What is the cost per blank

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DonWood

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2005
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178
Location
Chambersburg, PA, USA.
Hi - I have a question - I am considering getting the Harbor Freight Paint Pot and starting to do some Aluminite casting. The cost of the Aluminite seems like it may be pretty expensive when you break it down to cost per blank.

Has anyone figured out what the actual cost is per blank for a standard size pen blank of 3/4 to 7/8 size? This would include Aluminite cost and average cost per blank to put in colors, etc.

Thanks for any info you can give me on this.
 
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I ran through the mind exercise about a month ago, and I think I calc'ed it at about 3 oz.'s per blank, but that all depends on your mold size. I figured that using a 3x5x1 mold. There's 128 oz's per gallon, so about 40 blanks per gallon. With a gallon cost (local) of $112, cost per blank around $2.80. Sil41 local costs me about $49 and a per blank cost of around $1.25.

Mica and coloring would obviously add to this, as well as other expenses (stir sticks, mixing cups, etc...)
 
Don't forget to include your time and have some oops room for the learning curve and for when things just don't work out right. When my husband started casting we had lots of unsellable 'experiments' around the house and that cost a fortune in resin. He's obviously gotten better but still will have some that just don't go right and he refuses to sell anything he's iffy about. If you are going to start this as a business you MUST consider this in your pricing. If we had to figure in all the resin Jonathon had to waste to get good at what he does I don't think he'd be in the black yet. Good luck and have fun but be prepared for it to be REALLY expensive at first.
 
Oh BTW. I do NOT recommend the HF pressure pot. Save some money (and headaches) and get one of the good ones posted on here recently. I'll try to find the link for you if you need of. I think they were around $350 but well worth it.
 
brookswife803 said:
Oh BTW. I do NOT recommend the HF pressure pot. Save some money (and headaches) and get one of the good ones posted on here recently. I'll try to find the link for you if you need of. I think they were around $350 but well worth it.
Click to expand...

Did you just give away my Christmas present? :tongue::biggrin:


I did a breakdown on alumilite a couple months ago, I couldn't find it to reference it but it is costly no matter what. Like my wife mentioned, the learning curve is the most costly part!
 
Yes, direct costs of just the Alumilite is about $2.00 to $2.50 per blank not including molds, colors, pressure pot and other things you may cast in it. To me the Alumilite is worth it as I really like turning it and love being creative with things to cast in it.
 
That cost is where molds like the Resin Saver molds or the ones I make that have corners rounded help. Resin saver molds can push your use down toward 1 oz/blank or less, while just rounding off the bottom corners of a square blank mold saves almost 25% of the resin. A fully round one would save around 50%, but that can change the patterning you get with swirls because of the vertical cast (neither a good or bad thing, it's just different than horizontal casting)
 
I know I just purchased a 5gal pale of S41 and had it delivered for <$200. That's $40/gal.

$40/gal with 128oz/gal = $.3125/oz

My vertical molds take <2oz of resin -> $.63/blank.....
Even the horizontal mold that take 3.25oz/blank is ~$1/blank....

Pretty reasonable. That is only the blank though. You have to add to it all the coloring/molds/ect but very very reasonable.
 
Thanks so much to everyone for all the information. I truly appreciate it. I was thinking about Aluminite due to the odor of the others. However, I may just wait till spring now and do them outside since the Aluminite is much more expensive.

Thanks again, and I pray everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Don
 
I don't know who would pay over a $100 a gallon! you can get 2 gallons at $160, or if you really want to save, buy 10 gallons which breaks down to $50 a gallon. But..you still are talking a good $3 + per blank when you calculate cost of resin, pigments, molds, electricity, time, cups, mixing sticks, it all adds up, and you still have the cost of the pressure pot and a good scale, and every so often you might need to repair the hoses on the pot, replace batteries in the scale, buy or make some new molds, and you need trash bags and paper towels..heck, you can buy alumilite for not much more than PR if you go for the right quantity, but either way there's a ton of other supplies to account for with either product.
 
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