My first casting with resin.....

[mopar01lee]

ok its a lill harder than i thought but im starting to get the hang of things ....

here is the first few sets i made till they got better.....

and a hole lot ov em ..lol

still got some learing to do ..

later days ...davin

[Ben]

Sprinkle some baby powder on your mold halves and then pat them against your hand so that the baby powder gets into all the crevices. Then place your mold halves together. Pour your resin in and "flick" the sides of the mold. This will jar the air bubbles loose and cause them to float to the surface. The baby powder causes capillary action and will help to "pull" the resin down into the small voids. Hope this helps.

[SuperStockAndy]

Nice. I wish my first one came out that good!

[mopar01lee]

thanks .. thfirst set was the paint method.., an i use powder . it was getting the mix right at first cuz i do such a small batch at a time .

but thanks for the tip ... i have done a few carbs an a set of centerline big an littles .. came out ok

[Lunajammer]

Sprinkle some baby powder on your mold halves and then pat them against your hand so that the baby powder gets into all the crevices. Then place your mold halves together.

Looks to me like he's using one-piece molds. If you don't want to buy a vacuum pump to suck the air out, you could try putting them in a strong sealed box and for a moment hook your vacuum cleaner hose to it. Might at least get the big bubbles out.

[Ben]

Looks to me like he's using one-piece molds. If you don't want to buy a vacuum pump to suck the air out, you could try putting them in a strong sealed box and for a moment hook your vacuum cleaner hose to it. Might at least get the big bubbles out.

Actually, that would make things ten times worse! Putting resin under vacuum will pull so much air out of the resin that it will actually foam up. You have to put resin under pressure to properly remove air. The silicone mold material should be the only thing that is placed under vacuum.

[Ben]

thanks .. thfirst set was the paint method.., an i use powder . it was getting the mix right at first cuz i do such a small batch at a time .

but thanks for the tip ... i have done a few carbs an a set of centerline big an littles .. came out ok

When I was mixing up tiny batches for small parts, I would buy the cheap little measuring cups for taking medicine. They are only about an inch tall, clear and have measurements molded on the side. Makes it really easy to see how much you have in each cup. After you use them, you can just throw them away.

[Lunajammer]

Actually, that would make things ten times worse! Putting resin under vacuum will pull so much air out of the resin that it will actually foam up. You have to put resin under pressure to properly remove air. The silicone mold material should be the only thing that is placed under vacuum.

You're not wrong Ben, but I'll have to partially disagree with you. Since Davin is only taking his first baby steps across the threshold, we won't get into compressors and pressure pots. Vacuum will indeed foam the resin if you leave it huffing long enough to let it happen, which is why I said to do it only momentarily with a simple set up. But pressure isn't going to crush the kind of air gaps I'm seeing on his rims. Suck 'em out. Vacuum is not just for RTV.

[RodneyBad]

On One piece molds, you could use a long Stick pin to push out the air bubbles.

That's what I do

It's best to cast with out color so ya can see the bubbles.

[1320wayne]

I am by no means a master at this but here is what I do.

Heat the mold in the microwave before pouring the resin.

Sprinkle the powder onto the mold and shake off the excess.

Apply the resin to the mold using a syringe (minus the needle) this allows you to get resin into hard to reach places.

Use toothpicks to pop any known air bubbles before the resin sets up. Sand the end of the toothpicks flat or else the sharp end could eventually damage your mold.

And a couple of best practices that will help you to keep from wasting valuable resin. If you are pouring a deeper one piece mold you can try to pour the piece in segments. Also, after your piece sets up and you think it's ready to pop out of the mold pry the mold open first and check to see if the part is fully poured. This works really good with wheels to check to see if the top edge of the wheel poured successfully. If you see that the part didn't fully cast then pour some extra resin from a new batch into the mold to finish the piece. So far I have never had any issues with new resin attaching to semi cured resin.

Hope this helps.

[crazyjim]

I've been using eyedroppers that I get from Walgreen's (for free) to put the resin into the molds. Works great for me.