What happened, what went wrong....

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Monty

Monty

Group Buy Coordinator
Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Messages
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Location
Pearland, Texas, USA.
Why did some of my PR harden and some didn't?
Here's what I did.
I measured out 400 mls of Castin Craft PR. I added the white opaquing stuff that Michael's sells for the PR. Stirred it sufficiently and pulled a vacuum on it for about 5 minutes to outgas it. I then slowly mixed in 4 drops per ounce catalyst. I poured part of this into a rectangular mold and added coffee beans. The remainder was poured about 1" of resin into 5 PCV molds that are 1 ½" dia by 2" tall.
Into one of these I started to add the blue dye sold at Michaels for Castin Craft resin. I didn't like the way it was turning out color wise so I added the dye blue dye that I have for Alumilite. To the remaining 4 molds with resin I added Alumilite blue to one, red to one, green to one and yellow to one. All of these were place in my HF paint pot and pressurized to 60psi for 6 hours.
When I opened the pot, the coffee bean blank was hard as was the yellow one in the PVC mold. The remaining 4 were not even gelled. I decided to try warming them in my toaster oven (I know not a great idea, but I did this outside to be safer). After about 1 hour at 200 degrees, they had hardened but the red had turned a slight orangy-red color, both of the blues were now purple and the green was a puke green.
Anyone have any ideas what went wrong?
 
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I am assuming the Alumilite dyes are compatible with PR? I only ask because I really don't know. I do believe that heat is what killed your colors though. Another thing are you sure you didn't forget your catalyst? I have also heard that certain colors take forever to harden.
 
its kinda funny, i did almost exactly the same thing a few days ago..well, as far as the white dye from michaels and adding blue not liking it and ending up purple half gelled. after a couple days it eventually hardened but in different stages so now the blank looks like a mountain range (ugly as hell too). The blue was also alumilite dye...I have had alot of success with it previously but for some reason it did not work this time. I did the same as you except for the vacum. My thought is that if the alumilite dye is not well mixed it doesn't cure right. I have a bottle stopper blank I tried by mixing catalyst to the clear and before it gelled and adding drops of dye and letting it flow down and everywhere the dye was thick and not mixed NEVER cured...its still on my table and you get dye on your hands from picking it up even after 4 months.
 
rjwolfe3 said:
I am assuming the Alumilite dyes are compatible with PR? I only ask because I really don't know. I do believe that heat is what killed your colors though. Another thing are you sure you didn't forget your catalyst? I have also heard that certain colors take forever to harden.
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I've used it in PR many times...I don't use much. not even a full size drop. I put a mixing stick in and get a tiny amount and mix that in. It's great for making custom colors.
 
I bought some Alumalite dyes from Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago, and used them with Silmar 41. The blue ended up the color of grape Jolly Rancher candy. I mixed some red with some Ultrasilk, and in stead of getting pink like I get with other dyes, I ended up with a light purple. The blanks hardened ok, it's just that the colors were off.
 
Is anyone selling coffee bean blanks? I'm competent enough at making PR blanks, but it looks like the coffee been blank requires a pressure pot.
 
I like to coat the beans in un-catalyzed PR before mixing with catalyzed PR. Coating the beans allows the air bubbles to come out of the seam. But you will absolutely need the CA to fill "popped" coffee beans, as well as finishing the whole thing. Unless you want your fingers smelling like stale coffee every time you use the pen. Heh.
 
I have experimented with many different dies and pigments, with Alumilite. Not all work well, and some are a disaster. Some will even effervesce, and others just won't get into solution. I have had some that kind of "clot" also. I have found that Pearl ex and Alumilite dies work well together. I even tried to mix Alumilite dyes with CA for repairs, ...uh uh, the dye becomes a catalyst for the CA.
 
The question was , "Will the Alumlite dyes work with PR" . I have used Alumilite Black dye with PR (Silmar41) with no problems but haven't tried the coloed dyes . I bought the PR dyes with my last order of Silmar from USC and all the colors worked fine , no difference in cure time . I have had problems with some blue and red powdered pigments slowing down the cure times though .
 
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