Unorthodox Additives for Smooth On Resin?

[Skaught]

Has anyone experimented with other additives for Smooth On? I once threw a handful of fine MDF sawdust in some leftover Smooth On 300 that was in the mixing cup. It cured and resulted in an interested wood colored block. Has anyone done anything like this? Or maybe added other "unorthodox" material? I was wondering what would happen with a little powdered RIT dye tossed in.

I sprayed some metallic gold spray paint in my mold and the resin came out painted, leaving the mold clean. That was interesting.

Scott

 

[exoray]

I was wondering what would happen with a little powdered RIT dye tossed in.

You will end up with colored specs in the resin...

I have added several things to resin, there are tons of interesting things you can do, but moister contamination is a real concern, especially with organic additives like wood or powdered nuts or what not...

I personally find a lot can been done with different ceramic powders, they are cheap and readily available if you have a local ceramics supply house...

Baking Soda and Talc are also cheap additives to bulk up resin...

 

[ThrowingChicken]

I've mixed it with mortar. You end up with a very hard cast once cured. I mix about 2 parts mortar to every one part of resin (total, A and B mixed) and use it to slush cast or brush on layers.

 

[ThrowingChicken]

I also mix the ceramic filler and playground sand with resin to get a rock look for my robot fossils.

 

[Skaught]

Experiment under way right now. I mixed some "water putty" wood filler with the resin. It foamed up, so I'm wondering if there will be a lot of air bubbles in the surface. I'll put it out in about 10 minutes.

Scott

 

[ThrowingChicken]

Anything with water is going to foam. I've mixed with water and vinegar to intentionality cause foaming, but since discovering the mortar technique I would skip the foam part all together.

 

[Skaught]

It was a dry powder, so no water. You're suppose to mix it with water to make a paste.

Anyway, I pull it out and it was very smooth other than a couple tiny pinholes. It looks a bit translucent, as I think I can see bubble inside it. It's also noticeably lighter than pure resin. Next time I'd have to use less resin and scrape off anything that foamed outside the mold before it cured, as there's a big foamy piece that would need to be cut off of this one. It's very sturdy feeling, too. The putty is suppose to dry rock hard and be sandable, so no surprise that its sturdy.

Scott

 

[modelnutz]

I have an interesting additive for you...it results in a very hard...smooth skinned foam. Very even foaming...very similar to sponge candy.

I started with SC-300 ( my favorite resin ) and added flour to the mix.
I was searching for an off the shelf filler for a quickie job I was doing.

My reasoning is that the flour carries a small amount of moisture with it and it disperses very well in the resin mix so there's no un-even foaming and the pockets are all of uniform dia.

 

[piehead]

you can mix the resin with polyfoam too. mix the polyfoam components and the resin sepratly then mix together. varying the amounts of each results in diffrent densities but a light weight plastic. always a good idea to brush a detail layer of resin in the mould first then the resin / foam mix.