What Did I do Wrong????

[splinter99]

There are very dull looking places inside the castings..places where it looks as if the color is faded.There are place that look as though there is no color at all, as if the pigments wern't mixed well, but this only seem to happen on the ends of the
blanks so Im inclined to think it may have something to do with my barrel trimmer.

I am using silmar41 resin with 3 drops catalyst per ouces. coloring with pearl-x powdered pigments..I colored the tubes with a sharpie but that appearantly didnt work or I didnt let it cure long enough as I can see the brass tubes through the clear spots.
The blanks are solid and have no visible air bubbles.
I degass the resin first for 10 min under vaccum, then mix in the pigments then the catalyst and put under pressue (30lbs) for about 2 hrs..then let sit over night and band saw into blanks

Help!!

 

[stevers]

I am by no means an expert. But it appears as though the tube has lost adhesion to the blank. Because the blanks are fairly transparent, it shows more.
I could be (probably am) wrong. But thats my opinion.
Someone else will chime in soon.

 

[gketell]

That would be my guess too. Gaps in the glue. Especially if you only colored the tube and not the inside of the blank before gluing the tube in.

GK

 

[splinter99]

What can I use to paint the inside of the blanks..Would finger nail polish work?

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Harold, you can use finger nail polish, spray paint (sprayed on a paper and a cotton swap used to paint the tubes. The best that I found was paintint the tube, inside the blank and than mixing epoxy and adding paint to the epoxy to clue in the tubes. I do this on all my translucent cactus and acrylic blanks.

 

[johnnycnc]

Harold,I'm not an expert either,but I use pearl-ex
powdered pigments in 95% of my casting
(check my IAP photo album,"my pr" folder).
I think the others are right about what you are
seeing;gaps in good firm glue contact.But,are you gluing
these any different than any other blank you have before?
If not,the "gaps" have probably always been there from
time to time.The blanks naturally are thinnest at the end
of the blank,so I would say this is why it appears worse there.
Ok,here is where I'm going;My first few casts had
this same look.Boy,was I sick after all that work.
My solution was to add more colorant,since I do not
care for painting the inside of the blank.
I have 2 "cook-books" of my cast details,it's been a while
but I can give you a measured amount of pearl-ex to help
get you to opaque,if interested.
Nice colors,on a positive note![]

 

[splinter99]

John
I would appreceiate any recipes you could share..I really like the purple so Im going to try to paint the tube to use the remaining ones I have left..also, I used medium ca instead of thick and that may have left gaps in the glue bond..I have some epoxyI can use until I get some thick ca

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

Originally posted by OKLAHOMAN
<br />Harold, you can use finger nail polish, spray paint (sprayed on a paper and a cotton swap used to paint the tubes. The best that I found was paintint the tube, inside the blank and than mixing epoxy and adding paint to the epoxy to clue in the tubes. I do this on all my translucent cactus and acrylic blanks.

I too paint the inside of the blank and color my epoxy. I use Testers model paint and a cotton swab. I use the same paint to color the epoxy. I recommend that you DON'T use CA; you can't color it. I put 2-3 drops of the paint in the epoxy.

The next direction I am likley headed in is to cast my colored PR straight onto the tubes like I am now doing with the clear PR and labels. This will skip the need to drill and paint, and should eliminate the air problems. The tubes will need to be colored. For that I am looking into getting a powder coat system.

 

[stevers]

I've thought of that to Scott. Thats the beauty of casting on tubes, no drilling. And of course, the perfect adhesion between tube and material.

 

[gketell]

The downside it the tube gets in the way of mixing your colors so swirls/ribbons/etc are harder.

GK

 

[stevers]

Good point Greg

 

[johnnycnc]

Harold,I'll see about getting some of
my recipes to you.They are handwritten
in two notebooks right now;have to scan
some pages,or publish some to the web.
I'll share some failures,they do happen.[B)]

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

Originally posted by gketell
<br />The downside it the tube gets in the way of mixing your colors so swirls/ribbons/etc are harder.

GK

I was thinking of pouring the resin and mixing the colors first, then slowley immersing the blanks into the resin. Or pour some resin, swirl, pour a bit more resin, swirl, etc.

 

[neon007]

That is for sure seperation from the tube. If you were to turn it off you would see. It has happened to me quite a bit.

 

[splinter99]

Ok..Tried it again but this time painted the inside of the blank and the tube..didnt have any pirple paint but had some satin nickle paint and some of the purple gel food coloring that I dyed alot of blanks with.Mixed up my own purple paint and it came out the same color as the blank. My clear epoxy was all dried up (3 brand new packages) so I still used med. ca. but I dyed that with the pigment I used in the blank.Turned this one and it came out fine..Thanks for all the help