What did you do in your shop today?

Poured the epoxy, Alumilite Deep Pour. Now to be patient for 24-72 hours........

a question for the casting experts, can these plastic food containers be used as molds? Tr to fig out why not......

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Arn213 said:
😯😱🤯............okay @Steve in VA , my wife is on the phone said she will take row 5, column 3..............oh wait a second, she is telling me if I thought that might be too dark............how about row 5, column 7? Wait a minute and let me ask Steve as the grid system fell off when it hit the 6th row.
Me: Steve is that piece on row 5, consider column 6.5 cause it is crossing column 7?
Steve: Which one?
Me: the unfinished one, it’s yellow with a smear on it. Looks about 10” in diameter.
Steve: that ☝️?
Me: no, the other one right there-
the one to the right?
Steve: oh, that one with the beauty mark?
Me: 😤
Me: how about I just take all 3- to the left and right of the one I want.
Steve: okay then, see how easy that was.
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Now that's funny Arn, and for that your wife gets the pick of the litter!! Now if I could only figure out which one she wants 🤔
 
trc65 said:
Garry, did your mold go in a pressure pot, or does the "Deep Pour" not need pressure?
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Deep pour doesn need a pressure pot......supposedly. Plus my air, pot, etc are in a cold garage and I wanted to keep everything at a good temp. First time trying the deep pour. But, melted my tyvek tape when I tried to torch a few bubbles. Hmmmmmmm........ otherwise, the longer work time seems to help the bubbles work out.

oh, checked on it and my double sided tape didn’t hold. Glad I have longer working time, weighed it down....
 
That Deep Pour must be a new product from Alumilite? Probably trying to keep up with some of the other new casting epoxies on the market?

Garry, I'm interested in hearing how it works out for you. I've given thought to casting an occasional piece for personal use - and the volume of how much I'd cast wouldn't make buying a pressure pot worthwhile.
 
Sprung said:
That Deep Pour must be a new product from Alumilite? Probably trying to keep up with some of the other new casting epoxies on the market?

Garry, I'm interested in hearing how it works out for you. I've given thought to casting an occasional piece for personal use - and the volume of how much I'd cast wouldn't make buying a pressure pot worthwhile.
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It is a newer product Matt and I think you hit the Mark. With the popularity and new products, they had to respond. So far so good I think. I have done so few castings that I really don’t know what I am doing yet. But knew I wanted to keep it warm, other than the process heat, so I thought I would try this. I also want to do some cutting boards sized slabs like the River tables before I do a River table. Too costly to make that big of a mistake. This was costly enough.

re the pressure pot, I went the harbor freight route. Definite mold size limitation. But so far mine seals very well. More of a pain in small parts getting all the plumbing done. But not expensive or difficult.

Still trying to understand stabilizing then casting. Just watched a video I stumbled onto and after cooking his burl piece just needed cleaning on the bottom. My few pieces I have done so far ooze all over the place. I can’t see cleaning a nice burl when the dried resin seems pretty hard to me. Maybe I need to let it drip dry longer......don’t know.
 
Garry are you talking of cleaning up burl live edges after stabilizing? If so, a few things that helped me produce good results with that. 1. A longer rest time before curing, as you mentioned, does help. I would have it elevated off the bottom of the container it's resting in so it doesn't sit in a pool of resin. 2. Are you wrapping the blanks in foil when curing? If so, don't. I cured on a rack over a foil lined pan so that, if any resin leached out during the curing process, it wouldn't sit on the blank, but would drip down. I can't answer any casting questions, but I can certainly answer ones on stabilizing.

Yeah, I know I could go the HF pot route and that it wouldn't be difficult to plumb. Shoot, I probably have most of the fittings I'd need on hand already, lol. I may eventually get one, but there are plenty of other things higher on my want list.

(And, besides, my newest hobby has gotten expensive, lol. I'm not doing any tool buying at this point in time!)
 
Sprung said:
Garry are you talking of cleaning up burl live edges after stabilizing? If so, a few things that helped me produce good results with that. 1. A longer rest time before curing, as you mentioned, does help. I would have it elevated off the bottom of the container it's resting in so it doesn't sit in a pool of resin. 2. Are you wrapping the blanks in foil when curing? If so, don't. I cured on a rack over a foil lined pan so that, if any resin leached out during the curing process, it wouldn't sit on the blank, but would drip down. I can't answer any casting questions, but I can certainly answer ones on stabilizing.

Yeah, I know I could go the HF pot route and that it wouldn't be difficult to plumb. Shoot, I probably have most of the fittings I'd need on hand already, lol. I may eventually get one, but there are plenty of other things higher on my want list.

(And, besides, my newest hobby has gotten expensive, lol. I'm not doing any tool buying at this point in time!)
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Exactly my question Matt. You nailed it. My first blanks were wrapped in foil. Who said do that, that’s dumb. I shouldn‘t say it that way, there might be reasons to, but I can’t figure them out. But I didn’t let mine rest. I also still sat them on foil. Next time I will use the rack over foil.
 
How an average turner can take a simple project and put a piece of wood picked up at Woodcraft and come out with something that looks like this. Even the blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. Tag said southern eucalyptus burl.

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So I broke the mold apart on my epoxy project and I have to say I love the look of the Alumilite Deep Pour. Is it worth it? Not sure. May depend on the project. Waiting a week tried my patience, I wanted to see this thing. I have thought of a way to get an air compressor inside, I have a pancake compressor at the property. I can take it to the basement along with the pot. I just don’t want the pot to be cold when I start this next project.

The piece is way larger than I first thought, so I will be cutting tomorrow (today) and thinking about a duck call, brittle stoppers, pens, something......besides the box for the challenge. Darker than I desired, ano lesson. Wanted it just a little more transparent. Will see what it looks like when I cut into it.

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By the way, the plywood and tyvek tape, with silicone in the cracks, worked just as advertised!!!
 
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