Post by Stu on Jul 29, 2019 9:57:01 GMT -5
I got the Alumilite water clear a little over a year ago to make some decorative parts for my furniture.
First I tried to just cast some clear parts in a latex mold.
I have tried everything to make this stuff work. I've tried heating the mold, the epoxy, the separate parts, and baking once poured as well as no heat. I've tried vacuum and pressure chambers after pour, before pour, before mixing, after mixing... I've tried clear, I've tried adding Dyes, I've tried latex molds, rubber molds and teflon molds, I've tried pouring thin pieces and thick pieces, I've dried heat guns, blow torches, and butane torches, I've gone through two full 32 ox bottles trying different methods, and ways to make this shit work and I have yet to have anything I would call even close to success. My shop is climate controlled and clean. I work with all kinds of materials and methods in a high end luxury woodworking industry. So I'm used to figuring out different things pretty quickly and proficiently.
I can see obviously it works for some people so I'm not going to trash the product or company completely. But.... this isn't the first epoxy I have used. I used various structural epoxies pretty regularly with my work and I have NEVER had such issues as I have with this stuff.
It never cures fully... always stays semi flexible, it never cure without bubbles and sometimes the bubbles are so extreme I end up with something closer to foam than resin. I'm writing this in one last ditch effort to try to make this stuff work before I pitch these bottles and never buy anything from this company again.
I have two basic things I'd like to be able to do with this.
1- Crystal clear, rock hard casting parts. - so far I have just gotten very bubbly and semi hard unusable parts
2 - I'd like to mix some alcohol dyes and mica powders in sheets to create my own inlay material (must cure very hard and self level). - it seems no matter what I mix with this stuff it will look great when wet, but when I come back a day later it has completely bubbled up and become very wavy and unusable because of the color additives.
First I tried to just cast some clear parts in a latex mold.
I have tried everything to make this stuff work. I've tried heating the mold, the epoxy, the separate parts, and baking once poured as well as no heat. I've tried vacuum and pressure chambers after pour, before pour, before mixing, after mixing... I've tried clear, I've tried adding Dyes, I've tried latex molds, rubber molds and teflon molds, I've tried pouring thin pieces and thick pieces, I've dried heat guns, blow torches, and butane torches, I've gone through two full 32 ox bottles trying different methods, and ways to make this shit work and I have yet to have anything I would call even close to success. My shop is climate controlled and clean. I work with all kinds of materials and methods in a high end luxury woodworking industry. So I'm used to figuring out different things pretty quickly and proficiently.
I can see obviously it works for some people so I'm not going to trash the product or company completely. But.... this isn't the first epoxy I have used. I used various structural epoxies pretty regularly with my work and I have NEVER had such issues as I have with this stuff.
It never cures fully... always stays semi flexible, it never cure without bubbles and sometimes the bubbles are so extreme I end up with something closer to foam than resin. I'm writing this in one last ditch effort to try to make this stuff work before I pitch these bottles and never buy anything from this company again.
I have two basic things I'd like to be able to do with this.
1- Crystal clear, rock hard casting parts. - so far I have just gotten very bubbly and semi hard unusable parts
2 - I'd like to mix some alcohol dyes and mica powders in sheets to create my own inlay material (must cure very hard and self level). - it seems no matter what I mix with this stuff it will look great when wet, but when I come back a day later it has completely bubbled up and become very wavy and unusable because of the color additives.
