Resin Casting - Stuff You Need To Know. 

Yes it it! Actually very very helpful and once i got all my materials i'm gonna start doing my project. Really thankful to you sincerly!

you said that the resin is TOXIC... does this mean that i can not use this as a AQUARIUM ORNAMENT for fish because it will poison them.. is this correct ?

@@gladiatormechs5574 I don’t know if the resin that I use is safe for aquariums after it is cured. It is definitely toxic in the uncured state. Reynolds Advanced Materials carries materials specifically for zoos, aquariums, etc. I am not affiliated with them. www.reynoldsam.com/application/aquariums-zoos-themed-environments/?pk_campaign=ramdyn&pk_kwd=

@@RobertTolone THANK YOU for sending me this link.. i e mailed them the questions i have... i so enjoy your channel.

I’ll give that a try!

@@RobertTolonehi Robert I just wanted to know if you can make 100 small toy pieces that I need. Can I send you a picture of what I need and if you think you can make the parts I can mail to you the part I would need the part made in a orange translucent plastic because I use led lights to brighten the lense.

I appreciate it Jay. Thanks for watching!

Very true!

Glad you find my videos helpful. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Thanks!

Thanks Krzysztof! Glad you find them useful.

Thanks Jim. Glad you find my channel helpful. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Awesome, thanks Nathaniel!

Kevin Aguilar It’s a very good idea. Especially if you don’t use up the resin quickly. I don’t because the pressure pots allow me to use older resin and I refill the jugs from 5 gallon buckets of resin. So they are usually full.

@@RobertTolone You Just Put A Wrinkle In My Brain,,,, That Will NEVER Come Out!

I don’t have any advice specific to trains. If you are 3-D printing the parts that you plan to mold in silicone and cast and resin you should be sure to design the parts for the process. That means making parts that fill with resin and vent air properly so that they are easy and quick to cast. You certainly don’t want parts that are difficult to cast or require a lot of clean up afterwards. That’s a quick way to go broke as a resin caster!

D353rt The hole should not pose any problems. The rubber bridge that goes through the hole should have a jagged cut so it locks together cleanly. Good luck with you project!

Temperature is extremely important. As you watch my videos you’ll hear me talk about this a lot. Cold slows down the cure and can’t even prevent it if it’s cold enough. Heat speeds it up. A good rule of thumb is if you are comfortable, the resin will be comfortable. 68 to 75°F is ideal. But you can use temperature to your advantage to control how fast resin cures. I don’t like using Petroleum-based molded releases with resin because resin is petroleum as well. It’s better to use a release agent designed for casting.

Not knowing what you’re casting I can only recommend that you consult with the material manufacturers to see what they recommend, then test the material to see if it works for your application.

Most people modify a paint pressure pot. You need 40-80 psi max in your pot.

When I was learning moldmaking (long before the internet) my mold making supplier Silpak spent hours with me explaining the materials and how to use them. I use their resins and rubbers to this day. Partially out of loyalty but also because there is an advantage to using materials you know well and have used for a long time.

You can use a platinum-based silicone rubber and a water-clear urethane resin to make clear parts. The supplier I use sells both. www.silpak.com. They don’t sponsor me, I’m not affiliated with them in any way except I have been their customer for more than 30 years. Clear parts are tricky. It is essential that the part you’re copying is flawless and highly polished. Otherwise the casting will reproduce every flaw in the model.

@@RobertTolone Thanks Robert cheers

I use both, depending on the situation. I almost always degas the rubber in the vacuum chamber. I rarely use vacuum injection when casting resin for several reasons. First, it’s not necessary if you design a proper vent system. The resin flows into the mold and the air flows out without any problems. Second, the resin will expand A LOT when you put it under vacuum. So you have to design a system that contains the expanded resin. Otherwise it will spill all over your vacuum tank. Third, the vacuum process is slower. So you may not get all the air out of the mold before the resin begins to gel. Especially since I like to use fast setting resin so I can cycle the mold quickly. When the resin gels while expanded you have a mess of a casting. Finally, I have found that the vacuum process will not reliably remove bubbles in a casting. Better to vent the model properly to quickly and reliably fill the mold. Having said all that, there are production systems that place the mold cavity under vacuum and inject the resin into the cavity just using atmospheric pressure. But that’s beyond the needs and budget of most DIY hobbyists or artists. If you know of a simple vacuum injection system let me know! I love to experiment with it.

