[Katherine Swift]

To attach the hair to the outside of the bead, I would suggest a 5 minute, two-part epoxy. You can find them at hardware stores. Mix up a tiny amount, then use it to adhere the hair to the bead. (Work quickly!) It will then be compatible with another layer of slower curing resin.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Maggie,

I’m sorry to hear your resin is not curing well for you. I have a few questions:

1. What are you casting the resin into?
2. What kind/brand of resin are you using?
3. Are you mixing anything into the resin?

You are correct in that when resin is cold, it may not cure properly. Here are some cold weather casting tips that may help you: https://resinobsession.com/resin-resin-resin/resin-casting-in-cold-weather We have some other troubleshooting tips as well to help: https://resinobsession.com/tag/troubleshooting

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Jackie,

Do you warm up your resin before pouring? That would help. A ‘hot box’ while curing is helpful as well. You can see how to do both in this blog post: https://resinobsession.com/resin-resin-resin/resin-casting-in-cold-weather

As for the yellow tint, how old is your resin?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Alexandra,

I love your attention to detail. It’s thoughtful of you to make sure your earrings are going to look great for years to come.

How flexible are the animals? I ask because while the resin can produce a shell, a hard resin will crack if someone tries to squeeze your animals. A softer curing resin may be a better option.

The other thing I’m concerned with is how well resin is going to stick to your animals. Rubber is used for resin molds because resin won’t stick to it. I don’t know if a coat of paint is going to be enough to allow the resin to stick.

Have you tried clear coat acrylic sprays as a sealer?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Pat,

A few comments regarding your situation.

1. I have had good luck with ‘like adhering to like’, even if they were different brands. For example, I have used one brand’s epoxy on another brand’s epoxy and have not had problems with things adhering. From what I know about polyester and epoxy, I would expect it to work there too, assuming the first layer had completely cured. I haven’t specifically tried this though, so proceed with caution.

2. As for the wood, epoxy would be my choice to use in this project. Polyester resin will shrink too much after curing. It may even shrink so much it doesn’t stick to the wood! Polyurethanes can be used with wood, but your wood will need to be dry and sealed first. Polyurethanes hate moisture.

3. As for ‘seamlessly’, yes, they will attach, but a seam may show depending on how you color it, if you color it, etc. Pouring the next layer while the first layer is curing will minimize the seam.

Good luck!

[Diane]

Hi, I have questions. When making a piece that involves several layers of resin, which require fully curing each layer before adding the next, would you wear a ventilator mask during the entire process? If you want to draw on a fully cured layer or apply some kind of artwork to it with pen or brush, still need to wear a ventilator mask while doing that? Thanks.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Bev,

If you are referring to a two part resin (not a UV activated resin), then no, the Part A will not cure on its own. It needs the Part B hardener mixed with it to create heat. That heat is what causes curing.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Matt,

If you are using epoxy resin for your wood pieces, it will not withstand the heat of a belt sander. Unfortunately, the softening you see happens pretty commonly. Polyester resin cures hard enough for use with rotary tools, but the shrinkage after curing generally makes it unsuitable for use with wood. Your best bet would be a polyurethane resin.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Lori,

What happened is that the resin cured next to the wax paper. Wax paper is great in that resin doesn’t stick to it, but it does leave this mark. You can try recoating with another layer of resin, but you will most likely see the frosty surface underneath. You can try sanding the surface with a wet/dry sandpaper. Start with a 400 grit and work your way down to a 1000 grit or higher paper. You can recoat with resin then and should not be able to see the blemish.

It’s good that you want to cover your pieces during curing as dirt and dust will get into it in no time! In the future, I would suggest using plastic domes (large food containers or plastic totes work well) to cover your pieces.

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Misty,

There could be a few things going on here. First and foremost, you need to be sure you measure accurately and mix thoroughly. You also need to mix the appropriate minimum (based upon the resin you are using) to make sure enough heat is generated to induce curing. I don’t know how thin your resin layers are, but thin layers can also be a bigger challenge to cure since the heat is spread out over a large area.

