Casting suggestions?

[yaroslaw]

I want to try casting and I've read a lot on that matter. My problem is that I don't have locally available all this chemistry that people in US use, and overseas delivery is too expensive for liquids

So far I've found:
1) water-clear low viscosity epoxy with super long working time (3-4hrs) that can be vacuumed
2) white polyurethane resin (similar to Alumilite white, from what I read)
3) semi-clear epoxy with shorter working time (20-30min) that cannot be vacuumed but is twice cheaper
4) water-clear polyurethane ("Alumilite clear") that is super-extra expensive (3-4 times more expensive then "white"), which I would like to avoid.

Also I have vacuum equipment (that I've made for stabilization) and small ultrasonic bath.

Any suggestion on what I can cast with this resins/equipment?
Casting objects (pine cones, coffee, worthless wood, other stuff) in waterclear epoxy with vacuum should be straightforward (test cast of coffee in a cup showed pretty good result). May be not so good as pressure, though
Also, everything like stamps/watchparts/skins/etc should be castable without vacuum.

Any other ideas? I want to cast also some multicolored casts. Waterclear is not good for that, it could be hard to catch "gel-time" because of very long working time.

With white polyurethane resin, I know it is hard to work with it without pressure. I tried ultrasonic degassing than mixing and fast vacuuming (20sec) to get rid of big bubbles. Looks good, but colors are plain... Tried red dye for polyurethane - get coral color, and blue mica - light blue/turquose color. Mica dosen't seams to give that metallic effect that I've hoped for Is it matter of quantity or it will not work that way?
I want to use polyurethane resin partly because of kitless work that I've started.

 

[frank123]

I've only tried an epoxy once and had really poor (unusably poor) results. Might just have been the epoxy I was using, I think it was intended to be used for coating counter tops and such with an epoxy clear coat surface, or maybe the colorant I used was incompatible with it.

One place you might try looking if there is one in your area is an artist supply house that caters to sculptors, they use a lot of casting resins and usually have colorings and stone and metal powders available as well. Auto body shops or suppliers may have fiberglass resin available, but that stuff is usually an amber or brownish color and not well suited for anything except darker opaque colors or something you want to mix with an amber color to get the desired end color.

 

[Russianwolf]

afraid that trial and error is your only real friend at the moment.

Every formulation of Epoxy, Polyurethane, and Urethane is different. They will all have different properties. So you have to try what's available and see what works.

I tried about a half dozen Clear Epoxy resin before finding the West Systems which fit the bill. The others didn't get hard enough to turn, cured too fast, etc.

 

[low_48]

If cost is your major concern, I suggest buying pre made blanks. You have a fixed cost per blank, and absolutely no learning curve. Starting with untested materials will surely result in wasted material, and that would definitely not be a cost savings.

 

[yaroslaw]

Cost is not my major concern. Development and growth is
Buying premade watchparts pen blank isn't going to make me happy, making it - definetly is But for a cost matter - Abalone blank for Sierra costs $45-60, hand painted - $50-70. If I want to make three of each... You know, 10 galons of resin could be waisted for that money))
If seriously, one of the concerns for me is the same as for raw resins - too far from everyone, delivery is too costly and slow, and noone has everything in one place to save on delivery.

So, I will try another question: what do you usually cast using Alumilite White? What colors/combinations/other uses?