Question for Alumilite users

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
P

Paul Downes

Member
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
216
Location
Westphalia, Mi, USA.
I am going to get some Alumilite soon for use for stabalizing/worthless wood casts and have a couple of questions. I noticed it runs $180 for a 2 gallon kit. I thought I remember it being around $45 per gallon and wondered if I am seeing the pricing right? Also, I saw in another post that the white penetrates better than the clear. I thought the clear was water viscosity. I am concerned that I won't be able to color the resin the way I want without using the clear so I would like to know what issues there are with penetration in the wood. Like was there air pockets? I will be using it to treat punky maple and ant infested maple.

If only I could get an few ants to turn just inside the blank! It would be called the perpetual ant farm pen. Another idea. Can you mix the white and clear to get a workable compromise?
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Paul, MY experience is that the white alumilite penetrates punky wood deeper/better than the clear at 80psi. I also do get penetration with the clear BUT occasionally if the wood in not VERy punky I may end up with some spots inside the blank that the clear alumilite did not get to. If the blank has holes that are not exposed to the edges of the blank the resin has no way to get in so you may end up with some air pockets.

Ref mixing white with clear; I have mixed the white with the clear with mixed (no pun intended) results. The blank ended up with some white swirls floating in the clear resin...the main issue was that since you have to work so fast you really have no control over how "swirly" it is going to end up.

Bottom line what has worked for me:
For punky wood I use the white
For the "amalgam-Mutts" (my version of the worthless blanks) I use the clear

Ref the price; Yes, $180 for the 2 Gal kit of clear alumilite is correct. If you buy the 10 Gallon kit then the price goes to about $57.00 per gallon.
 
I pretty much have to agree with ElMostro, though I don't work up in those pressures.
What may also work ell is a slow cure resin like Crystal clear 204 from Smooth-on, it has a 48 hour demold time which should give plenty of time to penetrate the wood.

Mixing the white and clear would give mixed results (sorry no pun intended either) because the cure at different times
 
Wow, 10 gallons at a time. Did you do a group buy? What is the shelf life of Alumilite? I have noticed that there are a lot of different sources for poly resins and it seems that they may be of slightly different formulations. I ordered 2 gallons from U.S. composites - simlar41, and I was a bit suprised by the shipping and handeling charges. It doesn't turn out to be as good a deal as I first thought.

I don't live but an hour and a half from Kalamazoo Mi. where Alumilite is located. I also visit my brother semi-often who lives that way so I plan on stopping there and saving myself the cost of shipping.
 
Paul,

If you go to Alumilite, make sure you look up Mike. He is the VP and runs the company. He is the one I work(ed) with extensively when I was developing my cactus blanks using Alumilite. He is a GREAT guy and really know his resins like no other. Be sure to tell him I said hi if you do get to visit!
 
Will do Curtis. I'm not yet sure when I will make it over there. With money that is. What is the shelf life of alumilite? I could call them to find out, but I'd rather hear it from an end user who has experiance. I am in the development stage of a pen business. I will be wholesaleing some woods to vendors and am really enjoying the poly resin casting. I do need to set up environmental controls before doing much more in the way of casting. I used to work in the injection mold arena (mold maintanence, diemaker), so it's kind of familiar.

I'm off to cut up some large wood log butts for a guy who heats his industrial wood kiln with it. He happens to have a lot of 6" spiral pipe -just what I need for an upgrade to my dust collection system. He also has an 11' tall 5 hp Torit dust collector that he will barter for work so it will pay off for some exercise/woodcutting. I do this instead of joining the YMCA.
 
good deal on the Torit.
I have about 8 gallons of white sitting here for about 3 years now and it works just fine, takes a bit longer to setup but that's not nescesarily a bad thing.
I had a customer that placed an order then bailed, fortunately their non-refundable deposit covered the materials.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom