best way to cast coffee beans

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splinterinfinger

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Hi all pen turners, I have my pressure pot, I have some home made molds round pipe and square molds, I have all the materials to make coffee been blanks all I need is some advise on how to cast these can anyone point me in the right direction, I have had one failure where the beans came to the top of the mold and the 2nd attempt was not much better.

Any points on this would be great.
Cheers guys

Mervyn
www.turnedpens.co.uk
 
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I have not tried this in casting but I have used this in other techniques... Perhaps use CA glue to hold them together prior to the casting process... Making them a "unit" should prevent them from floating... Just a thought... Let me know hopw it turns out... I plan to try this...
 
I would say to put enough coffee beans in the mold to fill it. Then pour the PR over that, then put something on top of the mold so the beans do not push each other out. I have never messed around with coffee beans and casting yet. So don't take my word but it seems like it might work and that's what I would do if I was having troubles.
 
Get some PVC pipe with some duct tape sealing off one end.

Get a dowel that fits inside it. (somewhat loosely)

Fill PVC with beans. Pour beans into a cup.

Mix resin, enough to fill about a half the pipe, little more to be safe.

Mix beans into cup. Pour into tube. Start packing the beans in with the dowel. Keep packing and pushing out the surplus of resin till all the beans are in.

Let it harden, remove tape, push out with the clean end of the dowel.

I did it once, that was how, worked out ok.
 
No, I didn't pressure pot it but I didn't see too many bubbles as I recall. I blew the thing apart while turning. My tools were crap, dull edges, it was a long time ago. (not that my tools are any sharper now)

I think that mixing the beans in some of the resin will help to coat them all, keeping them from having bubbles stick to them. If you've got a pressure pot, I see no reason not to pressurize them though. Rather safe than sorry.
 
Skye said:
Get some PVC pipe with some duct tape sealing off one end......Let it harden, remove tape, push out with the clean end of the dowel. I did it once, that was how, worked out ok.
Click to expand...

Skye, I tried this and the alumilite would not push out of the PVC pipe for me. Ended up turning the pipe off. Did you do anything special to the PVC pipe?
 
Never tried either of those, but with regular casting resin it shrinks more than alumlite. Normally people just push them out with another stick.

Some people even pour a few feet at a time and push the whole long blank out. Normal resins shrinking helps a lot.
 
Hey Skye, you're discussing exactly what I'd like to do sometime in the future. Can I ask about the coloring, or is that too off-topic? I guess my point is, will some oil paint work if I just want a white or light brown to accent the beans, or do I still need to spring for some crazy powder stuff?
 
I tell ya, I just used some paint a few nights ago trying to make a bottle stopper blank. Easy enough, right? Turned out horrible! Looks like total crap and the paint reacted with the resin, never hardened.

I don't do a lot of casting, so I'm probably not the best to ask, but I bet if you were to just paint the brass tube brown it would make the resin appear brown. I'm sure someone here will know for sure. It's the same trick Curtis uses on some of his cactus pens.

I don't know if he polishes the 7mm hole in the blank once it's drilled or not though. Seems it would convey the color of the painted tube better if so, but you'll have to ask around for sure.


To keep with the theme, you may be able to mix in some ground coffee to tint the resin, don't know if it'll work, may be worth a try.

In the end, I'm sure it's probably easier to buy the tints, but I'm inpatient and broke. It's a bad combo!
 
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Skye said:
In the end, I'm sure it's probably easier to buy the tints, but I'm inpatient and broke. It's a bad combo!
Click to expand...

Being the president of the impatient and broke club, I'll be requiring your yearly dues. Right now. :)


Coffee grounds- I like the thought, but I wonder if it might just look dirty.

hmmm
 
Skye I have tried your method and will let you all know how they turned out tomorrow when there are cured, I have one small problem is that I used a cork as a plug for my pipe and pushed it in really tight, but when I took the mold out of the pressure pot I noticed that the resin had dropped and I had a slight leak between the cork and the pipe, going to try the duct tape at one end to see if that work.
Anyone got any other ideas would be great to hear them.
Regards Mervyn
 
I'll be waiting too, for your reply, Splinter. I plan to try this when I get the supplies.

As far as your issue, what about using a wax plug? I have a small pot about 1/2" deep of canning parrafin that I seal small blanks with. Maybe heat it up a little, dip the PVC into it, then let it cool some, pull it out, hopefully the wax stays in? I dunno, maybe the wax or cork with duct tape to keep it in and keep the seal tight.
 
There was a post somewhere about silicone corks. Not sure if that would solve your problem or not. I'm not really sure why that happened.

Don Ward does a lot of presurized castings, he may be of help.
 
Looks like I am goign to have to give some of these a try. I like the longer tube to cast more than one at a time idea for sure. Prolly should work a little better with stopper blanks though....
 
Hi Brandon I have had two casts at this now with casting the beans in a plastic tube, I used the duct tape which works well so no leaks, the two problems I had is the beens slightly came to the top but I did only fill the tube 3 quarters full with the beans so maybe I should have filled the tubes to the top, the main problem I found was getting the blanks out of the tubes and yes I did use a release agent.
Regards Mervyn

will keep you posted
 
Brandon,
The coffee grounds came out great, considering I did not put enuff patience into finishing it. Here is one made about a year+ ago with gold leaf used as an accent band. Give it a try. The pics not that great. I'll try to snap a better one tonight.
 

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