What a Holy of a messy PR blob...!

Hi everyone,

Since I moved to this home, I notice among from a large number of bushes, shrubs, trees, plants and off-course grass, a large shrub that was planted at the front of the house as a privacy screen to the neighbours to our left. This was planted all along the side fence right to the front gate. When we moved in, this thing was huge and in desperate need for a good trimming and at that time I didn't see any flowers but some ugly hairy type pods, through out these shrubs here and there...!

The following year in Spring time, this shrub produced some amazing flowers that started like a miniature corn comb and slowly start developing interesting long and colourful needles from the very centre of this little corn comb type steam. Looking at is as it grows, it looks like a ballerina skirt, growing in both directions (up and down) bit by bit. I got fascinated by these flowers after fully bloomed, its velvety looking colour needles with this tiny little dot on each needle'd end in a suave salsa colour green, just magnificent...!

So, every year I would cut a few of these large flowers and take them to the house for decoration. We have more turned wooden vases and others all around the house, then some shops so, find a solid base for this flowers is never a problem. We normally get one lot at the beginning of Spring (right now...!) and the other cut lot 4 or 5 weeks later before they go all brown and ugly. These old flowers take years before they separate from the shrub and rot on the ground...!

Because I didn't know exactly what these shrubs were, I call them "giant bottle brushes", but this year I decided to try something I never did, there is, attempt to pick one of these fully developed flower and apart from taken a few close up pics, before and after I cut it (some), try to find a way to "freeze it in time" there is, preserve this flower in its natural state into something that would keep it looking always like this for ever...!

So, with my 5 gallon drum of clear PR still nearly full, I got and idea. Cast it in crystal clear resin and then turn it following it long shape, leaving about 5mm of PR or so all around, polish it, make a nice wood stand for it and voila...!!! I know, casting green plant material doesn't work but I need to see what would happen and look.

My first difficulty was to find a plastic container that wouldn't be eaten by the PR, big enough for this long flower but able to fit in the pressure pot but after some looking, I found a 4 litre ice cream container that just fitted in the pot. I put this flower in the container already inside the pot and realise that I needed a hell of a lot of PR to cover that thing and post would be wasted as was nothing to cast on either side of the flowers which only took less than half of the plastic containers so, I've got this "brilliant" idea of getting another one and 3 or 4 smaller ones jut to fill all the spaces.

So, thinking very smartly, I got all the 2 large flowers and all the other smaller ones, arranged in such way that I had all the spaces used properly, I mean looked that I did utilize all the spaces in the container really well so was time to mix and pour the resin. Using another identical container to mix the resin, I mixed about 2,5 litres thinking that would be enough so and after I had it mixed, it pour it in and the damn resin wasn't even covering half way. I realize that the flowers were been pushed up (floating) by the resin so and before I mixed any more I cut a small piece of wood to fit tight over the flowers pushing the whole thing to the bottom.

I was surprised how little the first 2,5 litre pour got me so I mixed another 1,5 litres and down it went...! covered the whole thing just so, close the pot, pressurized it and left it overnight, well was already very dark by the time I finished the whole thing anyway...!

Today, just after lunch I open the pot all excited and my first disappointment was to see some very large cracks on the resin in the face showing, I got the whole thing out of the plastic container and I nearly cried...!:frown:m the damn thing had huge cracks all over...!:redface: This was the first time I had PR cracking like this so I though, what did I do wrong...??? well, was only one thing that could make the PR crack in such way and there is excessive hardener (catalyst)...! so, where did I go wrong, I though..???
I sat down with my drop counter and my book with notes and certainly it clicked, damn...! I used twice the amount required, normally at 2% this time I'be double it...!

My disappointments weren't over as I grabbed this big "blob" of resin and took it to the light to see a little better and while was fascinating to see of those nice things casted in clear PR, I started to realise that I have done another "bubu" while I did a good job on filling all the spaces available with plant material, I never gave a second thought at the fact that, this thing when cured would be like a solid rock and I needed cut/separate all these pieces that I put in there but, they were all crossed over each other, with the 2 main flowers between other small stuff and jammed in...!

What a brilliant idea I had...!!! what was I thinking...???:frown:
Spent most of the afternoon trying to salvage what I could, particularly the 2 main flowers but that didn't happen either as the cracks were though the whole thing in some places, breaking apart as I tried to cut around it.
What a waste of 1 gallon of good PR...! I may get a couple of pieces that can be salvaged but the whole thing was a big mistake, you just cant freeze time and or make things nature created for a sort life expectancy, last longer only because they are beautiful...!:wink:

What I did found out tough is that this flowers when dry are indeed a pod and when I sliced in half one of the many I have dry in the shrub (plant) I discover something very interesting and beautiful also, some of these have been prepared this afternoon casted as pen blanks in crystal clear PR.

