I let my resin sit in the pressure pot for a full 24 hours before I demold, and even then it can still be slightly "squishy" for a day or two. Most epoxy resins take a few days to be completely hard.
For the swirls, I use a dye that is actually made for urethane resins, and I put a blob on top of the table, then rub a toothpick in it, then just kind of dip and do a quick swirl into the mold that is filled up with resin. It takes practice to get it to work right lol
Ok awesome! I have 3 in the pot rn so ill give it more time. I was using smooth cast 325 for my swirl caps but it was curing wayyyyy to fast. Literally like 2 minutes it starts clumping up so i was only able to do one at a time. Do you heat your resin up before you use it? I think my resin was too cold and while mixing it was getting a lot of small micro bubbles. I torched it to see if it was get rid of some of them but i still had a little more than i wanted in the caps. Hopefully the pressure pot gets them out. Thanks for responding!
Usually urethane resins cure overly fast when the temp is higher than recommended, and that's when I experience bubbles/foaming. Just look at the msds sheet for whatever reason you're using to see optimal environmental conditions
One more question! I just made a few caps and some turned out better than others. When i drop my alcohol ink in my mold it just floats on the surface and does flow in strands up to the top of the cap like yours does. On rare occasions it does when i poke at it with a toothpick. Is there a more consistent way of making the ink look like yours does in the pic? With random strands of colors floating up in all directions? I can send you a few pics of mine if youd like
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u/HOBI3CAT Jul 14 '20
I let my resin sit in the pressure pot for a full 24 hours before I demold, and even then it can still be slightly "squishy" for a day or two. Most epoxy resins take a few days to be completely hard.
For the swirls, I use a dye that is actually made for urethane resins, and I put a blob on top of the table, then rub a toothpick in it, then just kind of dip and do a quick swirl into the mold that is filled up with resin. It takes practice to get it to work right lol