questions on vacuuming resin

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mervyn

mervyn

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Joined
Apr 2, 2010
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Hi just bought myself a vacuum pump for degassing the problem I have had twice now is that the vacuum is making my resin molds overflow, any advise would be great. it pulls full vac after 3 minutes in my pot.

the mold themselves are quite shallow 1 1/2" in height

Regards Mervyn


Free Air Displacement 42.5l/m Ultimate Vacuum 99.995% Voltage 110/220v ~50/60hz Power 185w Weight 8Kg Dimensions (L, W, H) 275mm x 120mm x 220mm
 
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I'm certainly no expert having only used the vacuuming aspect 2-3 times but you do not mention that you are trying to infuse the PR into anything.

I had the same thing happen to me and I WAS trying to get PR to fill holes in the wood. Actually, it was Alumilite, not PR. Made this foamy stuff that was about 2-3 times the volume of the original amount of Alumliite that I had started with.

So, if you were not trying to infuse the stuff into wood, why do you need the vacuum? If anything, I think you would need pressure. When I used pressure I did not have the problem.

BTW, we spent this weekend making blanks and only vibrated the PR to get the air out. No pressure or vacuum. Worked great.

I don't know the answer to your question but wanted you to know that it also happened to someone else. And that I have found that casting does not require either pressure or vacuum.

Man, isn't this the usual situation with making pens. All sorts of different ways. What works for someone doesn't work for someone else.
Lee
 
Haven't done any of this yet myself; I'm still in the research stage.

As Lee said, vacuum degassing does cause the resin to expand quite a bit before it settles back down. Most of the videos I've watched have the degassing done while the resin is in a larger container, and afterward the resin is poured into the molds.

This YouTube video, made by a woman who casts resin for jewelry, shows the whole process quite clearly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMdicfz5Ouk&feature=related

This is also the first time that I've seen anyone using their pressure pot on its side; it seems like a clever idea. I would be interested to hear any opinions on this set up from our more experienced pressure casters here.
 
Many thanks guys you answered all my questions and thanks for the video.

This is a pen I made using carbon fiber clear PR and on a vacuum for 3 minutes although I lost some resin due to the fact that I filled the molds to the top not thinking that it would troth up like it did but luckily I had a little degassed resin left in the container to top the mold up.

So very happy with the result because of no bubbles so yes maybe some bigger molds.

Many thanks again guys

carbon-vertex-2.jpg





Mervyn
 
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