Turning colored pencils?

[Brian Kent]

There is a video going around of a vase turned from colored pencils cast in resin. Now a lot of my fun-loving friends want me to try one. The first problem is cost of materials: about 360 pencils cost about $50. Then I haven't used cast resin since I was 14 - a long time ago.

If I am dumb enough to try this, what kind of resin or glue & filler would you recommend?

[Jim Meyer]

Tim Yoder Has a video on turning colored pencils. It is not a vase, but may answer some of your questions. Good luck. Jim

[Brian Kent]

Watching the Tim Yoder video. I can see why he recommends gloves!

[Thom Sturgill]

An acquaintance of mine was showing one at some of the symposia about 5 years ago. I can't remember if he said what kind of resin or glue he used.

[Len Mullin]

Brian, you can use the same type of resins, as they use for making pen blanks. I would think any resins that set-up clear would work, I'm thinking of using some Envirotex Lite Pour-On resin type material. I think it's the same type that they use for table tops, it dries clear as glass and polishes up nicely. I don't know when I'll get around to trying this out, I have to find the right type of pencils. There are all kinds of videos on the subject on You-Tube, one person who has turned a lot of vessels made from pencils is Nick ? I can't remember his last name, but his site name on You-Tube is NZwoodturning he has just posted a new video on the subject about 5 hours ago. I haven't watched it yet, but I will when I'm done here. Nick isn't the only one to watch, another fellow who first started posting videos on this subject was Jim Overton, he can be found at jimsons stuff on You-Tube. Even Brendon Stemps videos could be helpful, he does a lot of resin work.

Len

[Dennis Peacock]

so let's see....Envirotex Lite pOur-On and enough colored pencils to do the job....that should be around $130 total. I think I won't even try.

[Scott Hackler]

I have seen that video on Facebook and two observations I had was 1) the importance of centering your work (especially the solid wood in the top) and 2) with a solid dowel through the middle and a barely larger casting form.... it wouldn't take much resin to cast this experiment. I wouldn't attempt it, myself, without Alumilite or such and a pressure pot to ensure no voids.

My Aunt actually set me a message that she saw it and wants me to make her a vase. I told her how it is done and she didn't realize there was more to it than just gluing a bunch of pencils together!

[Brice Rogers]

Brian,

In the SDWT club (San Diego), there is a fellow who has given some classes on using casting resins. His name is Tom Edwards. If you are interested contacting him, PM me and I'll give you his email address and phone number. It is likely that he'll be at the next meeting featuring guest presenter, Stewart Batty.

[John Terefenko]

Silmar41 casting resin or West system Casting epoxy resins with choice of hardeners. Pens are made with colored pencils alot. Buy good quality pencils or the leads will fall out. Also square ones easier to work with.

[Len Mullin]

Dennis, I have no idea where you priced the materials out, but, it didn't cost me nearly as much as you say it should. Yes it was a bit expensive to just get a mid sized dish out of, but, I always expect to pay more when it's anything related to lathe work. All toll, the materials cost me right around fifty dollars, and I won't be using all of the pencils I've purchased. You can purchase the colored pencils at any dollar store, so they're not all that expensive. The Envirotex is the expensive part, but, it doesn't take all that much to make a blank out of. The colored pencils take up most of the space, and the center is a solid piece of wood which won't require any resin. So, all in all, you should only need about twenty ounces if that for a med sized dish. If you watch any of the videos I referred to, you'll see that it doesn't take a lot of resin.
Len

so let's see....Envirotex Lite pOur-On and enough colored pencils to do the job....that should be around $130 total. I think I won't even try.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I've only done one, and I used round, not 6-sided pencils. I think the 6-sided would have been better, but I got the round very inexpensively. As there were gaps, used Bondo epoxy. It is black and I liked the effect. There is a youtube video of a guy doing it with Bondo, so you can see how it was done. In Canada, at least, the Bondo epoxy is much cheaper than the alternatives.