Shane
Member
I have been trying to perfect my feather casting technique. I have been successful by tying the feathers to the blanks but I really don't like the way they look. I want the feathers to appear to be floating or just laying on the tubes. To do this I needed to figure out a way to glue the feathers to the tubes. I remember seeing feathers set in fishing rods so to get some ideas I spent some time on the rod building forums.
They use flex coat lite epoxy for sealing their thread wraps and I saw a few with feathers like I wanted so I gave that a try ... failure 1.
The epoxy set up nice and the feathers looked good but when I cast it in resin the resin would not cure next to the epoxy. The outside was hard but the inside was a milky white color liquid. Maybe I should of done a better job of cleaning the epoxy before casting.
Next I tried using CR instead of the epoxy ... failure 2.
I got the wraps sealed and the feathers set, everything was looking good. To make the blanks I hot glue the tube to the end of a spindle thats mounted to a chuck on the lathe, works kinda like a large fly tying vise, and when I went to pry off the blank it popped right off, flew out of my hands and landed in the sawdust below. The CR was still wet and it was covered in crap. Needless to say I was a little upset with myself. I cleaned it off the best I could but there is no way I can use it [:0]
According to the instruction on the CR can to cast multiple layers you want to pour on the 2nd layer just after the first layer starts to gel. Well I got another blank all ready, wraps were sealed and the feathers were holding nice. I waited for it to gel, very carefully removed it from the lathe and put it in mold and poured in the resin. Well apperantely the fresh resin made the gel turn to a liquid and the feathers floated ... failure 3
Okay ... Attempt 4. I have learned a little each time, improving my wrapps with each blank and getting more creative with each failure, so hopefully this one will work.
This time I let the first layer of CR cure over night and then cast it. I was worried about the 2nd layer sticking to the first but it seems to have worked ... Success!
The tube is wrapped with blue and green nylong thread, gold metalic thread and gold tinsel. Four golden pheasant tippets, 2 white grizzly hackles and 2 yellow grizzly hackles. I like how the tinsel looks in the previous attempt more than I do on this one. They are spaced out a little more and don't looks quite so busy, but I can live with this one.
(Sorry for the hot spots on the pics, I need to reshoot them).
I'm curious, do you guys put any kind of finish on your CR pens? I usually use CA cause there is always a little feather poaking out and the CA seals it but I didn't have to on this one. Its just sanded to 12000 and buffed.
Thanks for looking, sorry it was so long.
Happy Turning,
They use flex coat lite epoxy for sealing their thread wraps and I saw a few with feathers like I wanted so I gave that a try ... failure 1.
The epoxy set up nice and the feathers looked good but when I cast it in resin the resin would not cure next to the epoxy. The outside was hard but the inside was a milky white color liquid. Maybe I should of done a better job of cleaning the epoxy before casting.
Next I tried using CR instead of the epoxy ... failure 2.
I got the wraps sealed and the feathers set, everything was looking good. To make the blanks I hot glue the tube to the end of a spindle thats mounted to a chuck on the lathe, works kinda like a large fly tying vise, and when I went to pry off the blank it popped right off, flew out of my hands and landed in the sawdust below. The CR was still wet and it was covered in crap. Needless to say I was a little upset with myself. I cleaned it off the best I could but there is no way I can use it [:0]
According to the instruction on the CR can to cast multiple layers you want to pour on the 2nd layer just after the first layer starts to gel. Well I got another blank all ready, wraps were sealed and the feathers were holding nice. I waited for it to gel, very carefully removed it from the lathe and put it in mold and poured in the resin. Well apperantely the fresh resin made the gel turn to a liquid and the feathers floated ... failure 3
Okay ... Attempt 4. I have learned a little each time, improving my wrapps with each blank and getting more creative with each failure, so hopefully this one will work.
This time I let the first layer of CR cure over night and then cast it. I was worried about the 2nd layer sticking to the first but it seems to have worked ... Success!
The tube is wrapped with blue and green nylong thread, gold metalic thread and gold tinsel. Four golden pheasant tippets, 2 white grizzly hackles and 2 yellow grizzly hackles. I like how the tinsel looks in the previous attempt more than I do on this one. They are spaced out a little more and don't looks quite so busy, but I can live with this one.
(Sorry for the hot spots on the pics, I need to reshoot them).
I'm curious, do you guys put any kind of finish on your CR pens? I usually use CA cause there is always a little feather poaking out and the CA seals it but I didn't have to on this one. Its just sanded to 12000 and buffed.
Thanks for looking, sorry it was so long.
Happy Turning,
