Resin Troubles

Ok I am really at a loss for what exactly happened tonight friends (what I mean it in a peer way. Sheesh Stan Lee can call his readers friends and true believers and I get awkward stares. Really?) I was attempting to cast a birthday gift for my step mom, my mother left me a small keychain pendant that I always called the "Atlantean Gem" as it is shaped like the ones in the Disney movie and it has a LED in it makes it glow blue like them as well (Need a new battery for it ten years is a long time for a tiny power cell) and I had another reason to make a gem for a project, so I made a mold with my Blue silicone and I didn't need the full shape so I made sure it was in a oddly proportioned Brilliant Cut (Think Chaos Emerald only with a longer lower point) at least close to that cut anyway.

So have Micromark Colorcast Urethane Resin and it's a 1 to 1 mix system, and knowing how little resin I was going to use I used a couple syringes to put the right amounts in place. I also knew at this scale even a single drop of a water based dye would screw up the setting, so I made my own Alcohol based dyes so it can be translucent like a real gem. I mixed the blue and red together and finally got the right purple pink color that a Amethyst would be, Mixed everything together poured it into a mold and waited.

Not five seconds in I saw something very off happening, a foam like you'd get on a root beer (I recommend Frost Top brand if you ever get the chance buy it and try it, Tasty sarsaparilla indeed.) coming out, I had it partly obscured so a Eyelet for the necklace string so I thought "Maybe it got hot enough to boil some of the alcohol away. Waited the 15 minutes and I try to check the Eyelet was set and pulled it up, it gave way and then I saw nothing but what I can only discribe as pooly made fake snow or maybe that semi slush of a ICEE with a grape flavor in it.

The thing was a mess, I have no idea why either as I did exactly what the instructions said and as far as I know the best way to make translucent resin is with alcohol based dyes. I do have to admit the red ink acted a bit odd since I mixed it, shining a light on it it looked like a thick soup of red geh and the light did not pass through it. Now the blue dye also is too dark for light to pass through, but it shimmers a bit more like imagined. Also odd thing the red dye when I added it to the mix with the blue, it well flowed around like trying to mix oils together.

But unless I mixed the red dye wrong (hence the swirling like mixed oils) I have no idea why the thing was a failure, Especially since I did test the resin with powder based dye before and it came out great if ill suited for the task at hand (Tried to bond it to a car remote that still had some of it's original loop left, Resin strong plastic broke.) This kind of thing happen to anyone else using Urethane resins?

Hope I can figure this out ASAP as I want to give it to her sometime this week, wasn't able to on her Birthday and all. anyway thanks for your time.

Not familiar with the type of resin you have but if it is anything like the polyurethane resins I use, then the reaction was due to what you used to tint it.

I buy my tints from the same supplier that I get my resins from and the only thing that has ever gone weird was a yellow pigment that was supposed to be a solid colour, came out translucent. I have since discovered that adding white to the mix first, makes it a solid colour.

Even though the dye you used was mixed up with alcohol, you don't really know what compounds are in the actual product.

From my experiences, foaming of polyurethane is almost 100% due to water in the mix. Even the moisture in the air can create foaming if the percentage is high enough.

Sent from my CPH1701 using Tapatalk

This:

cavx said:

From my experiences, foaming of polyurethane is almost 100% due to water in the mix. Even the moisture in the air can create foaming if the percentage is high enough.

Sent from my CPH1701 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Almost always moisture contamination.

Thank you both, I had a feeling it was such a case. Guess even a 70% alcohol mix is too damp and I live in a very humid area too. gonna have to put my head together with my dad's and figure it out. Thanks for the tip and hope all your projects come out great.

Spyhunter2k said:

This:



Almost always moisture contamination.

Click to expand...

My wife uses alcohol inks in her craft, and the solution used to dilute does indeed contain alcohol and water.

Sent from my CPH1701 using Tapatalk

Gonna try something odd. I'm going to put my color mix in a metal tin, let it dry (Hot air or the like no flames I'm scared of fire enough thanks) and drip a bit of Part B in which is the part you add color to in colorcast. I mean it grabbed onto some of the dry pigment from my mix since I only had the one tin maybe it wi grab enough of the dry coating to color up as I stir.

If not I will need color dyes from elsewhere. I just remembered I heard Acrylics are ok in some resins and I do have some Acrylic paint pens, how would my odds be if I just used a smidgeon of those possible I may get translucent if the color disperses right.