The video coming out next Friday is about dying resin. I only use dyes or pigments that are specifically made for plastics. Anything else you add to your resin should be carefully tested. You never know when you might get a weird result!

@@RobertTolone cool! Lookin forward to it.

No, it’s just helpful. The most important thing is to properly vent the air from the molds. I buy resin in 5 gallon buckets because it’s most economical that way. Over time the unused resin in the buckets absorbs small amounts of moisture from the air which causes it to foam when curing. A pressure pot prevents that so it extends the shelf life of the resin.

Bette Levine Yes, the molds hold the detail for the whole edition.

I am not sure that it is worthy of a video all on its own. It is simply a piece of 2 inch PVC pipe with a cap on one end and a fitting to connect it to the tank on the other. There is a valve between the muffler and the tank. Drill a bunch of holes in the cap and fill the pipe loosely with polyester fiber fill or any other synthetic fill. Even loosely packed fiberglass cloth will work. Glue the whole thing together with PVC cement and you’re done.

It’s a good idea an I recommend it. I wear them when necessary, like when I’m spraying or it’s unavoidable to handle the resin. Normally I don’t because I work clean in a well ventilated shop and actually have very limited exposure to resin.

Urethane Resin shrinks very little, but not zero. Most casting resins shrink as a percentage of the mass. So it’s easier to measure the shrinkage on a large casting. Wax castings can shrink a lot, depending on the kind of wax you’re using. When making prototypes that have to be an exact size it is important to know the shrinkage of your casting material and make the model oversized to account for shrinkage in the casts.

Heat will not do it. You can buy containers of desiccant material that will absorb the moisture from the resin. You attach the desiccant container to the resin jug and it will absorb the moisture out of the resin. You don’t mix the two. The desiccant absorbs through the air. These are more commonly used on 55 gallon barrels of resin because it takes longer to use up so much resin. The reason I own pressure pots is so that I don’t have to worry about the resin absorbing moisture. The pressure pot suppresses the foaming caused by moisture.

The trick to casting a complicated sculpture is to break it into lots of pieces. That way it’s just a bunch of simple easy-to-cast parts.

@@RobertTolone Absolutely--you’re channel has been VERY informative!-however, this sculpt was made before I stumbled across your videos🥲 All new sculpts will be made with casting in mind👍🏼 Thanks!

Hi Karen, that’s a very large subject! Basically they’re just different kinds of plastic. Both come in a very wide variety of formulations and uses. Here’s a sample of the info available on the web: acrylgiessen.com/en/epoxy-vs-resin/

That is awesome! Glad you find my videos useful.

Resin suppliers would be a better source of info on this than I am. The resins I use contain isocyanate which I mitigate using three strategies: lot’s of ventilation. Mask and gloves if there is a possibility of long exposure to the resin. Most importantly, very little actual exposure to resin. The objects I cast are typically small, the runs are very short so I spend only a small fraction of my time every week actually pouring resin.

@@RobertTolone Understood! Thanks for your reply.

I have never tried it but there are people out there doing it. A quick google search for “scented casting resin” got some results like this one: www.bnbglitter.com/listing/810904182/vanilla-scent-additive-for-epoxy

Because it’s too much of a hassle. That falls under the category of work.😳 It’s much easier just to use a pressure pot. Problem solved. 👍😄

Theoretically it’s possible to cast almost anything. It depends on what you want to make. Molding rubber can bond to porous materials like wood and paper so to cast plants you might need an appropriate release agent.

Hi David you can go to my Facebook page and message me there. m.facebook.com/R.Tolone/

Yeah! What’s wrong with those people? 😄😄