clear wood silvered out

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workinforwood

workinforwood

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Joined
Mar 1, 2007
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Location
Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA.
I was fooling around and made something with PR that was mostly successful. The non-success was a little twig. This is a twig I just stepped outside the door and picked up off the sidewalk in front of the shop, bark on it and all, but just a tiny twig like 1/4 inch or smaller diameter. It's dead wood, but not kiln dried or anything like that. I vibrated all the bubbles out and everything came out super sweet and the twig looked flawless too encapsulated inside, but eventually when the heat really set in, the stick started to silver out. It actually looks pretty cool, like a twig coated in ice rain, and I'm kinda happy with that too, but the intention was for the stick to be a clear stick. So what was the silvery ice like coating..it doesn't really look like air that came out of the wood, as the silver coating looks pretty clean and even. Just moisture sucked out of the wood when the PR got hot? How can I improve this? I'm thinking toss some twigs in the toaster oven for a little while and then maybe I should paint them with CA and let them cure a few days? Would spraying the twigs with clear Polyurethane work?
 
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I'm thinking it is air, but pics would help.
As the wood heats up from the resin, air escaped from the wood
but doesn't have any place to go. Might also get a slight amount of
shrinking of the wood as it heats and loses air.
It's the dreaded silver shimmer, but on a stick it could look pretty cool!

The toaster oven should help.. microwave might work too.
 
It's kinda hard to photograph. You want to spin it Charlie? You might make a bottle stopper from it or may need to make something slightly larger like a paperweight or globe. It's 2" OD and you can't likely peal off much more than a 1/4 inch which would take the size down to 1.5, possibly a bit less than that, hard to say for sure. If you want it pm me your address. After spun it would be easier to photo, you'll see why if you want it. you could do a before and after shot.
 
how about coating with thin CA a couple of times, let cure, then maybe a layer of med CA? At least to be able to rule out that method or to know the effects. Jeff why dont you try to use heat, and control the heat to around 150 degrees, by preheating your resin and the stick? I know it may sound crazy, but again, worth a shot!
 
DurocShark said:
Pressure would help too I suspect. Right now I wouldn't try to turn it... :eek:
Click to expand...

Why not? It's totally encapsulated. The idea is for it to stay that way. Only reason I can think of for me not to turn it is because I do not have a jaw chuck for my wood lathe and I'm too lazy to dismantle the collet chuck out of my big lathe to install the jaw chuck. I'll try and photograph it.
 
Ok..these pics don't do it any justice, but you can kinda see how the twig became like a frozen icicle.

The casting is 2" by 3.25" tall. The dragonfly looks flawless in motion with it's wings spanning a little less than 1.5 inches..can't see that in the photo because the wings are so close to clear themselves, but they are there and can be seen in the right light and will no doubt become very visible when spun and polished. I was thinking this would be a cool bottle stopper idea, but now I think it's a little large for that purpose and might be better suited spun into a paper weight or oval globe type display. I do know suspended bugs sell like crazy and although the stick is like an icicle, the casting itself is far better than most I've seen at craft shows that sell like mad. I wouldn't be too ashamed at all to sell a blank in this condition, but I'm really picky and would like the entire thing to be flaweless or as close to it as I can get.

dfly1.jpg


dfly2.jpg
 
Actually I don't think 1-1/2" is too big for a bottle stopper, I've turned some that measure 1-3/4".
Some prefer big, bold and beautiful :biggrin:
 
It arrived in my mailbox with some other goodies!!! :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Once I looked at the cast with the twig in it, only one idea came to mind.
Wish I could cut threads .. I haven't even parted this off of the lathe yet.
Threads on the base would make it look like someone took 'Green Energy:
to an extreme..
 

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and here's one where you can actually see inside.
Tried to upload this before, but my camera doesn't like to
cooperate..
 

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Pretty wild. It still looks really good with the twig like it is. Might look even wilder with a praying mantis!!
 
Cool idea. I like what you did even though there was this one hiccup. I definitely think the problem was air in the twig that escaped or expanded from the heat and got trapped between the resin and the twig. Leep trying. soak the twig with raw PR prior to casting. Hopefully it will seep into the wood and expel any air. Soaking in thin CA may help also. If air is the problem you need to figure out some way to get rid of it or keep it from escaping. Good luck.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 
Yeah.. it's a neat blank.. you don't really know till you finish it.
Thanks for the freebies, too! :biggrin:
 
workinforwood said:
Bake it right before casting so its nice and hot before being suspended?
Click to expand...

I bake it on the lowest setting on my oven, 170 degrees. I'll keep it in there long enough for the moisture to evacuate the wood. While this is going on I prep all of my casting stuff just short of mixing the resin together. Then I go get the blank. Its hot but by the time I get it outside and the resin mixed it's cooled down enough to be able to handle it with bare hands. This quick cooling is not enough time for the moisture to absorb back into the wood.
 
did you do anything to the dragonfly to prep it for casting i want to try some incects but need casting supplies first great job to both of you.

(not totaly sure but think that might be a damsel fly simmilar to a dragon fly but smaller and slimmer body )
 
Ya, turn it on and call insurance agent! Maybe it is a damsel fly, looks like dragonfly, maybe they're related. I did no prep just poured pr vibrated walked away. Tried a couple big dragonflies in 4" pipe and ca on wood and pressure, wood was dry but still did same thing and PR has a fissure in it, perhaps the pour was too thick and generated too much heat causing fisure.. It was a bummer. Got to play to learn
 
would be interesting to leave an air hole and fill it with fireflys .. blow on
it to light it up! :tongue:
 
just did a wikapedia search and they are in the same family damsels are smaller and hold there wings against there body at rest dragons are larger and hold there wings out at rest so the big ones are probably dragons. the only reason i know any of this is because i fly fish
 
Awesome! :eek:

Now I wonder what it would look like with a tiny hole drilled in the bottom and a small LED light inserted?
 
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That is really cool. You may solve the bubble problem by doing multiple casts - 1" at a time. Will keep the heat down. The silvering may just be the resin shrinking away from the twig. Possibly nothing to do with moisture. Multiple pours may help this too. Might also look good with a little amber tint.
 
A couple of fibers from unjacketed fiber optic cable strategically placed and a small led light source. I have extra strands.
 
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