# First round with silmar 41



## norman vandyke

Made myself my first knife block with silmar 41, citrine pearl-ex and stabilized box elder burl. I think I like this one.

Reactions: EyeCandy! 2 | Way Cool 2


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## rocky1

Lookin good Norm!!

Hard not to like Silmar, it's just real easy to work with.


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## norman vandyke

So ready but man does it stink up the place. I ended up shoving the mold into a sealed box until it was cured.


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## rocky1

Yeah, it does do that!!! I typically open the shop doors, and turn on the fans. Although that doesn't help a lot... nor does putting it in the paint pot and sealing it up, and opening doors and turning on fans. It just stinks!! 

First time I ran a batch of Alumilite, I was almost lost, there were no fumes!


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## norman vandyke

rocky1 said:


> Yeah, it does do that!!! I typically open the shop doors, and turn on the fans. Although that doesn't help a lot... nor does putting it in the paint pot and sealing it up, and opening doors and turning on fans. It just stinks!!
> 
> First time I ran a batch of Alumilite, I was almost lost, there were no fumes!


Clear cast had no fumes but it's just so expensive.


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## ripjack13

That looks pretty cool man.


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## rocky1

The "Water Clear" isn't any cheaper... You can buy a gallon of Silmar for what a quart of Alumilite costs.

And, the Silmar is way more flexible. I really don't have any issues with the way the Alumilite works, (_set time is a little quick_), and I do like the no odor, but for the price I'll move my pot and casting projects outside if I have too.


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## Brain M

Where can I learn more about using silmar? Where are you guys getting it from? The one thing that keeps me from casting is the price of alumilite.


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## rocky1

Silmar 41 - Cheapest place we've found it so far.

Freight is the killer... Freight is gonna run you about $20 because it's hazmat. If you buy 2 gallons it only goes up about $4 - $5.

Not a lot to learn honestly. Need a bunch of mixing cups with fairly accurate scale, pack of wooden craft sticks from Wally World. And, molds. I'm picking my cups up locally at Automotive Paint store. Buy my wet/dry high grit abrasives there as well. The cups are also available on Amazon.

Paint Mixing Cups - Catalyst comes with a little bitty measuring cup usually. Wipe out and reuse.

It works decent with vibration. Works better with a pressure pot.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ripjack13

rocky1 said:


> Silmar 41 - Cheapest place we've found it so far.
> 
> Freight is the killer... Freight is gonna run you about $20 because it's hazmat. If you buy 2 gallons it only goes up about $4 - $5.
> 
> Not a lot to learn honestly. Need a bunch of mixing cups with fairly accurate scale, pack of wooden craft sticks from Wally World. And, molds. I'm picking my cups up locally at Automotive Paint store. Buy my wet/dry high grit abrasives there as well. The cups are also available on Amazon.
> 
> Paint Mixing Cups - Catalyst comes with a little bitty measuring cup usually. Wipe out and reuse.
> 
> It works decent with vibration. Works better with a pressure pot.



does it come with the catalyst ? (mekp)


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## ripjack13

norman vandyke said:


> Made myself my first knife block with silmar 41, citrine pearl-ex and stabilized box elder burl. I think I like this one.View attachment 121825 View attachment 121826 View attachment 121827 View attachment 121828



This looks waaay better on my pc screen....nice Norm...real nice.
Do you stabilize em first, then cast?


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## rocky1

Yes, it does come with the catalyst Marc. You get one gallon Silmar Resin, one little bitty bottle MEKP, suitcase full of MSDS papers for that price.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1

ripjack13 said:


> Do you stabilize em first, then cast?


 
Your casting resin sets fairly quick Marc, Alumilite or Silmar, you can usually pull them from the mold in a couple hours. On my foam rubber mold, they pop right out, without a problem. HDPE molds, I usually let them set overnight, just because of the nature of the beast. The alumilite went into the pressure pot and I wasn't able to see how long that took, but the Silmar mixed according to directions it takes about 45 minutes before the bubbles get to a point of suspending, and stop floating up through the resin. Alumilite pot time is supposed to be far less than that.

However, even that doesn't allow a lot of time for penetration, so if you're working something that probably needs to be stabilized, yes you'll want to stabilize first.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## norman vandyke

ripjack13 said:


> This looks waaay better on my pc screen....nice Norm...real nice.
> Do you stabilize em first, then cast?


