A quick note on Casting
Most everything you buy is 2 part. Epoxy, polyester, resin, acrylic. But I like 2 equal part casting resins. Epoxy resin is not 2 equal parts usually.
Epoxy and polyester have a lot of environmental drawbacks. It stinks. Smells the entire house up. Can’t stand it. So I looked for a 2 equal part mixing epoxy. Like most acrylics.
So this is what I found. There are others, but this was an easy sample package at a reasonable price.
EasyCast, 2 part Epoxy. So you mix 2 equal parts into a container, it’s pretty forgiving so you can be “close”, and pour it into your mold.
First note; There is a smell. But its extremely muted compared to other types.
I made two clay molds (Moulds?) and gave them a petroleum jell coating. Heated the coating (to get rid of finger prints) and mixed the resin. I have done this before so I know the measurements needed.
I filled the molds with glass to give it the broken color effect I need and mixed in a little Alumilite Pearl powder into it.
Poured it all out in a thin stream into the mold. This helps get rid of air bubbles. Also, pour slowly, this lets the resin fill the voids and eliminates bubbles. There will be bubbles.
There is always bubbles.
Second note; Epoxy takes longer to cure than most other resins. This means the de-gasing point will end up with fewer imperfections in the final piece. Also, fewer bubbles. This is a huge problem with Alumilite. Alumilite reacts to moisture, and moisture creates bubbles. So the humidity in the air causes Alumilite to have bubbles. The bane of my casting experience. Alternatively you can put Alumilite casts in pressure pots to eliminate bubbles. I don’t have a pressure pot.
Since it’s about to rain, you can see why I’m using epoxy.
Bubble-B-Gone Gun. Aka, heatgun.
Let me give you a piece of advice with heatguns and resin; DO NOT use a lot of heat. Point your gun at the resin, it will pop bubbles, point it away. If there are still bubbles, repeat, but always point away. If you put too much heat on resin it evaporates, it’s toxic when you do this. Don’t do this.
After this I made sure all the glass was below the surface and left it to cure.
Third note; it doesn’t shrink! That was nice to learn. Casting polyester usually shrinks, table top coating epoxy doesn’t but isn’t easy to cast with.
All in all, this is used to cast this;
Sorry for the vertical video. It’s old and a test video to share with friends. Also the first video I uploaded to YouTube.
DOWN SIDE!!! When purchasing this material I purchased an 8 ounce kit. When purchasing Alumilite when you buy a 1 pound kit which is two 8 ounce bottles. With this, you got two 4 ounce bottles for 8 ounces total. A little disappointing and made the purchase to volume ratio less valuable.
I bought it at $1.75 an ounce. 16 ounce kits are $1.45 an ounce. Alumilite 1lb kit (two 8 ounce containers) is $1.25 an ounce. And a 2lb kit for $1.13 an ounce.
You can see why I favor Alumilite. On days where I have a low relative humidity, like less than 50%, I’ll cast in Alumilite. This may change once I get a pressure pot, but for now this is a great alternative.
All of that, for this. Looks pretty good!
