Casting A Coffee Bean Blank

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crokett

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Joined
Dec 4, 2012
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Location
Mebane, North Carolina
So I tried a coffee bean blank earlier this year, and it was a disaster. I tried timing it so the resin would set just as I put the beans in. That did not work, they all ended up on one side of the blank. I am thinking next of pouring it in layers, but I am concerned about a color match, even if I use just one solid color. I also saw references to somehow gluing the beans together into a big mass, then pouring around that. has anyone tried that? The last pour I did was horizontal in a rectangular mold. If I were to pour in a vertical PVC mold, would the beans all float up and spill over the top of the pipe? Could I fill, then add a cap to keep this from happening or does the resin off gas or some such when curing?
 
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Here is what I do. Mix up your resin. Pour a small amount in the mold, then put in some beans. Then pour more resin, then more beans. Do this until your mold is full. Then stuff as many bens in the mold as possible. Then take a piece of wax paper and put it on top of the mold covering the beans. Then take a block of wood and put it on top of the wax paper to keep the beans from floating.
 
Use a stiff 3/16" wire mesh -
fill a horizontal mold with beans
put the mesh on top of the beans, cut the mesh oversize so you can weight it down or secure with wire or whatever
slowly pour resin in mold tapping frequently to remove excess air
put in pressure pot

Its a pain removing the mesh, but has always worked for me
This method works for anything lighter than the resin
 
What happens is it will work. If the mold is packed full of beans and there is a lid (wax paper and weight) then where can the beans go? There is no place for them to float. But, the mold must be packed full and be sure the resin is well dispersed in and throughout the beans. Some soak the beans in acetone or lacquer thinner to remove the oil from them then let the beans dry dry and then cast. At one time there were a couple of articles in the library on casting coffee beans.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

crokett said:
I will try the wax paper approach and see what happens. thanks.
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I KNOW this is a crazy question, but when you finish a pen cast w/ coffee beans, is there any coffee aroma? I'm sure there is when the turning is done, but does the pen seal well enough to seal the coffee smell?
 
Russell Hodge said:
I KNOW this is a crazy question, but when you finish a pen cast w/ coffee beans, is there any coffee aroma? I'm sure there is when the turning is done, but does the pen seal well enough to seal the coffee smell?
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If you use a CA finish you still get some of the aroma when it's new but over time the aroma goes away...some folks leave them unfinished and the aroma lasts longer but depending on how the beans were treated before casting you may get some of the coffee oil weep out of the pen. I cast mine in 6x6x6 blocks and in layers so the weight of the top beans hold the bottom beans down.
Eugene.
 
I did another coffee bean blank last night. this one turned out better. I packed it more full of beans. I still have one side that is blank, but I think there is enough of the rest of it left that I can get a pen out of it, it is just going to be close.
 
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