Thread: Makin' Shavings / Turner's Projects.

Originally Posted by Gasman

I thought about this. Not sure im ready to do that yet. But id be interested in what can be done without a pot.

Post a link or give me a clue.

The following are all poured without a pot using Liquid Diamonds resin.





These are just some I have a few pen blanks in the shop that I made without a pressure pot I will snap a photo of them when I get back in there. It alone will bring your cost on pen blanks to cents instead of dollars.
I was paying $10-$20 for hybrid brush/bottle stopper blanks and brought it down to $2-4

Those brush n bowl sets are really impressive. Nice work indeed

My experience with non pressure pot urethane is limited to Bar top type pours and the like.
I use both vacuum and or pressure depending on the work, both for bubble expulsion or compression, but also to ensure better bonding to the substrates in a fusion cast type project. I wonder if your knit lines, where the two come together are strong? I get fairly terrific bleed through, into the cells and fibers of the wood when using vacuum, or pressure processes.
I’d worry that really hard word/epoxy blends might not resist drops and the like?

Aside from all that possibly unnecessary caution above, those bowls and brushes look fantastic. Your pearl adds, and color choices, very attractive.

Nice work for sure. I know little to nothing of the varying processes. At some point my shop will get bigger and I will get a wood lathe.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

My experience with non pressure pot urethane is limited to Bar top type pours and the like.
I use both vacuum and or pressure depending on the work, both for bubble expulsion or compression, but also to ensure better bonding to the substrates in a fusion cast type project. I wonder if your knit lines, where the two come together are strong? I get fairly terrific bleed through, into the cells and fibers of the wood when using vacuum, or pressure processes.
I’d worry that really hard word/epoxy blends might not resist drops and the like?

Aside from all that possibly unnecessary caution above, those bowls and brushes look fantastic. Your pearl adds, and color choices, very attractive.

In my research into casting, I have found that the different types of resin have different bonding properties. For example, I have done some work with carbon fiber for fishing rod handles and have made a couple of shave brushes using the same process and the resin for that process If I remember correctly was a urethane resin that had little to no bonding properties whereas epoxy resins have better bonding properties.

I do use a pressure pot for aluminite resin because of the cure time it is needed for compression whereas the liquid diamonds have a much longer open time and is less viscous so the bubbles have more of a chance to escape. I believe that pressure would do little to nothing for increasing the bond strength, Vacuum dose draw the liquid into the fibers, but the viscosity of casting resins would hinder that I think it would only remove bubbles from it. The thinner stabilizing resins like cactus juice are a different animal.

Which brings to mind stabilized wood? That most of the guys/gals making these blanks Are using is the bond stronger or weaker when considering stabilized wood that is no longer porous. I don't know, but we are talking about pens brushes and boxes, so Just how strong would it need to be.

Alumilite makes some awesome chemicals. I have used their various duro meters of rubber in industry, and their clear casting resins for a bunch of brush and scale creations at home.
Look forward to revisiting the stuff before my existing stock kicks over all by itself..

My first lidded box. At least that is what they call it. I call it a bowl but...


And a few more pens....

Nice bowl and lid Jerry.
The pens look good too.
You guys make me want a place to put a lathe. And a lathe of course.

Nice!! What will you put in your new box!!

Originally Posted by RezDog

Nice bowl and lid Jerry.
The pens look good too.
You guys make me want a place to put a lathe. And a lathe of course.

This was my first lathe, I bought it at harbor freight for around 125.00 back in 2007/8.
Back then I used to bring it out in the yard when I wanted to use it. (The sole reason I chose it) It is variable speed. That is a feature most new lathes all have.

I still have it and use it from time to time. It makes a good small Item lathe.
I made a chess set with it recently and a couple of shave brushes in the chess piece style. It can make a 4–5-inch bowl with little effort. (Given the right attachments.)
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Harbor freight discontinued it. But the 8x13 lathe from Wen a carbon is copy. The only problem it won't be long before you want a bigger one.