I am fairly familiar with cold casting using urethane and epoxy resins, and have read through the many posts here that address various techniques. It appears that there is consensus that dusting the mold with metal powder is a best practice, and at least one member advocates the uses of powders in the 1200 mesh range. Unfortunately, I have not found an easy way to get this ultra fine powder from a US supplier to test this approach. I have also found that is easy to buff through the thin layer that is created by the dusting technique and no matter how how much metal is incorporated in the back fill it doesn't match. My question, finally, is this.......... Has anybody found a way to increase the thickness of the dusting layer to increase durability? I have considered mixing it with solvent so that it can be airbrushed, or painting it on with epoxy that has been thinned with solvent. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
More metal powder please
- Thread starter clawmd
- Start date
GhostMinion
Sr Member
So I tried denatured alcohol as a solvent. It did allow me to brush out a thicker layer of powder, but the urethane resin did not fully saturate the metal powder, 325 mesh Copper, and left a chalky surface. I did find some purveyors of ultra fine powder; US sources are incredibly expensive and direct purchase from Chinese produces require a minimum purchase of at least a kg. Next test is cyanoacrylic glue. It is used for stabilizing gemstones and stone powder that is then buffed so it may be useful.
