robutacion
Member
Hi peoples,
I have mentioned a few weeks back that I was going to experiment making some of these blanks with a new product called "Illuminous Powder" also known as "Glow in the dark".
I had some still left from this year's yield from my auto-mechanic friend. and I have been letting them dry in my over for many hours at 60°C.
Last Thursday, I had to see a specialist at the Flinders Hospital, not far from Adelaide and asked for my wife to drive, as I don't drive much anymore, that turn out to be a good thing as I have plenty of time to look for stuff/trees on the side of the road and that was exactly what happened in my way back home and only a few miles down from the hospital, when at one of the Service Stations on my side of the road, I spotted at first one large Dwarf Banksia tree that didn't have much foliage so I could see the pods clearly, and in a blink of an eye, I was instructed the wife to turn back, which scared the heck out of her and she panic for a little wile as the traffic was nasty.
Anyway, we turned around and stooped at this Service Station, where that tree and one other were, and where the water and air outlets are installed for people to use.
I couldn't believe my eyes, looking at that tree, standing about 10 meters tall, with plenty of ready pods to pic, as the ground was littered with the very old pods that fall to the ground, those are totally useless...!
I was already amazed just looking at that tree when I looked around to give a better look at the one only a few meters away, only to realise that was another Dwarf Banksia but this was had a very dark and thick foliage/canopy, so thick I had to focus to actually see the pods, and after a closer inspection, if I though the first tree had plenty of pods, this other tree as triple the amount, with a couple of thousand pods, at the right age to be picked.
I went looking for the manager of the place, while I was drooling so bad that I though it would be too obvious so, after looking around, I found the person in charge, and ask if we could pic some pods, as I make stuff with them, his response was, that as many as you want, the damn things are making a mess on the ground and we have to sweep that area every day...!
What a lovely song my ears were listening, I walked back to the vehicle, with a big smile in my face, the wife knew straight away what that meant "Green light...!":wink::biggrin:
We picked up a bag of about 300 or so pods, only a few will make full size blanks but, I could see that high up in both trees, were a fair few that will make the longer blanks so, I have to set up a day to take the trailer, a long leader, some pruning scissors, an extension pole with a cutter at its tip top cut the ones at the very top of the trees and plenty of big bags.
I known that we will make a big mess getting the pods down so, we need to take all the gear to clean the area before we leave so, there will be no shortage of these pods for some years...!
:wink::biggrin:
I have never used this fine powder, very heavy with a slight yellow(ish) colour.
Expensive as hell, it came with no instructions or suggestions so, I mixed some on a resin mix container, where I had some yellow Pearlex, I use about 1/3 of whatever the amount I use of the Pearlex yellow, mixed it all very well and pour on a double stack mold with these half pods, aligned up as if they were a single blank.
I had another 2 molds with some other colours and in the morning when I got the molds out of the pressure pot, I was excited to find out if the mold with the illuminous powder blanks would glow in the dark or not.
When I removed the blanks from the mold, I could see a "strange" green colours mixed with the yellow but, was patchy within the blanks so, after a few hours in the sun, I turned/sample one to have a look, with the CA finish on it. By then, was almost dark so I keep looking at it and I could see any glow but, when I went to turn the bandsaw light of, as soon as I did, I could see all these bits of resin glowing, all around the bandsaw table, those were the thin trimmings from cutting the blanks to size on the bandsaw however, looking at the blanks, everything was dark so I though that, the yellow Pearlex powder may have cut the illuminous powder capability to show.
At that point I though that, I may require to use the straight illuminous powder on the clear resin and figure out what natural colour this stuff comes up to, when is mixed as I believe the green(ish) I could see of the blanks, was the reaction of mixing it with the yellow powder.
