Casting your own Coffee Blanks

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Darley

Darley

Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2004
Messages
2,149
Location
Hervey Bay Queensland
Here's some photos to show you how I did my casting ,

What you need is :

Coffee Beans ( I think so :biggrin: )
Resin or Alumine ( I prefer resin )
Casting mould ( look at Gadget one of our member for mould casting )
S/Steel mesh and weight

Jam pack the mould cavity with coffee beans pour your casting, top with the S/Steel mesh and weight pressure at 65 PSI

Happy Casting

attachment.jpg


attachment.jpg


attachment.jpg


attachment.jpg
 

Attachments

  • coffee blank.jpg
    coffee blank.jpg
    51.7 KB · Views: 1,981
  • coffee blank2.jpg
    coffee blank2.jpg
    40.2 KB · Views: 1,988
  • coffee blank3.jpg
    coffee blank3.jpg
    54.6 KB · Views: 1,968
  • coffee blank4.jpg
    coffee blank4.jpg
    46 KB · Views: 2,030
Last edited:
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Hey Serge,
Does your wife know you use one of her "pound" cakes for a weight? Great idea! Thanks for showing us. Your bean casts are really nice looking.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 
its_virgil said:
Hey Serge,
Does your wife know you use one of her "pound" cakes for a weight? Great idea! Thanks for showing us. Your bean casts are really nice looking.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
Click to expand...

I trust you my friend you will not spit the bean :biggrin: if not I will be nailled onto the wall
 
Serge:
Thanks for the posting. I've got some Christmas back orders to fill before I can try any experiments. In the new year you know I'm going to find some resin and try it.
Don:
You beat me to the punch on the pound cake comment.
 
Jason I do use a HF paint pot for my casting under 65 PSI .

I forgot to say that only 5 ounces of casting is enough for the whole mould ( at least for me )
 
mywoodshopca said:
Looks like I will need to pick a pot up next time we are visiting my wifes family in Kansas..

Would making these without a pot work or what would happen?
Click to expand...
Without a pot, you will almost certainly end up with tiny bubbles that will want to stick to the beans. This will result in one of two bad ends; either your final pen will have ugly bubbles in it or (more likely) the blank will explode while you are turning it.
 
Very good idea. I was thinking of a way to do that, much more accurate than the tube idea I had.

Have you tried coming up with a resin that looks like coffee with creamer in it? Seems only natural to suspend the beans in that.
 
Skye said:
Very good idea. I was thinking of a way to do that, much more accurate than the tube idea I had.

Have you tried coming up with a resin that looks like coffee with creamer in it? Seems only natural to suspend the beans in that.
Click to expand...


Could you explain what you mean, I can't visual your question
 
I have made bean blanks using a pearly brown PR. They looked awesome. I'm pretty sure that I used one of the PearlEx pigments 'as-is'.
 
Skye this look very nice will have one like this with a double shot of pure Malt in it :biggrin: but bother missing the cookie:eek::biggrin:

OK joke aside this is caramel colour with white streacks in it you want any coffee bean in it too? will have to try to find the colour first, thanks for posting this

Skye said:
Kinda like this color (minus the head):
dscf0090.jpg
Click to expand...
 
OK, dumb question...where did you find the mesh? I wonder if I could use window screen material, as I'm not sure when I'd stumble across some SS mesh!

Thanks,
Dale
 
spiritwoodturner said:
OK, dumb question...where did you find the mesh? I wonder if I could use window screen material, as I'm not sure when I'd stumble across some SS mesh!

Thanks,
Dale
Click to expand...


If I understand correctly, its just to hold the beans down and not allow the weights to stick to the blanks.. you prob could use parchment paper or something else to help keep your weights from sticking.
 
spiritwoodturner said:
OK, dumb question...where did you find the mesh? I wonder if I could use window screen material, as I'm not sure when I'd stumble across some SS mesh!

Thanks,
Dale
Click to expand...

Dale my piece of S/Steel mesh is from an off cut from security door, the wire is an heavy one ( I mean a thick one ) window screen material is to soft and will stick to the PR, The aim is to OVER fill the mold with coffee bean, like that the mesh doesn't touch the PR when pressurised and curring, if you can't come across some S/S try to find some very small chiken mesh to prevent the coffee bean to go through it .


Skye your girl friend pantyhose :eek: won't work too thin :tongue::wink:
 
In a second though maybe a piece of corian wrapped in food glad warp with a weight on top could do the tric, I just say maybe :wink:

Now forgot to say, do 2 pressures in your pot,

when you fill your coffee beans with PR pressure first time at 65 PSI leave for few seconds then release the pressure take the blanks mold out of the pot, top up the blanks with the remain of the PR then pressure again at 65 PSI

why?

