Worthless wood casting with Artstuf dyes problem

[GouletPens]

I had the Artstuf.com powered dyes already so I went to use those in alumilite casting my first ever worthless wood (shoutout to Curtis for his instructions). The alumilite worked great and I had no problem there, but I noticed the powder dye was not mixing thouroughly enough and you can see chunks of dye once turned. I don't think it's a mixing problem b/c I mixed them for probably 5 straight minutes. I think the dye itself is not fine enough. The yellow dye was the worst, very chunky. The plum color was actually a blue and red I mixed together, but you can see there was one little red chunk that wanted to stand out. Maybe the dyes are too old and are clumping together? Maybe I need to grind them up a bit to make them finer?

I did more searching on here and everyone seems to love the pearlex so i went out and bought some this morning at Michaels. It's noticibly finer than the artstuf dyes, and it seemed to cast well, though I haven't turned anything from it yet.

So I really have two questions:
1) Is there an effective way to use the artstuf dyes in alumilite?
2) Can I use transtint dyes as a base for the pearlex instead of mixol (again, I already have some transtint dyes I bought from woodcraft and would like to use them if possible)?

Thanks for the help....

 

[jskeen]

If you think it is just a problem with insufficient mixing time before it starts to set up, you can try mixing the pigment into one part of the alumalite, mix as long as you want, then add the other part, mix and pour.

 

[MesquiteMan]

Transtint will work with Alumilite but don't get crazy with it. If you put in too much, it will affect the ratio. Your best bet is to get the dye from Alumilite. The carrier is polyol which basically the A side of Alumilite. It is very concentrated and will last a long time. I transfer the dye into empty CA bottles and use the tip as a dropper. I use 1 drop per ounce of mixed resin to get good, rich colors. It is hard to beat somethign that is specifically designed to work with a product!

 

[tool-man]

Have you also used the Alumilite metalic powder along with the dye? I would assume it works equally well?

Transtint will work with Alumilite but don't get crazy with it. If you put in too much, it will affect the ratio. Your best bet is to get the dye from Alumilite. The carrier is polyol which basically the A side of Alumilite. It is very concentrated and will last a long time. I transfer the dye into empty CA bottles and use the tip as a dropper. I use 1 drop per ounce of mixed resin to get good, rich colors. It is hard to beat somethign that is specifically designed to work with a product!

 

[MesquiteMan]

All the time!