Pen Casting Didn't "Stick"

[Royce Meritt]

I need some advice. Here's what I did...

I printed out a pattern on "water-slide" decal paper. Cut the decal to size to wrap around the pen tubes. All good so far. Plugged the ends of the tubes and put the now decal wrapped pen tubes in my silicone pen casting molds and cast them using Alumilite. Again, so far so good. Everything came out looking good.

The first couple, when I attempted to square up the ends of my now cured castings using a pen mill, I got a "catch" and the clear casting appeared to "flex" enough to pull the casting resin away from the decal leaving a "cloudy" look. No problem. The next ones I carefully squared up the ends using a disk sander. Again, so far so good.

Next, when I mounted the pen tube blanks on my pen mandrel and apply just a bit of pressure to snug them up, the pen bushings appear to again cause just a bit of "flex" in the Alumilite casting to cause it to pull away from the pen tube.

In a nutshell, the casting doesn't appear to adhere securely enough to the water-slide decal to really "stick".

Any thoughts on how to make this work? Thanks.

[Dan Hintz]

Are you putting Mod-Podge or some other sealant over the decal?

[Royce Meritt]

Are you putting Mod-Podge or some other sealant over the decal?

No. Only the "fixative" that is sprayed on the decals after printing.

[Bruce Pratt]

Don't know if it will work, but you might try spraying your decals, after adhering to the brass, with a very light coat of Krylon or some other clear aerosol finish. This may provide a better bonding surface for the Alumilite than the naked decal.

[Dennis Collier]

I would agree that you need to oat them with something before casting. I got into casting snake blanks for a little while and a heavy coat of CA on the skins before casting worked for me.

Also, if your gonna use bushings, be very careful with the pressure applied to the end of the blanks especially with Alumilite as its much softer than many other resins. I turn pen between centers. No bushings. Mandrels and bushings cost a lot of headaches.