cwasil
Member
I just got my polyester resin and colors in yesterday and I've got a few questions. I cast a 4oz & a 9oz yesterday and I'm wondering if the rest of you guys had the same consistency I did. I got my blanks prepped today and they seemed kind of brittle. When I drilled (9/32")the blank, at the bottom, a little larger chunk than any acrylic I've ever worked on popped out...it was still O.K. but it almost looked like a chuck of glass. The barrel trimming was fine, it shaved like any other acrylic I've dealt with. The actual turning was insane though. I started by taking a small 1/4" gouge after it and the best description I can give is that I was sandblasted. No big chunks, just small, sand sized pieces that kind of stuck to my arms. When I had hogged off enough material I switched to the skew and it shaved real nice. The biggest problem I found was at the end. Melting. After I turned it close to size I normally go 120, 220, 400 & MM to 12000 and, finally, HUT plastic polish. I was making a designer pen and at the nib end, where the thinnest material is, the 220 actually melted the plastic. The questions I have are this:
1. Is the consistency I had in my blanks close to yours?
2. Have you ever had a melting problem?
Overall, to anybody out there on the fence on this one...just do it. If I can do it, anyone can. I forgot my camera at work so I can't show you what I did but one is a lavender that looks alot like Anthony's color in his casting instructions. My only word of advice so far is to maybe trim an 1/8" off the edges of the resin block before cutting it into blanks. The "crap" kind of a accumulates near the edges so it might be best to just get rid of it instead of it accidently becoming part of your pen surface.
1. Is the consistency I had in my blanks close to yours?
2. Have you ever had a melting problem?
Overall, to anybody out there on the fence on this one...just do it. If I can do it, anyone can. I forgot my camera at work so I can't show you what I did but one is a lavender that looks alot like Anthony's color in his casting instructions. My only word of advice so far is to maybe trim an 1/8" off the edges of the resin block before cutting it into blanks. The "crap" kind of a accumulates near the edges so it might be best to just get rid of it instead of it accidently becoming part of your pen surface.