Osage Orange and resin vessel

[Alan Trout]

Alan thanks for the hint. For my first one, the Ant Pool, I left about an 1/8" and yes I did have a few spots with no resin even though I pressurized it to about 45lbs. Should it be more? I also had the problem of not enough resin in my first pour and had to do a second one. Of course in the second one there were even more areas of voided resin. How do you estimate the proper amount of resin?

James,

Far as figuring volume if more a less an educated guess. I have done it so much that I am rarely more than 4 or 5 oz. off. I use to mathematically figure the volume of the form and the piece as close as possible. Now I have extra resin and pigments ready to mix just in case I do not have enough to fill the form.

Pressure is a sensitive subject and the pressures I use are not for the faint of heart. I never suggest that anyone uses my methods and I will just say the pressures I use are significantly higher than what you are using or that any pots are rated for.

Good Luck

Alan

[Alan Trout]

Everyone,

Thanks, for the compliments. I really appreciate it. The piece of wood and the orientation of the wood is always the determining factor how these pieces turns out. That is the reason that on my burl pieces I hate the term "worthless wood" as there are very few pieces that I find that will fit the criteria that I set to make a piece. I have always said that a big part of the artistry of these pieces is just picking and orienting the piece of wood.

Allen,

I use powdered mica pigments. There are many brands and I have used many different brands. This piece I used Jacquard brand of pigments.

Good Luck

Alan

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful piece Alan. Really nice form and color.

[Jerry Marcantel]

Alan, you did it again. Another beautiful piece.

Got a question. A little explanation first. When I was casting jewlry, I used this stuff called "investment", kind of like cement or plaster. According to instructions, mix it proprtionally with investment to water and stir for two minutes, vaccum for 2 minutes, pour it into flask with objects to be cast, then vaccum again for 2 minutes... Total working time or pot life till hardened was 9-10 minutes depending on invironmental/altitude conditions. I never had any bubbles in any of my castings as the vaccum removed all air from the investment.
Now the question. Could the Allumalite be vaccumed to remove the bubbles generated while mixing, then pour it into the mold, vaccum it to remove air from all the voids you have, release the vaccum, which would cause the allumalite to flow into the voids, then pressurize your pot to cause the resin to find all those voids that the released vaccum didn't fill?... ..... Jerry (in Tucson)

[Alan Trout]

Alan, you did it again. Another beautiful piece.

Got a question. A little explanation first. When I was casting jewlry, I used this stuff called "investment", kind of like cement or plaster. According to instructions, mix it proprtionally with investment to water and stir for two minutes, vaccum for 2 minutes, pour it into flask with objects to be cast, then vaccum again for 2 minutes... Total working time or pot life till hardened was 9-10 minutes depending on invironmental/altitude conditions. I never had any bubbles in any of my castings as the vaccum removed all air from the investment.
Now the question. Could the Allumalite be vaccumed to remove the bubbles generated while mixing, then pour it into the mold, vaccum it to remove air from all the voids you have, release the vaccum, which would cause the allumalite to flow into the voids, then pressurize your pot to cause the resin to find all those voids that the released vaccum didn't fill?... ..... Jerry (in Tucson)

Jerry,

It would probably work with vacuum if you had a pump with a high CFM rating that it could pull it down fast enough. I have a little familiarity with investment and it is thinner than the clear resins that I use. Pressure just allows much faster way to deal with the bubbles in the resin.

Alan

[Scott Hackler]

Yep, another very nice piece! I like the combo and it will be interesting to see how it looks after the Osage Orange ages to brown.

[James Combs]

Alan, you did it again. Another beautiful piece.
Got a question. A little explanation first. When I was casting jewlry, I used this stuff called "investment", kind of like cement or plaster. According to instructions, mix it proprtionally with investment to water and stir for two minutes, vaccum for 2 minutes, pour it into flask with objects to be cast, then vaccum again for 2 minutes... Total working time or pot life till hardened was 9-10 minutes depending on invironmental/altitude conditions. I never had any bubbles in any of my castings as the vaccum removed all air from the investment.
Now the question. Could the Allumalite be vaccumed to remove the bubbles generated while mixing, then pour it into the mold, vaccum it to remove air from all the voids you have, release the vaccum, which would cause the allumalite to flow into the voids, then pressurize your pot to cause the resin to find all those voids that the released vaccum didn't fill?... ..... Jerry (in Tucson)

Jerry, It would probably work with vacuum if you had a pump with a high CFM rating that it could pull it down fast enough. I have a little familiarity with investment and it is thinner than the clear resins that I use. Pressure just allows much faster way to deal with the bubbles in the resin.
Alan

Jerry, I agree with Alan it does work because I have used both vacuum and pressure for small items such as pen blanks. However, the problem I would have with doing something like this using both is timing. The pot life for the resin I use is only a few minutes, there just is not enough time(for me) to mix, pour, vacuum, then pressurize. By the time I got the vacuum going good it would already be setting up then the pressure would not be very effective especially since I am limited to 50psi. A person that could do things faster might be able to do it effectively but everything would have to fall into place without a glitch.

[Roger Chandler]

Major eye candy, Alan!

[Alan Trout]

Again,

Thanks to everyone. I really appreciate all the compliments.

Alan