Yep, stabilized then cast.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Schroedc

I love working with Silmar. The stink sucks but the working time is good, and it's fairly foolproof unless you're a total idiot. So far been primarily using it clear for tube in casting of stamps, skins, etc. but eventually planning to tint some. I've never used a pressure pot yet but it's on my to-do list to build one since I picked up an old paint pot.

Reactions: Like 1


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## rocky1

Something to think about when building your pressure pot Colin... Since you can't see where the goodies is positioned beneath the air port with the lid on, and since relieving vacuum in my chamber when I screw up and set the container with resin immediately underneath the port and open the valve to far always results in a friggin mess... I put an elbow on the inside of my pressure pot lid, so that I'm not blowing pressure directly DOWN into a batch of stabilizing or casting resin. Cost of the elbow is worth about 4 ounces of stabilizing resin, or one screwed up cast blank, it doesn't take much to make it worth the elbow.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Percy

I bought some buckeye burl that was cast. It wasn't stabilized first and it really needs to be, kindly spalted in spots.
Can I stabilize it after it was cast or will the temp of the cure be too much for the resin?
Thanks in advance for any help with this.


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## norman vandyke

I've never tried but I'm pretty sure the casting resin will melt.


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## Schroedc

Percy said:


> I bought some buckeye burl that was cast. It wasn't stabilized first and it really needs to be, kindly spalted in spots.
> Can I stabilize it after it was cast or will the temp of the cure be too much for the resin?
> Thanks in advance for any help with this.



I can't say for certain without knowing which resin they used but most stabilizing resins like cactus juice and the like cure at around 190-200 so most of the polyester resins would be good at that temp if you were very careful. If you don't know for sure which resin was used so you can confirm, I'd rough shape the piece close to where you want it and then saturate the wood with thin CA.


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## Percy

I am stabilizing it to see how it works. I cut it into 4 scales so I can do two and still have two left.
Stabilizing the scales I can clamp between two pieces of bar stock to cure and not have to worry about warp.

Reactions: Like 1


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## chanser123

Be careful with Simlar casting hybrids. It tends to not stick to woods at all like alumilite does. Couple bad experiments early on making hybrids. haha!


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## rocky1

Interesting you should mention that Chanse... Just had casting on one end of a pair of pen blanks launch last night as I was rounding the blanks out. Was just a little snag, and bloop... there it laid on the floor. However, the other half turned OK. Was a smooth sided cast on the blank; 3 out of 4 pieces turned fine, 1 didn't!!


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## chanser123

Yea when I first started getting into casting hybrids, I read to stay clear of poly resins. Well I had a little left over one day and tried it and it didn't even make it past drilling before it started separating. Everywhere I read said it just doesn't bond to the wood like alumilite. Its also not as nice to work with as alumilite. With alumilite, or any resin when making hybrids, I would highly recommend using pressure anyways. Just in my opinion makes a lot nicer blank. I have experiments with a lot of different resins over the past couple years and found couple that work very well, both urethane and epoxy based casting resins.


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## rocky1

Weeeeeelllll... That one was alumilite, and was cast at 90 psi. My pot is good to 110. Was kind of a slick edge on a blank that had split out. I was trying to make it square again. 3 out of 4 pieces I cast held without a problem, just caught the edge on the one and pulled it loose. But it popped right off there.


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## chanser123

Yea any casting with a slick edge makes me nervous haha shes a slow and steady turn if I get into them!


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## norman vandyke

Out of curiosity due to this talk of polyester resins not bonding well to wood and because I screwed up a hybrid when I used too much mekp, I used this as an opportunity to see how well it really does bond. I am completely satisfied with the results. It took a great amount of force with a hammer to break the wood pieces free from the resin. Most of the resin stayed clinging to the wood and I had to keep striking it with the hammer chip it way to try saving the wood. As you can see on the left chunk, rather than let go of the wood, it actually tore wood away with it. This is burl though, so possibly there was more to grab onto this wood than a plain live edge piece. I have no doubts that silmar 41 polyester resin, when used in burl hybrid blocks, will hold up to what you put it through.

Reactions: Like 2


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## NeilYeag

Norman, let me know if that puppy in the first window would like to be adopted??


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