How did the cholla bark turn out?
After under pressure for 3 days, I opened the tank and retrieved the casting. It was nice and hard. No bubbles to be seen through the bottle is was cast in.
Butt, I should have had a 36 ounce mix rather than the 24 ounce mix I got from WC.
"No problemo", the old guys to himself. I have the 3 gallon set I'm going to make an Urn with and have plenty to complete this and the Urn. So, I got my graduated container out, poured in 8 ounces of part A, and then 4 ounces of part B. Added a bit of bronze powder, some blue dye and did my mix. Poured it in the container, and put it under pressure. Three days later, I released the pressure, opened the tank, and I could see a lot of still bubbling bubbles.
I called Alumilite, and was informed I should give it a few more days.
In the meantime, I decided to give it a try with just a 3 ounce mix, no color and no powder. it cured in 3 days sitting out on a shelf with no pressure.
It's now 13 days from the start with the first pour curing in 3 days. The second pour was started 10 days ago, and as of 2 minutes ago, it's still liquid.
One good thing about this is the first 24 ounces can be cut just below the liquid line and possibly get a decent casting turned....
I think I'll do another 3 ounce test with color and powder just to know that my resin is good before I cast the Urn I'm going to make..........
This picture depicts both pours. Below the powder line you can see the deformed bottle when the casting cured. Above the line is the fresh 12 ounce pour.
Hopefully a good closeup of the two pours. Looking at this picture what looks like bubble are actually pieces of bark that's touching the bottle side.
Looking down into the bottle liquid bubbles are still there after 6 days
Since the first pour was successful, I think I'm going to pour the liquid into another graduated mixing container. Put it aside and then cut just below the powdered line where I'll be able to turn my bark.
Then I'll add half of part B and see if I had gotten an
moment and just used part A in pour #2. I hope that's what it is. I'll keep you posted............ Jerry (in Tucson)