coffee cast...1 outta 3 aint bad

[JayDevin]

HELP!!! I cast some coffee beans today,3 blank mold,Left blank ok center blank sort of exploded and right blank half exploded....
beans all over the casting pot ( which is borrowed!)Head Scratching in ernest! Any tips?????

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Dang!! Make a cutting board withy a ton of small holes drilled in it and use that to clamp them down?? Did you vacuum them or is that just PSI? I had this happen in some PVC tubes when I tried to suck it down.

 

[JayDevin]

just psi....I can get at least 3 sierras out of the mess...

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Jay, just a thought. You might want to think about turning them undersized and them recasting them to create a finish on them. I had a LOT of problem getting the CA to look like glass over the beans, mine wanted to crack and leave rings around the bean. (Which could have issues down the road)

I would turn it straight and maybe .10 under what it should be, recast it and then finish with the profile you want. The best thing is you now have the PR as a finish and not CA. More work, but I think in the long run it will be worth it. BTW, if you have not done these, a LOT of the tube shows when you are done so make sure the tube is well painted and a color you want to see. My next ones will have a tinted resin.

 

[JayDevin]

Hi Lee.
just put 2nd try in the pot...covered this one with saran wrap so that the beans stay in the mold. I hope this helps.

thanks for the finishing tip. Im a long way from that now!

 

[gketell]

HEYYYYYY That was MY pressure pot you just turned into a coffee pot, ya bum!! It's all Jay's fault!!!!

(inside joke)

The only thing I can think of is maybe you got antsy and opened the pressure pot too soon. Pressurize the beans then open before the resin is fully set and the "coffee balloons" pop. *shrug*

GK

 

[JayDevin]

UpDate...the saran wrap trick worked on the 2nd cast...all the beans in place. but now have to figger out a way to get more pr/alumilite in the mold as it sucks down some....


and i picked all the beans out of the pot....swearing the whole time!

 

[gketell]

Seems like you might just need to build a deeper mold so when the alumilite finally gets pushed down and in you end up with a full size blank.

Fast way is tin foil inside a wood frame. Better way is to go to BedBath&Beyond and get a 1/2" thick UHMW plastic cutting board and build the mold from strips of that.

If you were using PR I could see putting beans/resin/beans/resin/beans/etc until the molds were full but I don't think you have time for that with Alumilite.

GK