Resin Casting?
While I wait for my new LEDs, I wanted to get something else done. A member on the PP forums suggested that I try casting the “souls” piece in clear resin to have the lights light them up. The more I’ve thought about this idea the more intrigued I’ve been by it. The main issue is I’m pretty broke most of the time. (Now is no exception.) I had the idea to use some of the Silk Shoppe resin from my Water Products Showdown article to use for the task. It’s perfectly clear when cured, and it produces no excess heat while curing, unlike most epoxy resins. It seems like the perfect solution. But before I buy $25 worth of silicone to make a mold, I need to be sure. A test is in order…
A smaller scale suggestion that several people have given me is to run a clear or colored plastic rod down through the stacks to the light source to help conduct the light up the stacks. Again, being broke, just popping off to the local R/C hobby shop (that carries just such items) isn’t in the budget. Why not kill two birds with one stone so to speak? I could try casting the Silk Shoppe in rods to fit inside the stacks. That will tell me:
- Whether or not it is a feasible casting material.
- Whether the rod idea will help or hinder the lighting in the stacks.
So now I need a mold. Since this is a simple rod, tubing is the obvious answer. I found some aluminum tubing that is the same diameter as my bored out stacks. Then I found some plastic tubing that is the next diameter up, with the inner diameter being the same as the smaller tubing so it fits snugly inside.
Now, how to get it to not stick to the tubing? I know it adheres to plastic from my test. It’s intended to pour into glass vases to simulate water so it will stick to glass as well. I gave a funny sounding solution a shot.
One of the things that attracted me to the Sinbad adhesives was one of their other products: Sinbad Gloves. It’s essentially a lotion that you rub on your hands to keep superglue and resins from sticking to your skin. It’s weird, but it works. It’s water soluble, which is nice for easy clean-up. That’s the downside for me when sculpting though, as I’m always getting my hands 7 tools wet, which removes the lotion. At any rate. I decided to coat the aluminum tubing liberally with it and slide it inside my plastic tubing form, hopefully transferring it to the inner walls and keeping the resin from sticking to it. I figure it’s worth a shot.
Forms coated, I tacked them to an old 40mm base with poster putty. I don’t care about neat, squared off ends at this point. If a little leaks out of the bottom of the tubing the putty will keep it from going anywhere.
With the form ready I mixed up a small batch of the resin and poured it into (and all over) the form. Silly me, trying to pour a viscous fluid into a small opening with no pour spout. Ah well, it’s only a test after all.
Based on the previous test I know this stuff takes around 48 hours to cure. That’s the trade off for not having an exothermic (heat producing) reaction. Slow cure = no/little heat, fast cure = heat. Having heat inside plastic tubing would not be a good thing. It would melt and just create a mess. I’ll come back on Saturday to check on it. (Hopefully the new LEDs will be here by then too!)
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