I need to find out so yesterday I prepared some more pods and made another 4 molds, 2 of which had only the straight illuminous powder with the clear resin, how much did I use of it..? well, the bottle is small and comes 2/3 empty so, there is not a lot of powder for $20.00 so, I used about 3/4 of what I had left, add the catalyst and proceed to stir and stir and stir, the glass jar I was using is clear glass and I could see most of the illuminous powder set at the jar bottom and it didn't seem that would dissolve any more so, I got my paint mixer head, put in an a drill and gave it a hell of a spin but, some of that stuff was stuck on the bottom and didn't want to dissolve so I cut my losses and poured the mix over the 2 molds.
I had also another 2 molds with 2 other colours as I'm attempting do make a large batch to finish with the resin drum I have, I will have then, lots of blanks made to last me a long time, well, that's the plan, anyway...!
I turned/sample 1 blank of these 2 molds I poured last night to see it 100% illuminous powder, there is, a quantity that I don't know if sufficient or not for the 1 litre of resin used. The colour is a semi transparent pearlish white(ish) and I was quite disappointed after I finished as it didn't seem to was glowing at all, it was also dark when I finish it so I turn the light off and I couldn't see a thing, while holding the blanks in my hand.
I come to the house with it, to show to the wife and let her know my second attempt was also a failure in respect to the glowing in the dark issue when, all of a certain, she turned the table light to have a better/closer look, and after she confirmed that she couldn't see any glowing, the turned the light off, and the blank become alive, was then when I remembered that most illuminous materials require a source of light before the glow activate, to strongest the light, the more glow it produces...!
So, I proceed to attempt taking some pics of the glowing, using a strong flash-light and my camera that it took lots of tries before I could find a setting that would see the glow in the dark.
Below, are some examples of what I endup with however, I will need to do the same test with the light on the other blanks I made first, the one above, I reckon, I will be having some glow, I'm not expecting as much as I only used a small percentage of the illuminous powder but, it will be interesting to see if mixing it with another coloured powder, the glow is still present, to a certain degree, will see...!
I think that, the batch I have on the pressure pot for tomorrow, is probably all I will do with these dwarf Banksia pods, for awhile, I have lots of other blanks that need done, also...!
Enjoy...!
Cheers
George
I have mentioned a few weeks back that I was going to experiment making some of these blanks with a new product called "Illuminous Powder" also known as "Glow in the dark".
I had some still left from this year's yield from my auto-mechanic friend. and I have been letting them dry in my over for many hours at 60°C.
Last Thursday, I had to see a specialist at the Flinders Hospital, not far from Adelaide and asked for my wife to drive, as I don't drive much anymore, that turn out to be a good thing as I have plenty of time to look for stuff/trees on the side of the road and that was exactly what happened in my way back home and only a few miles down from the hospital, when at one of the Service Stations on my side of the road, I spotted at first one large Dwarf Banksia tree that didn't have much foliage so I could see the pods clearly, and in a blink of an eye, I was instructed the wife to turn back, which scared the heck out of her and she panic for a little wile as the traffic was nasty.
Anyway, we turned around and stooped at this Service Station, where that tree and one other were, and where the water and air outlets are installed for people to use.
I couldn't believe my eyes, looking at that tree, standing about 10 meters tall, with plenty of ready pods to pic, as the ground was littered with the very old pods that fall to the ground, those are totally useless...!
I was already amazed just looking at that tree when I looked around to give a better look at the one only a few meters away, only to realise that was another Dwarf Banksia but this was had a very dark and thick foliage/canopy, so thick I had to focus to actually see the pods, and after a closer inspection, if I though the first tree had plenty of pods, this other tree as triple the amount, with a couple of thousand pods, at the right age to be picked.
I went looking for the manager of the place, while I was drooling so bad that I though it would be too obvious so, after looking around, I found the person in charge, and ask if we could pic some pods, as I make stuff with them, his response was, that as many as you want, the damn things are making a mess on the ground and we have to sweep that area every day...!
