Alumilite colors...

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H

harrisbm

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Joined
Jan 17, 2012
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10
Location
Alabama
Hello to you all and thank you for taking time to help me out.
I am a pen turner and new to the world of Alumilite casting. What I need help with is getting some specific college football colors down to an art, but without wasting any Alumilite in the process of figuring out the mixing ratios. Do you guys have any type of color chart for your dyes; or some form of mixing ratio to get certain color shades? Maybe some medium that you recommend that is similar to Alumilite I can practice on with color combinations?*
Thanks again for your time. Any information you can give will be greatly appreciated.
 
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It is kinda hard to use a different medium to try to get your colors down and then use it in alumilite, some mediums may require different amounts of dye to achieve the color you are trying to get, When I'm trying to get a specific shade of color with Alumilite I just do a 1 oz pour in a small cup and go from there, when i have the shade right i put a lable on the pour with the ratio of what i used to get that shade, then all i need to do is multiply that ratio by how many oz's I need for the large pour, I hope that makes since
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the idea. I think that certainly makes more sense to do. So I am assuming you add the color to just part A....or does it matter which part you mix with color first? Also, once you add the other part will that change the color shade any? Sorry for all the questions.....this stuff is just to expensive (plus shipping cost) to be messing up mulitple times :)
One more question: I am going to try and cast the Alumilite in some silicone molds I found (they were originally for ice cubes and I cut them to do 4" and 5 1/4" blanks. Will Alumilite come out of silicone easy enough?
Thanks again for the info!
 
It'll come out of the silicone just fine. Also, for mixing the colors I'd combine part A & B before adding any color. Another point to take into consideration is that Alumilite dyes are transparant so they'd require reverse painting to hide the tubes. That paint color will alter the overall color scheme as well. Another thing to keep in mind is the thinner you turn the blank the more light will show through it, so in certain light the colors can seem washed out if you haven't reverse painted. All in all, if you're only using the dyes you'll need to be able to find the team matching paints for reverse painting. If you get close with the dyes and have the right reverse paint you should be good to go. There's alot to color matching to consider! Also note that you can use oil based paints to color alumilite. Maybe do a search for a company that has team colors in oil based paint. I'd buy a small amount to test before making a large investment though!
 
latex and poly resin?

Another beginner question: I understand now that Alumilite DOES NOT get along well with anything water/moisture based. But what about poly resin? Could I use a latex based paint mixed with poly resin? (I ask this question mainly because your major home improvement places like Lowes or Home Depot do not stock small amounts of oil based paints and the nice man working at Lowes tonight told me he wouldn't be able to get the colors dark enough with the oil based paint they had there. He said they could crank out latex based colors all day long...but not oil base.) I am going to try Sherman-Williams tomorrow, but wanted to know about the latex paint with poly resin. Thanks again all!!! :)
 
Brooks803 said:
It'll come out of the silicone just fine. Also, for mixing the colors I'd combine part A & B before adding any color. Another point to take into consideration is that Alumilite dyes are transparant so they'd require reverse painting to hide the tubes. That paint color will alter the overall color scheme as well. Another thing to keep in mind is the thinner you turn the blank the more light will show through it, so in certain light the colors can seem washed out if you haven't reverse painted. All in all, if you're only using the dyes you'll need to be able to find the team matching paints for reverse painting. If you get close with the dyes and have the right reverse paint you should be good to go. There's alot to color matching to consider! Also note that you can use oil based paints to color alumilite. Maybe do a search for a company that has team colors in oil based paint. I'd buy a small amount to test before making a large investment though!
Click to expand...

Can you not use Micas with Alumilite, tray and thicken the colour a little?
 
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