Pressure Pot?

[John Terefenko]

Do any of you turners use resin to enhance your turnings or adding some embellisments as tops for bottle stoppers???? Some of you may use resin for pens but my question is if you do, do you use a pressure pot and if so what one??? Can you tell me how you go about using it. You can email me if you do not want to place here. I have asked this question on a pen site but did not get the answers I was looking for. I am told it is used for taking the bubbles out of the resin but also told some use pressure and some use a vacuum. What type resin do you use and where do you get it?? Thanks for the replys in advance.

[Scott Rathburn]

John
I don't have any info for you, but would also be interested in the responses. I've been wondering about stabilizing punky wood with epoxy and some sort of pressure pot.

[Marvin Hasenak]

I never have done it but a guy on another forum about duck calls used Minwax Wood Hardener in a tank that he could add air pressure to. He used the Minwax Wood Hardener, from Home Depot, full strength and in the tank with 20lbs pressure for 10 days then air dried it for another 10 days and it was ready to turn. Said that if you could create a vacuum on the tank that it would soak in overnight. The Minwax Wood Hardener is some sort of resin normally used by painters for preserving rotting wood. Don't know any more about it, but it sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Hope this helps.

[Fred Ritter]

There are several threads on another forum about this right now but I'm not sure of the etiquette on posting that here. I know several people that are using the pressure pot from Harbor Freight with success. It was just on sale recently. I'm a little more low tech. I use a one quart mason jar with oil based poly and a brake bleeder pump to apply the pressure. It works pretty well.

[David Walser]

Fred,

Is this the item from Harbor Freight you referred to?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93119

[Marvin Hasenak]

The pen makers use the small 1 quart paint pot, that 2 1/2 quart pot would take a lot of hardener but would hold bigger items. That and the brake bleeder vacuum pump from Harbor freight should be all that you need. Or at least that is my thoughts on it.

[Fred Ritter]

Yes David, that's the one. I should qualify that I've only used my setup to stabilize pen blanks, never anything larger than about 1x6".

[John Terefenko]

Just to clarify my part of this question, I am not looking to stabalize any woods but looking to make things out of resin using molds. I have read there is different types of resin and some are more hazardous than others in that the fumes are very bad. Which ones is which??? Also do you look to do a pressure thing or a vaccuum thing to get the air bubbles out of the resin??? If someone has made something using resins maybe they can walk me through their process. You can PM me or email me if you do not want to post here. Thanks again for the replys.

[Curt Fuller]

Try this out..........

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2006/snakeskinblanks.pdf

It's for making rattlesnake skin pen blanks but I think it's the process you're looking for.

[Fred Ritter]

On the same site that Curt posted is another article by Jay Pickens that details the process. I've been casting poly resin for about a year and a half now. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Also, Jay's article recommends Douglass & Sturgess (artstuf.com) for supplies. They are good for the pigments and luster powder, but their resin prices have really gone up recently. I now buy my resins from mrfiberglass.com (no affiliation, just better prices and good service).

[Robert E Lee]

Fred, I think that the brake bleeder pump creates a vaccumn. You do not want to put a pressure to a glass container as it might explode and be schrapnel, with a vaccumn it will fall into itself.
Bob

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

I have 2 large (2.5 gallon) pressure pots that I use for making my prickly pear cactus pen blanks as well as for filling cracks and voids in pen blanks that would otherwise be unusable. I have also used it to fill cracks in mesquite bowl blanks, the idea being to put the resin under pressure, thus forcing it deeper into the crack. It works wonderfully!

Many people use polyester resin (PR) but I find it abhorent! It stinks up your entire shop and is quite toxic. It also requires that you count drops of catalyst and you have to adjust the amount based on the quantity of resin, the temperature, or wether or not the planets are aligned!

My resin of choice is Alumilite Clear urethane resin. It is made specifically for casting is is real easy to use. It is a 1:1 system and has virtually no smell. It also cures in less than 10 minutes! It is harder then PR but less brittle so it does not blow out as easily as PR. It is more expensive, however.

