# First cast in the pot!



## Brain M (Jul 20, 2016)

How do you guys do it? I poured my first cast into my home made acrylic mold and have it sitting in the pot curing at 60PSI... but it's driving my crazy not being able to see it! 

Anyways... pics to come after I get home from work tomorrow. Also curious to see if it will come out of the mold I made. I got so into mixing and pouring I forgot to spray release agent in the mold! Time will tell....


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## Tony (Jul 21, 2016)




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## MKTacop (Jul 21, 2016)




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## Paulsenw (Jul 21, 2016)




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## Brain M (Jul 21, 2016)

Well. Release agent is a must when casting in acrylic molds... but I have to say the acrylic cement I used made a super strong bond. I'm impressed.

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1 | Useful 1


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## Don Ratcliff (Jul 21, 2016)

It looks great, really like the honeycomb look. I bring home old cutting boards to make molds and use screws to keep it together. Rather than buy a new board you could try the goodwill. Any case, it looks great to me.


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## Brain M (Jul 21, 2016)

Thanks for the tip. My father got 100 3'x3' acrylic shelves from target overhaul's so i have plenty of acrylic to mess around with but I don't want to have to keep destroying the molds as well.. i think i am glong to make a larger acrylic mold to make silicone molds in. also trying to see if I can make some custom size acrylic containers for my saltabilizing pot as well... buT I have heard mixed results in that


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## rocky1 (Jul 21, 2016)

Be sure and post your project on the honey comb Brian, I want to know how that turns out. Having a virtually limitless supply of such I had considered it, but I'm just a little concerned whether the acrylic will bond through the wax walls of the cells, which if it doesn't you're going to wind up with a bunch of little round cylinders of acrylic. Or, whether the acrylic would melt the cell walls.

Was the comb you used old and dark, signifying a brood comb; or was it a lighter colored brown to yellow, suggesting honeycomb? If it was brood comb it would have been difficult to cut with a knife as well. Each time a bee is raised, they spin a very fine cocoon inside the cell, which over time builds inside the cell walls, making the comb tougher and tougher as time passes. Honey comb generally cuts easily, especially on a warm day; brood comb can be difficult to cut even when heated thoroughly.


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## Brain M (Jul 21, 2016)

Actually neither. I cheated and used the honeycomb cardboard protector that my harbor freight pressure pot came in... I saw it on YouTube so I cannot take credit for it. Gonna hopefully get it cut tomorrow or sometime this weekend.

Reactions: Way Cool 2


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## rocky1 (Jul 21, 2016)

Ok... that don't help me much!


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## Brain M (Jul 21, 2016)

What about wasp's nest? They seem to be very dry and not very oily???


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## rocky1 (Jul 21, 2016)

I'm looking for the honeycomb effect in the blank. Wasp nests just aren't built the same. No videos on it anywhere either, and several people have tried to mimic the honeycomb effect, one of them making a pen for his father who kept bees, so I know he had access to honeycomb as well. Beeswax is actually a fatty tissue secreted by the bees, it's then chewed up and pieced together to form the comb. As such it will be oily and if the acrylic resin doesn't break it down, I'm afraid it's not going to bond and may be a tad dangerous to turn. Found one video where the guy tried pouring aluminum honeycomb and he encountered the same problem. Wound up with a bunch of little missiles in an aluminum case. The aluminum was light and tore easily so it was a complete fail.


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## Don Ratcliff (Jul 22, 2016)

I don't know if it would work, what if you made a mold to resemble the comb, poured in the color you want. When dried do a second pour to fill it in. Start with this to form a negative mold.


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## rocky1 (Jul 22, 2016)

One video the guy poured the aluminum honeycomb was reverse engineering. After pouring the honeycomb he pushed the acrylic from all the cells, thought he was going to stack them in the mold, but rather than stack them and repour he simply filled his mold with acrylic and dumped the pieces in. It was a pretty cool effect, but...






This is the only one I've found that attained the proper effect. Just need to find the honeycomb material he used. And, someone needs to teach him how to edit a video, because sitting there watching him turn and sand a pen blank for 22 minutes, could have been edited to about 4 minutes and been really cool.


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## Brain M (Jul 23, 2016)

Here's a question for you guys, when doing colored pours/casting, is there any difference in using the clear vs opeaq resins? I ask because the opeaq resin is cheaper and would be nice to use instead of the more expensive clear.


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## Kevin (Jul 23, 2016)

Brian nothing sticks to hdpe or uhmw surfaces very well. Not even the adhesive made for it and I know from experience.


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## rocky1 (Jul 26, 2016)

Well looking for something resembling honeycomb for various turnings, I did find several different options with honeycomb affect available on-line. Picked one that looked like the stuff used in the successful video above and shot them an e-mail to see what I could learn. Yesterday I got a call, and an e-mail in reply, I'm hoping this works out because I'm really liking Customer Service/Public Relations with this company already!

Spoke with Joe at Plascore, and discussed what I was trying to do. According to him the product questioned is an acrylic, so acrylic bonds really well with it, especially in cases where the cells are filled as well, said it all sticks and turns into a big hard block of acrylic, none of the issues seen in the video of unsuccessful aluminum cell attempt above. The product in question comes in 3 or 4 different cell sizes, 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", and he thought it was also available in 3/8". As I told him, the 1/8" would probably be really cool for ink pens, (_is likely what was used in the video above in fact_), as it would allow more cells in the limited space allowed on the barrel of an ink pen, but I do have other projects some of the larger stuff would be more appropriate on.

Joe is hooking me up with a couple 12" x 12" sample sheets, one in 1/8" and one in 3/16" to see how it works for me.

Will keep you guys posted.

Reactions: Like 1


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## rhossack (Jul 27, 2016)

Rocky ... I like the look aluminum honeycomb with chrome hardware. I've never had them not stick to the aluminum when turning. I did not cast these blanks but I've turned 
a dozen or so and nary a problem.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1 (Jul 27, 2016)

Good to know... Thanks Ron!


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