I picked up a couple of boxes of the dry "flowers/pods" and I'm cutting a few in different ways to cast as pen blanks and see what comes up. Tomorrow I will have the first batch (18 blanks) 12 of one type and 6 done differently, I have a few other ways that I want to try and while this PR drum has some resin, I will keep trying, I'm expecting some blanks from interesting to impressive, the truth I will soon find out...!

I can also say that I identified this shrub on a Google search and what I've got is one of over 100 Banksia species available, this one is more commonly found in Western Australia and not South Australia where I am, the biologic name is BANKSIA PRAEMORSA also known as, cut leaf Banksia.

OK, this is the story of my PR blob, results of the other castings and possibly any of the salvaged bits from the blob, will be shown in due time, in the mean time enjoy the pics and the beauty flower that I was trying freeze in time...!:wink:

Cheers
George

Well the bad news is you have a ton of wasted PR. The good news is you have a local source of Banksia pods. I'd say you're still in a good position!

Skye said:

Well the bad news is you have a ton of wasted PR. The good news is you have a local source of Banksia pods. I'd say you're still in a good position!

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Interestingly and as I found out when I Google "Banksia pics", the number of various Banksias I saw is amazing and the very majority of them are not what we know as Banksia pods, there are a couple of varieties that produce the pods exclusively...! Even tough this species of mine have a small pod inside all that "hair" I didn't know of it until I open a dry one in half. Is going to be interesting what will come out of those blanks that I have "cooking" in the pot but particularly some other improved cuts that I will attempt tomorrow.

On the other hand, the wasted PR is annoying me, I never wasted so much of this stuff, and playing these sorts of games, the 5 gallon drum doesn't last as long as some would think...!:wink:

Here are the sliced pods in close up...!

Cheers
George

Just remember George, The amount of catalyst needed to kick over a batch of PR varies by the THICKNESS of the cast. IE, a 1 inch thick cast with wood in it has a large surface area vs volume to radiate away heat, so it needs more MEPK. A solid cast 5 or 6 inches thick will not radiate away anywhere near as much, and will need less catalyst. I don't know if anybody here has experience casting that large a volume of pr, but if so they might contribute some more useful info on how much to use. But in anycase, I would think it would better to undercatalyze the batch, and need to let it sit in the sun or even in the oven for a bit to finish hardening it up, than to use the same amount as you usually do for a thin pour, and have it either crack from the heat, or discolor your pods from the exothermic reaction.

Well George 10 out of 10 for having a go. The pods certainly look great. Is'nt nature just amazing.
Do not want to highjack your thread, but did you say you were going to cast the flowers into blanks? Is that something that can be done if the petals are dry?

Dermot.

jskeen said:

Just remember George, The amount of catalyst needed to kick over a batch of PR varies by the THICKNESS of the cast. IE, a 1 inch thick cast with wood in it has a large surface area vs volume to radiate away heat, so it needs more MEPK. A solid cast 5 or 6 inches thick will not radiate away anywhere near as much, and will need less catalyst. I don't know if anybody here has experience casting that large a volume of pr, but if so they might contribute some more useful info on how much to use. But in anycase, I would think it would better to undercatalyze the batch, and need to let it sit in the sun or even in the oven for a bit to finish hardening it up, than to use the same amount as you usually do for a thin pour, and have it either crack from the heat, or discolor your pods from the exothermic reaction.

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Hi James,

I haven't done a cast of this volume before but I can tell you that I didn't do my home work as I should, nor I gave myself time for much thinking, after all was something that I've thought to do in the spur of the moment and take the care I should have.
Sure, casting anything with moisture, and many other chemical substances flowers and similar have/produce is not quite possible and or affective, I know all that and did always thing that my chances were very limit to ever come up with the look of a fresh/bloomed flower/pod like these, without been damaged from the heat produced from the PR curing and and other reactions that are beyond my and anyone's control.

By bigger mistake was to get confused with the calculations of the amount of catalyst needed for such volume PR, the 2% I normally use has been quite effective on all the casting I've done before and I've done one lot a few months ago that had and identical volume or even bigger but the contents were of different nature and were taken about 90% of the total volume of the cast. They worked perfectly normal as expected and the resin didn't crack or show any signs of been more brittle, after all the hardener % was my normal and preferred amount regardless of volume/size of the mould.

I've certainly lost half of the flowers/pods I had in there and I'm working of salvaging a couple of the bigger pieces, the ones that originated the whole thing. I believe that my success would have been a lot better if I haven't forced the PR to over heat and force the quick reaction the extra (double that it should...!) hardener has created.

If the PR hadn't crack through creating enormous gaps running though the flowers allowing all the juices (water, etc) to be "pushed" out creating drainage channels, if the flowers had been fully enclosed/sealed with clear PR, I could have easily finished each piece to a high shine/gloss and we get from polishing any acrylic. The flowers inside would change over time but that was exactly what I was trying to achieve and see how long it would last looking as radiant as it was when I picked it...!:redface:

Well, I resorted to cut a couple more in perfect bloom and display them in my computer room (where I spend most of my time these days, weather and health haven't been that good, lately ...!:frown in one of my turned vases/bases and admire it everyday until it will transform into something not so beautiful. They do last a long time (weeks) looking very good without any water, in fact I tried both ways in previous years and didn't make any difference...!

As soon as I have something to show from the big mess, I will..!:biggrin:

PS: Pics from the other cast I've done a few months back using the #30 in my timber list Bottle Brush (R)-(B) root & butt to created knife handle blocks for a fellow in Russia...!:wink:

Cheers
George

Celt40 said:

Well George 10 out of 10 for having a go. The pods certainly look great. Is'nt nature just amazing.
Do not want to highjack your thread, but did you say you were going to cast the flowers into blanks? Is that something that can be done if the petals are dry?

Dermot.

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Absolutely Dermot, people have been doing that a lot lately...!:wink:

Anything that is dry or dehydrated can be casted in PR, some glue the petals into the brass tubes, painted in some colour if the petals aren't going to cover the whole tube or cast the loose pedals into clear or coloured PR, has been common...!:wink::biggrin:

Cheers
George

Those blanks look REALLY interesting. Lemonade and all that!

As was mentioned, going thick you need LOTS less MEKP. In fact, most labels say to do multiple pours if you're going more than a couple inches thick to prevent cracking. So do 2 inches, cure, 2 more inches, cure, etc.

Cross cut, Banksia hairy pods...! (1)

Hi everyone,

I'm "constructing" some sort of an abstract piece with some of the salvaged "chunks" I saved, sort off..! from that 4 litre of solid pour PR a few days back.

I've got no idea what will look like after finished but for whatever the reason I decided to start turning any of the pieces that, even with large cracks I could try to fix or at least make then look like something???:wink:

Using a piece if She/Bull-Oak with the outer skin on it I've glued a small support made out of the same wood, just to contra balance the weight on the first piece of resin I finished and partially inserted into this piece of wood. I didn't want to though the whole thing in the bin, as the gallon of PR costs me about $90 landed at my place so, I didn't had the nerve to dump the lot but, I'm sure I will regret it later on ,as the amount of time I already spent fiddling with that mess, will probably turn out to have been another mistake...!

The only positive of all this, was that by failing to achieve the results I wanted with the flower, I endup find that is not really a flower and more like a "hairy" disguised Banksia pod. Deciding to open a bloomed flowers I discover that inside was some sort of pod that did becomes very obvious when I decided to go back to my shrub/bush and get a few of the very old ones, dry and ugly...!

What a pleasant surprise I've got when I sliced open one of the old dry pods, my mind started to see PR resin with it in clear form to show the natural colours and other bits and pieces so, I started cutting a few 21mm slices only to realise that the bandsaw would not cut those "hairs" neatly but going over most of them without cutting them.

Started by cutting some across grain, then got some cut with the grain (longways to the pod) and finally I decided to get a few cut in diagonal. I had to resort to a heavy duty pair of scissors to shave/trim all those hard(ish) hairs overhanging from the 21mm initial cut I had made. It was a bugger of a job to do and gave me a nice couple of bubbles/blisters on my fingers...!

The next step was to set them in the molds and pour the crystal clear resin, this time using the correct 2% as per normal...! Normally I fit 7 blanks per mold but this time, I could only fit 6 as the hairs were taking some room between blanks. Anyway, I've made a mold of each cut type and left them overnight in my pot.

Next day, got them out of the pot, remove them from the molds (blokes) and let them air dry a little to harden the surface stickiness...! Next day cut them all on the bandsaw, remove the square corners and gave then a thin coat of varnish to bring the clearness into the clear PR surfaces.

Next day got started on making a sample of each cut type and finish it with CA turning them between centres but this time (instead of the normal Nova G3 chuck) using a 4 prong drive centre on the headstock and a normal live centre on the tail-stock. Risky as the blanks are not as hard as some others and there are no brass bushing to support the blank but, using mostly my "jigamajig" trick I got there, no problems at all...!:wink:

Soaked a little CA here and there before final coatings, a bit of sanding, a few coats of CA and voila...!:biggrin:

I've turned the cross grain blank a lot thinner than normally as it had a little bit of wood that got there somehow, and I wanted to cut it off if possible. I did and the result is sufficient to see how it would look like in a pen...!
The other 2 are the normal sample size and come up quite well, if I may say...! Didn't thing much of them in the beginning but they are growing on me, maybe because I have then a couple of feet from me displayed on a shelf near me...!:wink::biggrin:

There are 5 pics taken of each blank (cut type) one of each marked face, so I will only add one set at the time here, and when they are all displayed, I would like your opinion of which cut you prefer/like the most...!thanks.

Cheers
George

Make pens just back paint the hole. Bright colors may look good like yellow or orange.

Diagonal cut, Banksia hairy pods...! (2)

Here it is the 5 pics from the next sample lot, the diagonal cut.

I've only used clear resin this time, I want to keep the pods natural colours, obviously, the brass tubes will have to be painted , particularly with the previous sample the cross cut, with one of many colours possible, the result will be different again but that, is for later...!

Tell me what you think...!

Cheers
George

They look really good George, definitely not your every day pen blank.

Bruce

Man, I've never seen so much PR cast at one time!

Definitely some very unique blanks. :biggrin:

The last of your pictures made me think of seeing an octopus clinging to the inside of an aquarium. (Did you know that many of these extremely intelligent animals have claws similar to a cat along their tentacles? They can be quite dangerous if provoked or hungry! Their mouth is deadly sharp ... similar to a parrot's beak!)

Fantastic work! Cant beat a great source as that sitting right in your front yard! Gold Mine!

Straight grain cut, Banksia hairy pods...!

Ok, here it is the final 5, actually 6 pics from this lot...!

No tube painting on these ones either, the pod material runs through all the blank's length.

so now that you have seen the tree type cuts (blanks) which one do you like the most...???

Cheers
George

George, I like them all! But, if I had to choose 2, I would go with 1 and 2.

robutacion said:

Ok, here it is the final 5, actually 6 pics from this lot...!

No tube painting on these ones either, the pod material runs through all the blank's length.

so now that you have seen the tree type cuts (blanks) which one do you like the most...???

Cheers
George

Click to expand...

I like 3 the best.

I like 3 the best too .

Banksia pods go bold...!

Hi peoples,

Interesting thing happen to me a couple of day ago when I decided to play safe and Microwave some of the already cut thin discs cut from the Banksia pods for the making of the pendants. I just wanted to make sure, was no moisture in the seeds so, after a 2 run of 30 seconds each with cooling down in between, I notice that the "roasting" of the seeds shell still attached to the slices, got a little toasted and as a result made some of those hard seed shells curl up and sticking out more that what I wanted so I though is avoid this by "toasting" a full pod and them slice it down after cooling...!

Well, the idea looked promising as this some principle has been successful in many other identical situations but with other materials...! I got 2 pods, 1 bigger and the other a bit smaller, put the in the microwave for 30 seconds. Got them out and they weren't even hot to touch so I decided to let it stay a little longer to have enough time for the heat to reach the hard centre of the pod and roast the seeds, drying any moisture in the process, right...???

Sure, 3 minutes cooking sound just right so, I got the out, they were bloody hot so I went a little faster then normal from the house kitchen to the shed. Put them on top of the bandsaw and started slicing them out still hot when, I noticed that every time the pod was sliced, the blade would get jammed with the pod hairs and the pod disc (slice) was naked, I mean no hair on it..!

Done it 4 or 5 times with the same result every time so I started to wonder what was going on...! With the pod still quite intact in my hand I decided to brag some of the hairs and puled them a little and all of a certain, the hairs here coming out easily, cleanly and effortless, large strips at the time....! after I got one done, I could still feel the pod's centre quite hot so I learn that Microwaving the full pods for more than a couple of 30 seconds bursts, the pod hairs that are well attached/firm, will just peal off like bananas, leaving this "naked" velvety pod with these huge seeds poking out like fat caw/dog ticks, sort of...!:wink:

After I cleaned the other pod, I didn't mind its looks and certainly open the doors for a few more possibilities, which I haven't ponder yet...!

Funny how he discover and learn things, who would tell...!:biggrin:

Cheers
George