Alumilite Clear or Water Clear? Also can you get bubble free without vacuum?

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Carl Fisher

Carl Fisher

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I'm thinking of picking up the 32oz kit from Alumilite to try some horizontal tube-in casting.

What's the difference between Clear and Water Clear?

Also is it possible to get bubble free casting without a vacuum pot? I don't want to make a big investment yet since I'm just getting my feet wet casting. Planning to cast simple things like stamp blanks and such. Not really planning any suspended media casts yet.

Thanks!
 
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Curtis put up an excellent post about the different alumlite resins here:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f43/differences-alumilite-forumlations-88906/

Start with Silmar 41?

PR is a lot more forgiving than alumilite for a beginner. Less expensive as well. But each have their own advantages. For my purposes, I prefer PR (Silmar 41).

With alumilite, you really need a pressure pot. That's a hefty investment for a quality pot (and compressor if you don't have one).

With Silmar 41 (or other PR resins), ideally you would have a vacuum chamber or pressure pot set up. I prefer vacuum with PR (for degassing), but either is a big investment. Some people get rid of the bubbles in PR by warming / vibrating the resin. An ultrasonic cleaner with heat is a lot less expensive than a pressure / vacuum setup. Search the forums and you will find a lot of posts.

Ed
 
For tube in clear casting of stamps, labels, snake skins, etc then polyester resin is the better choice. I cast silmar 41 using only an ultrasonic cleaner....no vacuum and no pressure. There are several articles in the library that will prove helpful.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Carl Fisher said:
I'm thinking of picking up the 32oz kit from Alumilite to try some horizontal tube-in casting.
!
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