Finishng resin blanks

[aggiengr]

This may be a dumb question, but I am new so I will cash-in my one free dumb question card. I am typically self-taught on my woodworking (you know, make enough mistakes to learn from), but I have reached the end of my chalk on this one.

I am going to try making some polyester resin molds this weekend. Not having done this before, what do you do to finish these? I am not sure what the finished product will look like after sanding to MM12000. Thanks for the advice!

 

[TomServo]

I've been playing with PR lately - yesterday I reused the same piece of folded up "heavy duty" aluminum foil TWICE as a mold - Anyways on the first piece I turned, I sanded thru 000000 "magic sand" then used hut PPP satin/gloss to polish - what I found is those steps will get you most of the way there, I figure that my final step should be a non-friction polish - ie simichrome or similar household metal polish.. MM12000 should get you about where my PPP satin leaves off - from there you could realistically polish with a paste - if you want to get fancy, you could get automotive finish type polishes (coarse, medium, fine cut and swirl remover) and use those from 600-1000 grit

 

[JimGo]

There's a special MicroMesh made for Corian, Acrylics, and PR that works REALLY well. It's only a 6 or 8 step process, and you wet sand with each grit. It makes the pens look great on its own. However, if you want to kick it up another notch, you can use plastic polish or automotive anti-swirl cream (search for Old Griz's comments on this and you'll find some very useful info).

Be careful, though. Because it finishes so easily and looks so neat, some of our users have become quite enamored with PR, to the point of almost abandoning wood (a herecy, according to some here)!

Best of luck, and be sure to post pics of your work!

 

[dwpenworks]

If there's anything I learned about finishing PRs its to use a light touch while you sand, a very light touch. But they sure are fun, and beautiful if done right.[8D]

 

[alamocdc]

I wet sand using MM (all 9 grits) and then use plastic polish (Novus Fine Scratch Remover), but automotive anti-swirl cream will work as well. Just make sure you wet sand.

 

[rtparso]

Try a little dish soap in the water you wet sand with. It make a world of differance.

 

[TheHoneymooners]

Originally posted by JimGo
<br />There's a special MicroMesh made for Corian, Acrylics, and PR that works REALLY well. It's only a 6 or 8 step process, and you wet sand with each grit. It makes the pens look great on its own. However, if you want to kick it up another notch, you can use plastic polish or automotive anti-swirl cream (search for Old Griz's comments on this and you'll find some very useful info).

Be careful, though. Because it finishes so easily and looks so neat, some of our users have become quite enamored with PR, to the point of almost abandoning wood (a herecy, according to some here)!



Best of luck, and be sure to post pics of your work!

Jim thats a nasty lie.....I turned a wooden pen...er yester....er last week ...yeah that it ...last week!!! That sounds believable , right? []