I find out that when you pressure the first time the PR goes into the small coffee beans crevasses ( or cracks ) and diminish the size of your blanks and they are not at the right size
 
Last edited:
It's just 'plastic' that nothing sticks to. It's a good idea, but I don't see it separating the excess resin from the beans as well as a type of screen would.
 
Skye said:
It's just 'plastic' that nothing sticks to. It's a good idea, but I don't see it separating the excess resin from the beans as well as a type of screen would.
Click to expand...

No seperating of resine here, the screen or plate of any kind is to weight down the coffee beans when the PR are pour over the beans this plate or screen is to prevent the beans to float while casting
 
Darley said:
Dale my piece of S/Steel mesh is from an off cut from security door, the wire is an heavy one ( I mean a thick one ) window screen material is to soft and will stick to the PR, The aim is to OVER fill the mold with coffee bean, like that the mesh doesn't touch the PR when pressurised and curring, if you can't come across some S/S try to find some very small chiken mesh to prevent the coffee bean to go through it .
Click to expand...

You might try the screen mesh that comes in a sheetrock repair kit.. it's actually aluminum I think, but seems stiff enough to hold the weight. You can find them at the big box stores.
 
ozmandus said:
You might try the screen mesh that comes in a sheetrock repair kit.. it's actually aluminum I think, but seems stiff enough to hold the weight. You can find them at the big box stores.
Click to expand...

Now THAT I have! I own an apartment building and I use that stuff constantly for repairing holes. I'll try it and report back!

Thanks,
Dale
 
One more dumb question. I'm waiting for my silicone molds, but once I get done and turn them, are the coffee beans completely impregnated with PR, or do I need to keep a lot of thin CA nearby? I'm doubting that even under pressure something as hard and dense as a coffee bean will get completely plasticised, but that would be ideal.

Thanks,
Dale
 
Dale you will need thin CA, when cutting the blank cut it 1/8 more for the lenght drill it them soaked with thin CA ( coffee bean are porous ) when I glue the tube in I usualy soak the end of the blank with CA before sanding them to size then I soak again before I set the blank(s) on the lathe keep CA next to you as well as accelerator, let us know how you're going
 
Thanks for the post. Every time I've tried this before I ended up with an exploded blank and a ton of frustration. I think maybe I was missing the weight and overfilled molds. I'm now looking forward to trying this again and seeing if I can make it work. I know my wife would love it.

Also, for what it's worth, the cheap plastic cutting boards are basically UHMW, and they are much cheaper than buying from woodworking supply stores.
 
Darley said:
Dale you will need thin CA, when cutting the blank cut it 1/8 more for the lenght drill it them soaked with thin CA ( coffee bean are porous ) when I glue the tube in I usualy soak the end of the blank with CA before sanding them to size then I soak again before I set the blank(s) on the lathe keep CA next to you as well as accelerator, let us know how you're going
Click to expand...


Do you square up your blank ends with a pen mill or sander ?
 
JerryS said:
Do you square up your blank ends with a pen mill or sander ?
Click to expand...

Either way you want but if you use the pen mill make sure is sharp and go slowly don't forget coffee bean as been roasted so it's very friable than the PR or Alumine, I did use 4 and 6 cuter mill head and I didn't see any difference
 
JerryS said:
Do you square up your blank ends with a pen mill or sander ?
Click to expand...

Ah.. now I see my problem.
I was trying to square them up with a coffee grinder..

I suppose you could also make a long pen out of one tube and drill some
tiny pinholes in the lower end of the tube.

In case of emergency, remove the pen parts, block the bottom hole of the
tube, place the lower end of the tube into very hot water and drink slowly.
 
Have only made a few pens, but would like to try the casting technique. I can imagine some interesting stuff if clear casting material can be used.

Have one quick question: How are individual items (beans for example) held so that the item does not touch the outside, ie. the actual bean can be touched on the outside of the casting, or are the items so saturated that contacting the outside periphery is not a concern. Or is a first casting done with items touching the outside, then recast in the center, or coated on the outside to protect the exposed bean?

I can imagine casting some small flies into a pen for fly fishermen (we spend a ridiculous amount on stupid stuff, particularly the guys down there at Tellico, and the guys who drive from here (Knoxville) to there :biggrin:).
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Chris,

Karnak says "Read the entire thread here-all your answers will be revealed!". Darley's (and others) pretty well wrung this out here.

Good luck! I'll have my silicone molds in a few days and can't wait to make my first ones.

Dale
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom