Soft in middle

[Gethenet]

i have been trying for sometime now to cast pipe tobacco in clear resin.
I have managed to get a few usable pieces, but on several I find the middle part of blank gets soft. I have been using pr resin, and my conclusion is maybe the tobacco still has moisture in it, and the resin is reacting to that. I do lay the tobacco out flat and let it air dry to the point it feels dry, but I'm guessing it's not.
Any opinion in this? Would Alumilite be a better resin for this process?

 

[thewishman]

It would have to be dry for either resin. Especially the Alumilite.

 

[Gethenet]

It would have to be dry for either resin. Especially the Alumilite.

Does moisture sound like the issue with the " softness "?

 

[robutacion]

It would have to be dry for either resin. Especially the Alumilite.

Does moisture sound like the issue with the " softness "?

The softness in the middle mean that, the material did not stabilize properly, if you have stabilized it, either from incorrect oven temperature and or time required to set which is about 90 minutes @ 90°Celsius, 200° F.
I din't think that will be absolutely necessary but, it could improve the general results...!

Tobacco, really needs to be completely moisture free and dehydrated to give you a good chance to cast right. I only use PR so, I don't know from experience, how much better Alumilite would be but in general terms, has a better adhesion capabilities, you may get good results by using good quality clear PR, just do the best you can to dry the tobacco well...!

Good luck,

Cheers
George

 

[Kenny Durrant]

If the resin is clear just soft I would guess it wasn't mixed well enough. If its cloudy it's moisture. I just cast my first succesful tobacco pen and it took several tries. I bought old cigars so they were plenty dry and crunchy. My biggest problem was air bleeding through the leaves.