Casting Sweet Gum Pods

[SteveAxelrod]

Last weekend I picked up a can of polyester resin with a 60% off coupon and figured I'd take a crack at casting some pen blanks. I'm a big fan of Dan Pompe's sweet gum blanks and I'd picked up a bunch of sweet gum seed pods in the neighborhood. In preparation for casting them I soaked them in Minwax Wood Hardener and dried them in the sun. That worked reasonable well but I wonder if Cactus Juice would have worked better? I used copper and pearl colored Pearlex for color after not having any luck using acrylic paint (I guess that only works with epoxy resin).


View in Gallery

I'm pleasantly surprised at how nice this blank turned out and I'm definitely hooked on sweet gum pods. A new project on my "To Turn" list is to make some shaving sets and it will be great to be able to cast some larger blanks to make shaving brush handles with.

 

[robutacion]

We have 2 kinds/sizes of Sweet Gum nuts locally but I have never thought much of them, in fact, I recall casting one or two blanks but never done anymore, for some reason...?

As for your question if stabilising/Cactus Juice would be better than the Minwax you used and I have to say, I would trust a lot more in the stabilising, from the soaking to the curing/dryness of the pods.

I can see some patches of whitish/bubbles/separation in the cast and I wonder if the resin reacted with any of the Minwax that was not as dry as you may have thought, I had that happening to me from moisture.

In no way, I intend to put down your casting abilities and if you know me well enough as I believe you do, you would know that I'm just trying to help and probably give you some hints/clues on how to improve, we all can improve, no exceptions, I'm not always right but I'm always honest with my observation/comments...?:wink::biggrin:

Sometimes the close-ups and or zooming tools, tend to show us things we may not have noticed before, good, bad and so so..!

I hope you don't get mad at me...!:redface:

Cheers
George

 

[Jolly Red]

I've got plenty of gumballs, will have to try that. Just wondering how to hold the balls to cut them down to fit in the mold.

 

[magpens]

Great work, Steve !!!!

 

[SteveAxelrod]

Tom - My blank form is 1.5" wide and 2" tall and 1.5" deep and it easily accomodated 4 sweet gum pods. I cut the casting in half to make two blanks.

George - Any advice or comments are welcome, especially as I've just started playing around with casting. Thanks for the pointers. You didn't say whether or not you liked the sweet gum pods. I think they create a great design when cut into parts.

 

[robutacion]

G'day mate,

The Sweet Gum pods in the USA are a little smaller than the ones I found in this area and that may be the reason I never persisted with them and because I had so many other stuff to cast that you guys didn't have over there.

There is nothing wrong with those pods for casting, they certainly produce great blanks (I've seen a fair few here..!), everything in your pens I saw apart from those areas I mentioned, are very well made, the fit and the finish.

From the close up's I saw from your pens/blanks, I think the pod areas are tight/thick enough to try the clear resin, the pod appearance would be sharper and clear and I doubt you would see the tube/brass.

Experimenting is a great tool, solving the "bugs" can sometimes be not so fun but in the end, things can only get better...!

Cheers
George

 

[OZturner]

Nice Pen, Steve.
Great Blank, Fit and Finish.
Congratulations,
Brian.

 

[TattooedTurner]

Those look great! I like pine cones cast in resin but those look even better. I'd really like to see a Christmas ornament made with them. I think I just added another item to the "to do" list.