Need Your Advice

[Kenny Durrant]

I just pulled a mold out of the pressure pot and noticed a rather large void that ran almost halfway up the tube. I read here not long ago someone had the same problem and fixed it with a syringe and I think glue. I had a syringe with a long needle but I thought I needed more time to play with it so I used pr resin with no mekp added. Now my question is what would be the best way to set the resin? I have a toaster oven but I'm not sure that alone will work and the cast is cloth and I don't want to scorch the material. The original cast is still tacky so I don't know if that will help kick the new resin or not. Any ideas will be appreciated and if it doesn't work I guess I'd be starting over anyway. Thanks Kenny

 

[robutacion]

Well firstly, there was no reason why you couldn't have used the resin with the Mekp mixed in, it would give you plenty of time to work with the syringe, the only problem is that is not worth washing with acetone, it will never work properly again so, you use it once and dispose.

Another issue with using a syringe and needle is that, in cold temperatures the PR can be a little thick in viscosity to rum trough a needle, that can be resolved/minimized by warming the resin (various ways to do this, bain-Marie system is reccomended...!)

Using the PR without catalyst will take a considerable time to set, you can do a few things to accelerate the process, first you spray or drip some catalyst into the area that you used without it, them you put it in the sun for a few days or, you make the process faster by putting the blank in the oven at no more than 70° Celsius for a few ours, you can wrap the blank with foil paper or leave it as is (Foil paper will prevent any possible resin to drip into the oven base...!)

This should harden/set that repaired area, for you, just remember that you can add the Mekp to the resin form the repairs...!

Good luck,
Cheers
George

 

[Kenny Durrant]

Thanks George. The syringe is no big deal, I had no intentions of saving it. I also spent a good 20-30 minutes playing between a vacuum and pressurizing is why I didn't use the mekp. Its been pretty warm here in Texas so I will try putting outside and see what the temp. does to it. Hopefully I can get better at casting so I don't have to get better at salvaging the failures. Thanks again