Nice. Looks very versatile and you can't beat the price. Do you ever find it difficult to center a piece?
I may need to look into getting o e of those in the future. What type of finish will you use on this handle. It looks pretty cool. I like the facets and texture.
I have detailed some of this on this thread already, sorry for the repeat on some of it. Awhile back, @brit asked me to make him an Omega 10098 replica in Green, using an ‘98 knot and hopefully saving the metal band from the original handle. No problem. Well, it took me three blanks to finally get it right. The band proved to be too much to get off and keep perfectly round as well. My strap wrench marked it up too much. The first two blanks had air pockets near the base. One was only short by about an 1/8”. It became the handle in the middle below. Added a Zenith to it. The 2nd blank didn’t work out at all and became the razor stand you see. The 3rd worked out quite well. I think I replicated the ‘98 pretty well. It is quite thin at the top, but so is the original. Makes it a little translucent though, which isn’t a bad thing. The knot is still drying in, I will give it a defunking lather tomorrow and it should start to bloom nicely:
Great work! BTW have you ever tried a vacuum pump to pull the air bubbles out of blanks as they set? I saw a gentleman do that in a video.
I haven’t tried a vacuum pump yet. To be honest, these were the only two I ever had that issue with and the air pockets were down at the bottom of the blanks. I’ve seen DIY vacuum kits, and may try one.
All 3 pieces look fantastic. I thought most people used a pressure pot for casting and vacuum for before they do a poor. I was under the impression that unless you have a really long cure time there wasn't enough time to get all the bubbles out with vacuum and that the bubbles coming out ruined the paterns in many blanks by stirring things up to much. Obviously not a problem with solid colors bit detrimental to two tone castings.
I bought resin that reputed to have pressure or vacuuming not necessary. For the most part, that has been true. I have done a few two tone pours where one blends a bit into the other colour. Has worked well.
Interesting. I had a lot of voids in the resin, linen and metal shavings blanks I made. Luckily because of the brass shavings in one and the aluminum shavings in the other two I was able to easily fill the voids with CA and shavings and it blended perfectly with the blanks. I'd like to try making some more blanks eventually. Do you mind sharing what resin you used, it looks fantastic. I used fiberglass resin on the first and Castin craft on the other two. The Castin craft was easier to turn but no less smelly. If you'd rather not share your secrets I completely understand. Either way Happy turning your work is very inspirational.
I don’t really have any trade secrets. I used Mastercast 1-2-1 for my last few batches. I use Ecopoxy metallic powder for colouring as that is what my local store carries. I have green, blue and coral and sometimes do mix them. I have only made 4 all resin brushes, but have made quite a few resin/wood mixes. I am very much still learning myself, hence the creation of this thread!
How are the fumes on those products when mixing and pouring? They look like they finish quite well how are they for turning. The fiberglass resin was a pain. I definitely won't use that again.
Very low fumes. This particular resin is very hard and sort of brittle when turning. You have to take care not to chip it out. Drills easily enough for the hole. Finishes very, very well though. Mirror finish even without CA (my razor stands are bare). Earlier in the thread I mentioned the Ecopoxy casting resin, which was really inconsistent for me, but turned quite well.
Always tradeoffs I guess. Either easily turns but doesn't finish as well or turns hard but takes a spectacular finish. Didn't use a CA finish on my brush because i like the texture of the linen material in the resin. However I did put CA on my friends brush because he likes the glassy finish.
Wow actuall explosions, my experience was not nearly that negative. But that does make for a great indecent to retell and laugh about.
I wonder if adding paint made a difference. I use a powdered dye and do know there are concentrated liquid versions as well. The paint is maybe adding other ‘stuff’ to the mix as well...
