Fun first time casting!!!

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Rick P

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Joined
Apr 30, 2011
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Palmer Alaska
My wife Tracy and I got some casting supplies and as soon as our 4 year old son was asleep we started mixing. Tracy was going for a primarily purple block I wanted a streaky red with some bronze high lights. We used about the same pigment ratios but Tracy's was like a wad of chewing gum and mine was still a bit runny last time we checked them. It's late and were beat so we did one last color mix and were calling it a night. It will be interesting to see how our blanks turned out in the am! Weird that they are so diferent already?
 
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Hahaha, you are both "hooked" already, wait until you start to see the results of your playing with resin, colours, time and pouring techniques...!:eek:

Having the wife "following" the madness, it will save you lots of troubles...!:wink::biggrin:

Good luck...!

PS: What is the very first thing you will do in the morning...??? after having a pee, off-course...??? breakfast or go and get the resin blocks off the molds...???

No need to answer...! I already know what it will be...!:eek::biggrin:

Cheers
George
 
Rick be sure to read through some of the excellent articles in the IAP library!
One thing that can vary depending on the area is how much catalyst you should add per ounce of resin. Often what it says on the can IS NOT what you want to go buy. I use between 3-4 drops per once, and I've had good luck with everything setting up. I will warm my mix as I prepare it by holding the cup submersed in a dishwasher pan of hot tap water. (or just another slightly larger cup) Then I place a clamp-on light directed at the mould to help keep it warm. (Still hanging around 60 degrees here most of the time). Once it has set up some I often place it in a dedicated toaster oven @ 120 degrees for 20 minutes or so.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with! :)
 
Robutacion.......I checked the blocks before I did anything else of course! I have found that the more I include Tracy in the things I enjoy the easier it is no matter what it is!:biggrin:

Lenny

We haven't seen 70 in 8 months, catalyst was our main issue! Once things hardened though it went quick for the main color.We used a accent color with less catalyst, I remember reading that was the way to do it, but it is still tacky. The shop cant be more than 60 so I set the blocks in the truck for the rest of the day. Mine came out sorta close to what I thought it would be, Tracy's still looks like a very pretty lump of chewing gum. I think it was hard enough that she should have just let it be when she tried to add her accent color.

We both had a great time playing with this project even though we were up till well after midnight......."do you think that it has set up enough now?" "I have no idea!.........lets give it a couple more minutes."
 
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Couple of pics, Tracys first atempt.
 

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My first go at it. I think this is going to be close to what I had in mind once it is cut and turned?
 

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I have been wanting to cast for a good little while now. It's driving me nuts. I'm gonna have to get mission dedicated and find a way to scare enough cash up to start. Both of those look like they're gonna turn down beautiful.
 
Rick, would you mind sharing what you bought? I'm rounding up ancillary items now to take a try at this myself and would like to keep the course short!
 
Sure stop by Michaels craft store with a %40 off coupon for you and a guest. You buy one can of clear casting resin. Guest buys the Catalyst, we wanted some transparent colors too so we also got the dye kit. Swing buy your local art supply store and get a couple of jars of "Pearl Ex" the little ones are $2.50 up here. They go a LOOOOOONG WAY. For molds I cleaned Tracy out of old nasty Tupperware and she replaced it today. I ran a piece of scrap through the table saw instead of getting stiring sticks and we used paper cups we had left over from a party to mix in.

I think we might have made a terminal error by not adding enough catalyst to our accent color as the blocks are rather stick right now. Could also be that the shop was never warm enough for it to cure fully?
 
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Just checked and having them in my dark blue truck in the sun is definitely helping the secondary color set more!
 
Friend of mine that was born and raised in Nuiqsut (thats as far north as you can get in summer without swimmin) is spending her first summer in Georgia.........poor girl hasn't left the air conditioned house once yet.
 
I heard some folks put them in a little toaster oven to help them cure. Might be worth a try. Now I'm no expert at that, so search for some details in the libraries for more info first.
 
They look like a couple of good castings! :)

You might want to consider making a warming box to put them in to cure. There were a few posts back along showing a few and how they were made. Curtis made a nice one. Someone else made one from a box they got from a Uhaul dealer (if I remember correctly) ... anyways ... equipped with a light bulb or two, you can keep it a realitively uniform temperature .... something that would seem to be an essential piece of the puzzle for you in your location I would think! :):wink::biggrin:
 
I have used a similar box when curing fiberglass Lenny, great idea!

BTW really excited to share my second casting with you guys! I did some burl caps in acrylic today.
 
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Drstrangefart said:
I have been wanting to cast for a good little while now. It's driving me nuts. I'm gonna have to get mission dedicated and find a way to scare enough cash up to start. Both of those look like they're gonna turn down beautiful.
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Go ahead and get your feet wet. I just started casting a couple months. Even made the leap to get some ptownsubbie molds. The cost was small for me (PR from michaels, some tupperware)..
 
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