but I've about decided that Alumilite is not the way to go for tube-in castings. The consensus from our resident casting experts seems to be that PR or Epoxy Resin is the best thing to use for tube-in castings.
 
mbroberg said:
I'm wandering around Hobby Lobby right now, still giggleing about how I tricked Redburn into becoming the new activities manager. I can't beleive how time I have now. In fact, to fill this new found time, This past week I started experimenting casting alumilite. I know alumilite does not like moisture. Is there a certain type of paint that can be used to paint tubes or foil prior to casting in alumilite? Edit in: I saw the results when Testers was used. Even when allowed to dry for a week the resin turned white.
Click to expand...

For some reason, your complete thought didn't post the first time. Don't worry, though I added it in for you.:biggrin:

Glad to see you getting some shop time. You've earned it. You do realize that now you don't have an excuse for not entering the next PITH though, right?
 
I use Testors model paint to color my alumilite. There is water based Testors paint that will cause issues, the oil base seems to work fine. I once cast a tube with 2 colors and just clear alumilite and painted the tubes with Rustoleum spray paint and all was fine. I haven't cast over a painted tube so not sure how that would work.
 
I'm sorry Mike, as Ed noticed, I did misread your post. I use Ceramcoat acrylic paints to paint the inside of alumilite blanks, not for painting the tubes.
 
I painted the insides of my blanks after the drilling and had no problems either. I let mine dry over night. So they look pretty good. Will post pictures when I get home in a day or two. Fay. Oh I used acrylic paints that you can buy at Wal-Mart.
 
... I painted some tubes w/Rustoleum "Metallic", it is Silver in color. Twice as of mow, I used 5 Min. epoxy gluing the tubes in,and both failed to adhere to the blank. I am going back to Medium CA!
 
My original post wasn't very clear. As Edgar pointed out, I'm not asking about painting the tube or inside of a blank prior to gluing a tube in, I'm asking about painting a tube and then casting that tube in alumilite (tube-in casting). I do appreciate all of the responses. I am going to experiment later on today.
 
Mike, Something I recently tried and was successful with. I had two tubes that had been hand painted ( one with watercolors and with acrylic paints ) that I wanted to cast. Prior to casting I sealed the painted tubes with CA. One difference however is that I have not had much luck doing tube-in casting with alumilite so I used PR. They came out great.
 
I would think that as long as the paint was completely dry and cured, it should work fine. I have only cast painted tubes in PR with carbon fiber and sea shells, but AFAIK as long as there is NO moisture present in the paint Alumilite should work fine.

Sounds like it's trial time!
 
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