Making ribbons and THEN casting them?

[jbswearingen]

I've seen references multiple times of casters creating a "ribbon" and then casting it in a PR blank. Is there a tutorial here to explain how this works?

I don't cast (yet), but I'm curious.

 

[juteck]

YouTube will be your friend on this one......grub32 has a series of videos that go through this in good detail. Here's the first of them, where you can follow links after watching this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMKurStoGPc

 

[jbswearingen]

Thanks, John!

 

[Justturnin]

Here is another great video on making ribbon pens.

http://www.woodturningvideos.com/index.php?s=ribbon

 

[Kingk0ng]

I have been experimenting with ribbons a little bit to varying success. I have had a problem a few times with the blank separating at the ribbon....is this because I am not putting the blank under pressure?

 

[jason_r]

I have been experimenting with ribbons a little bit to varying success. I have had a problem a few times with the blank separating at the ribbon....is this because I am not putting the blank under pressure?

Pressure should help, but not be mandatory.

The likely issue is that you're letting the ribbons fully cure.

While PR is curing, new layers can be added and these will chemically bond to the older layers. This creates a very strong bond.

Once PR has cured, the bond is only a much weaker physical bond.

Therefore, what you really want is for the ribbons to be reasonably stiff but still tacky when you cast the next color. So the earlier you cut and cast the ribbons, the better- but that has to be balanced against them not falling apart because they're too soft.

Alternatively, you could rough up the surface to improve the physical bond-but that's still a much weaker bond than the chemical one you can get.