What a lovely song my ears were listening, I walked back to the vehicle, with a big smile in my face, the wife knew straight away what that meant "Green light...!":wink::biggrin:
We picked up a bag of about 300 or so pods, only a few will make full size blanks but, I could see that high up in both trees, were a fair few that will make the longer blanks so, I have to set up a day to take the trailer, a long leader, some pruning scissors, an extension pole with a cutter at its tip top cut the ones at the very top of the trees and plenty of big bags.
I known that we will make a big mess getting the pods down so, we need to take all the gear to clean the area before we leave so, there will be no shortage of these pods for some years...!
:wink::biggrin: I have never used this fine powder, very heavy with a slight yellow(ish) colour.
Expensive as hell, it came with no instructions or suggestions so, I mixed some on a resin mix container, where I had some yellow Pearlex, I use about 1/3 of whatever the amount I use of the Pearlex yellow, mixed it all very well and pour on a double stack mold with these half pods, aligned up as if they were a single blank.
I had another 2 molds with some other colours and in the morning when I got the molds out of the pressure pot, I was excited to find out if the mold with the illuminous powder blanks would glow in the dark or not.
When I removed the blanks from the mold, I could see a "strange" green colours mixed with the yellow but, was patchy within the blanks so, after a few hours in the sun, I turned/sample one to have a look, with the CA finish on it. By then, was almost dark so I keep looking at it and I could see any glow but, when I went to turn the bandsaw light of, as soon as I did, I could see all these bits of resin glowing, all around the bandsaw table, those were the thin trimmings from cutting the blanks to size on the bandsaw however, looking at the blanks, everything was dark so I though that, the yellow Pearlex powder may have cut the illuminous powder capability to show.
At that point I though that, I may require to use the straight illuminous powder on the clear resin and figure out what natural colour this stuff comes up to, when is mixed as I believe the green(ish) I could see of the blanks, was the reaction of mixing it with the yellow powder.
I need to find out so yesterday I prepared some more pods and made another 4 molds, 2 of which had only the straight illuminous powder with the clear resin, how much did I use of it..? well, the bottle is small and comes 2/3 empty so, there is not a lot of powder for $20.00 so, I used about 3/4 of what I had left, add the catalyst and proceed to stir and stir and stir, the glass jar I was using is clear glass and I could see most of the illuminous powder set at the jar bottom and it didn't seem that would dissolve any more so, I got my paint mixer head, put in an a drill and gave it a hell of a spin but, some of that stuff was stuck on the bottom and didn't want to dissolve so I cut my losses and poured the mix over the 2 molds.
I had also another 2 molds with 2 other colours as I'm attempting do make a large batch to finish with the resin drum I have, I will have then, lots of blanks made to last me a long time, well, that's the plan, anyway...!
I turned/sample 1 blank of these 2 molds I poured last night to see it 100% illuminous powder, there is, a quantity that I don't know if sufficient or not for the 1 litre of resin used. The colour is a semi transparent pearlish white(ish) and I was quite disappointed after I finished as it didn't seem to was glowing at all, it was also dark when I finish it so I turn the light off and I couldn't see a thing, while holding the blanks in my hand.
I come to the house with it, to show to the wife and let her know my second attempt was also a failure in respect to the glowing in the dark issue when, all of a certain, she turned the table light to have a better/closer look, and after she confirmed that she couldn't see any glowing, the turned the light off, and the blank become alive, was then when I remembered that most illuminous materials require a source of light before the glow activate, to strongest the light, the more glow it produces...!
So, I proceed to attempt taking some pics of the glowing, using a strong flash-light and my camera that it took lots of tries before I could find a setting that would see the glow in the dark.
Below, are some examples of what I endup with however, I will need to do the same test with the light on the other blanks I made first, the one above, I reckon, I will be having some glow, I'm not expecting as much as I only used a small percentage of the illuminous powder but, it will be interesting to see if mixing it with another coloured powder, the glow is still present, to a certain degree, will see...!
I think that, the batch I have on the pressure pot for tomorrow, is probably all I will do with these dwarf Banksia pods, for awhile, I have lots of other blanks that need done, also...!
Enjoy...!
Cheers
George
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