What is the best resin for turning castings??
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What is the best resin for turning castings??
Vince -- It depends on what you're planning on making. Most of the resins readily available are to be used as adhesives, coatings, or relatively shallow pours. They're great for those purposes and can serve well for casting relatively small turning blanks -- pen blanks, bottle-stoppers, and the like. For larger castings, it's best to use a resin designed for that purpose. (Even with these casting resins, you may need to cast in several layers to get something as large as a pepper mill blank.) The issue with deeper casts is heat. As the resin cures, the chemical reaction gives off heat. Too much resin and the heat may cause the resin to boil, froth, expand out of the mold, and/or develop heat checking (internal cracks inside the blank).
Given all that, I generally use Alumilite Clear Slow. It accepts dyes, tints, color shift powders, mica powders, etc. I've successfully poured blanks 4" in diameter and 8"+ long (with a large pine cone, several acorns, or similar items cast inside the blank -- which takes up some of the space that otherwise would have been filled with resin). I use PVC pipe for the mold with such pours. Once fully cured, Alumilite Clear Slow (or Alumilite Clear, which cures more quickly) turn very well. It's not as chippy as some other resins I've tried. But it's still best to use sharp tools and to take your time when turning.
Alumilite Clear is a urethane resin. Other types of resins that are commonly used are polyester, acrylic, and epoxies. Zac Higgins has a popular YouTube channel dedicated to resin casting turning blanks. He also has a website where he provides additional information, as well as sells his turning blanks and resin casting supplies. Here's a link to his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZacHiggins/featured. He has a playlist of videos for those looking into resin casting. Here's a link to his e-book, The Beginner's Guide to Resin Casting: https://nvwoodwerks.com/product/the-...resin-casting/. The link goes to his website (where the book is sold). From there, you can check out the book and quickly explore the rest of his site. His videos and book will give you an idea of what you'll need, besides the proper resin, to cast successfully.
HTH
I also am curious as to what things you want to turn? And how do you describe "best"? Means different things to different persons.
I haven't turned any of blanks that had wood cast into resin so I can't comment. However I have turned a great deal of cast acrylic which is a resin. (extruded acrylic is not recommended.) I don't cast it but use pre-cast cylinders, available in a number of colors and sizes.
It turns beautifully with standard woodturning tools and Hunter carbides. It's easy to get a very good finish off the tool then a little sanding and polishing and I'm done.
Here are some examples. Most if the stock I have is 1/5" in diameter but larger is available.
Attachment 453259 Attachment 453260 Attachment 453261 Attachment 453266
Good for small accents. Blue goes well with Olivewood.
Attachment 453267
Handbell. boodwood and acrylic.
Attachment 453262
The bell, in progress.
Attachment 453263
John, how did you attach the handle to the acrylic green bell? That is a very eye appealing piece, at least to my eye.
If glued, does the glue show through the acrylic?
To the OP, if the resin you are turning is chippy try using negative rake ground tools. I find a negative rake scraper when turning acrylics and resins produces a much smoother finish on chippy prone stuff.
Good question! I came up with this design a long time ago and have made a bunch from a variety of things. Great for presents and for charity auctions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Hayward
(Someone did ask me once where I bought that plastic bell. Ha!)
I might try turning one from aluminum or brass someday.
This picture where I cut one in half may explain it better:
Attachment 453294
I make these in four parts.
- The bell is has a small hole in the end. As you can see from the sectioned one, I turn the rim thin but make it considerably thicker at the top. (I hollow with a parting tool - SO quick and easy (and foolproof).
I drill the hole in up inside just before parting off the bell.- The handle has a hole (mortise) the same diameter as the hole in the bell.
I mount the handle blank, drill the hole, dish the end a bit to fit the bell, support the end with a small pin in the tailstock, then turn and finish the handle.- The third part is a connector piece, turned to have a long tenon that will fit through the holes and into the wood, with a small flange to seat it up inside the bell. The only glue is in the hole in the handle.
- The fourth part is the little wooden clapper, connected with a bit of brass wire. I've simplified that part recently but the idea is the same. I see bells made without clappers and that's just wrong. :)
On other things where I join acrylic to wood or something else I turn a tenon on the end of the clear acrylic and epoxy that into a hole in the opaque part. That hides both the tenon and the glue.
BTW, I've done demos on these in several turning clubs and a lot of people made them. I always take a tub full of pre-cut bell and handle blanks to give out. Good clean fun!
Attachment 453296 Attachment 453297 Attachment 453298 Attachment 453299
Attachment 453300 Attachment 453301
BTW, I found out something the hard way about the acrylic bell. The first time I used a nice blue acrylic. Once turned thin it was nearly transparent with almost no color! (I turn the rim to about 0.025" or less). Then I found a chunk of acrylic that was such a dark green I first thought it was black! It was perfect, showed color even where thin and had a nice gradient towards darker at the top.
JKJ
John, great info! Cant wait to try this. What do you mean by the small pin in the headstock?Quote:
Originally Posted by John K Jordan
thanks, Tom
John, would you care to share where you purchase your acrylic stock? Is it a solid tube? Thanks.
Oops, meant "tailstock"! I edited it. I make turn a small cylinder on the end of a piece of wood held in a live center in the tailstock. I've used several methods but the easiest for me is to turn a short #2morse taper on a piece of wood and hold it in a Nova live center. I use this method to hold a variety of things. There are other ways, such as holding a steel pin in a jacobs chuck, but the wood works nicely and a stray cut with the skew can't hit metal!Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas Wilson80
I do like the widely used Oneway centers and clones but I find the Nova is the most flexible. (I bought a spare!) This shows what comes with it and a few of the wood attachments I had on hand when I took the photo. I make these to fit as needed.
Attachment 453428
JKJ
These are solid, cast acrylic rods. They are available in a lot of sizes. They are kind of pricey so it might help to find a friend or two or club members to share the cost.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Borowicz
Most of mine are 1.5" diameter. On the occasion I wanted something much smaller, such as for the blue flame on the ring keeper, instead of cutting down a large piece I cut a section of larger cylinder into quarters on the bandsaw and chucked up and turned one of the quarters.
I think I ordered from this company, 4' lengths:
https://www.delviesplastics.com/c/ac...rod-tubes.html
A google search for cast acrylic rod may show other suppliers.
I've heard it's important to use CAST acrylic instead of extruded acrylic.
Anyone live close to me stop by and I'll give you a sample to try. I got my first pieces from a guy who gave them to me!
I'd like to buy some 3" diameter sometime and try turning some lidded boxes, perhaps with threaded lids!
One hint when turning - with a sharp spindle gouge an infinitely long strand of plastic will peal off the piece and quickly wrap around the piece and get in the way of turning! Have to stop often and clean. I discovered a better way. I turn on the powerful dust collector and position the pickup nozzle just behind the work. The DC will pick up the end of a new strand and pull the entire thing off the tool for as long as I make the cut!
BTW, this plastic turns nicely with the Hunter carbide tools too, when used like a gouge. I haven't tried a scraper on it.
Sanding and polishing is easy. Fine sanding, sometimes with water, followed by spinning the piece against a small piece of cotton cloth with some kind of polishing compound works well. I have used a paste plastic polish and several types of metal polish and they all work the same. I've also run through the MicroMesh abrasive cloth to 12000 grit and for an excellent polish.
JKJ