Finally - a label casting that worked!

[thewishman]

After reading and trying almost everything described in threads and library articles - and failing at each attempt - I found a process that works for me.

Avery labels, laser printed at Fedex Office always had some color bleeding (it was usually yellow) with Modge Podge, clear acrylic spray paint... Apart from color trouble, the seams would separate, when I tried overlapping the ends and trimming them, the label glue would be too sticky and the overlapped part would rip the lower layer.

I was ready to give up on casting. One last thing to try and then my casting career would be over.

Success!!! I wrapped the label with clear packing tape (being very careful to avoid getting fingerprints on the sticky part of the tape) left the tape long and tucked it into the ends of the tubes (a friend's advice - to keep the resin under pressure from getting under the tape).

Hoorah! After more than 20 failed tests, the casting worked! Off to the lathe to turn them now.

 

[tangoman]

Great idea

Well done on figuring that out ! Let us know how it goes please.

FYI- try flooding the labels with CA glue BUT you MUST wait 24 hours for the glue to fully cure before casting.

Regards,
Cam

 

[Bob Wemm]

Did you get any visible edge from the tape???????

Am having the same sort of problems but with different materials.

Thanks for sharing.
Bob.

 

[Tom T]

Looking forward to the finish photos. Isn't it great when it works. 20 times, not sure I could have hung in that long.

 

[thewishman]

The blanks turned out well. They were overdue by a week, so I didn't set up my photo booth before rushing the pens to Fedex. Luckily for me, their local hub accepts shipments 'til 10:00PM and it's just 20 minutes from my house - I made it with 10 minutes to spare.

Looking closely, there was some shimmer on the red end on the top of the Italian flag blank, a little bit on the green end. I should have carefully wiped off the label before wrapping the tape around it, that may have contributed to the shimmer.

If you stare long enough, you can just barely make out where the tape overlaps, but only if you are really searching for it.

I had another label blank that had armor plating along with a family crest. I put the label on the tube and wrapped it with clear tape, then I put the aluminum tape over it - it came out perfectly!

This round was done with some no-name packing tape. Since it worked so well, I'm going to use a better grade of tape in the future and will post pictures.

Advantages of tape:

No waiting for outgassing/curing - cast them right away
No worry about getting fingerprints on the outside of the tape - they wipe right off