Anyway, good luck! Casting is fun and rewarding and can become adicting. We have a dedicated casting forum over at Penturners.org if you want to come over and ask questions. A lot of penturners have experience with casting.

Oh yeah, here is a pen I did with wood and resin

[David Walser]

Curtis,

Alumilite Clear urethane resin sounds interesting (and your prickly pear pens are wonderful). Do you recommend a source for the resin?

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

David,

I buy direct from Alumilite. Not sure if I can post a link or not so I won't but all you have to do is search google. Make sure you spell it right! I just bought 10 Gallons of clear for my cactus pens! it is much cheaper this way if you plan to use a lot of it!

If you call Alumilite, be sure to talk to Mike. He is the VP and runs the place and is a great guy. He helped me with perfecting my process and knows a lot about resins. Be sure to tell him I sent you.

[Gary DeWitt]

I'm wondering if you couldn't set up a pressure pot with an old pressure cooker (garage sale) and a 100lb bicycle pump? It would be easy to drill a hole in the lid to fit a tire valve, or just replace the opening that's already there.
I tried vacuum for casting resin and still had bubble problems, havn't tried pressure yet. Is pressure better than vacuum?

[John Terefenko]

Now we are finally getting into the heart of my questions. Thanks for the replys and will have to check the non smelly stuff out. When casting blanks is there a formula for the amount of pressure to be used??? I just ordered the Pressure pot from HF. What about molds, what is best to use if you want to make up a block say for a bottle topper. How long do you leave in the pot and how do you know if it is done??? How do you sand it or polish it??

[Gary DeWitt]

I'm thinking a short length of PVC pipe lined with plastic wrap for a mold, so you get a cylinder to start your turning with. You could also turn a mold from wood aproximately the shape your stopper will be, so you wouldn't use too much extra resin or have to turn away so much material. Just a rough shape is what I mean.

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Here is a great article on casting resin in general that has good infor on pressure vs. vacuum as well as the different resins available. It has nothing to do with turning but everything to do with casting.

http://users.lmi.net/drewid/resin_faq.html

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Gary,

PLEASE DO NOT USE A PRESSURE COOKER! They are not designed for the pressure we are talking about. They are usually only designed for a working pressure of 15 psi or so where the paint pot is 75-80 psi. There was a fellow on a casting forum that I visit who had a pressure cooker explode on him at 40 psi. IT IS JUST NOT WORTH IT!

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

John,

If you plan to use Alumilite, 40 or so psi works fine. On my cactus blanks, due to the fact that I am dealing with so many voids, I cast at 55 psi. If I am doing a simple resin blank, I usually use 40.

For mold, I went downt o Wally World and bought one of those big, white, cutting boards that are about 1/2" thick. The one I bought is made from HDPE and is pretty slick. The nice thing is that so far, nothing sticks to it, including Alumilite, CA, and epoxy but I am not sure about PR but would guess it would not stick either.

Ayway, I cut it on my tablesaw to make a square mold with square sides exactly the size I need. I then screwed the pieces together so that I could easily take it apart to remove the stubborn casting as I needed to. It works great and cuts down on the amount of wasted resin.

Here is a picture:


http://www.penturners.org/forum/uploads/mesquiteman/2006101125344_Casting%20mold.jpg

For how long to leave in the pot...that depends on the resin you are using. If you use PR, you will need to leave it for many hours . If you use the Alumilite I suggested, 15-20 minutes is all that is needed.

For finishing, I wet sand through 600 grit and then switch to micro mesh dry through 12,000. I then use some automotive polishing compound and a coat of wax. Works great!

[John Terefenko]

Curtis

You have mail.

[Gary DeWitt]

Curtis - thanks for the warning. That's why I posted the idea here first before trying it, to see what the consensus was.
Also, thanks for the link on casting, I have several projects in mind for cast resin.