Assuming all the above things were done correctly, my next suspicion is that the acrylic paint kept the resin from curing. Resin hates moisture! The powdered metal and Pearl Ex are not likely the problem as they are dry powders.

Every resin is different in its cure times, mixing minimums, etc., so it wouldn’t be a bad idea either to make sure you have all the basics covered.

We have some other troubleshooting articles as well that may give you some other ideas on what to do differently: https://resinobsession.com/tag/troubleshooting

[Katherine Swift]

This is a response my friend Charlie who has a lot more experience than I do working with wood and resin:

I haven’t really fixed in my head what he’s going for yet, but a few things come to mind as I read it..

I’m not sure about the cellophane part, so I can’t really comment on that. And when he talks about layering, he’s right to mention a ‘clear pour’ .. if there’s anything in the resin (like glitter) it will probably highlight the line between layers.

I don’t know that I’d ‘scuff up’ the resin before layering .. the resin will either bond or it won’t. Scuffing won’t really help and could show up as a line.

Bubbles .. the bane of our existence!
I know many casters who quote Boyle’s law and think they’re going to compress the air bubbles in the resin till they’re invisible.. but it just won’t happen without some heavy duty commercial equipment.

Most pressure pots available to consumers are rated in the 50-60psi range .. or 3.5 to 4 atmospheres. That means that even if you push the pressure up as high as safely permissible, those are bubbles are about 1/4 their original size. That’s still highly visible.

So rather than look for ways to hide the air bubbles, I’d be looking for ways to stop them from occurring in the first place.

I’m not sure if the air is getting mixed in because of vigorous stirring or perhaps there is a chemical reaction going on because of incomplete curing of the sealer. Just because the sealer is dry doesn’t mean it is ‘cured’ .. often finishes can take a month or more to fully cure, and during that time they can (they will! ) release gasses and be vulnerable to chemical reaction. There could also be incompatible materials under the resin besides the sealer.

Vacuum can only help so much in clearing bubbles. It is better than nothing, but not ideal. It does make the bubbles larger and easier to pop. But thinking that it makes them rise faster because there’s “more air” in them is incorrect, too. (Boyle’s law, again) Under vacuum, those bubbles still contain the same amount of mass, it is simply spread out over more area.

He mentions ‘driving the epoxy into the wood’ when using pressure.. but that should only be a concern if the sealer isn’t cured yet. Once hardened, we’re not talking about so much pressure that it would penetrate a cured finish. (unless he’s using some high pressure equipment)

If I were trying this, I’d use my old stand-by routines.. fully cured finish on the wood (even if it takes 4-6 weeks!) gentle stirring and a gently warmed resin so it flows and the bubbles (if any) are free to rise to the top.
But .. not seeing the project, maybe I’m all wrong, too!

[Clinton Gallagher @tapABILITIES]

Jerry, fill those three drilled mounting holes with modeling clay to keep them free of resin.

Katherine is right about bonding to metal although I would suggest also drilling several little 1/16″ or 3/32″ holes as sanding in that little space will hepl a bit but you want to allow the resin to seep into the little holes you drill to “key” the resin to the piece creating a sturdy friction fit which will impose resistance to airflow and drag over the piece that may otherwise suck the resin out of the piece during flight if it were just sanded up a bit which would only be neccessary in circumstances where extrenal forces are not involved.

IMO I would not POUR the resin into the piece. I suggest buying those little white plastic mixing stick paddles Katherine sells and using the paddle end to DRIP the resin into place (nd toothpicks too) giving you complete control of how much resin you use to control your dome and also using the tip of the paddle and toothpick to help the resin flow into corners, tight spaces and your key holes.

I might argue a bit and suggest using polyester resin as you may not want a dome on the finsihed piece which may remain after the cure because polyester shrinks into a convex (or flat) top surface when curing so if using polyester resin you dome when wet and it will flatten out during the cure. This is a but touch and go. Google: polyester resin vs alumilite and watch some YouTube videos. Katherine sells a polyester from CastinCraft as I recall and it too can be made opaque my only point being if you really want the resin to dome after cured which may conflict with the prominance of B55 which I somehow have the thought you want to remain prominent.

Either way because you are going to DRIP you can retain complete control of how much resin enters the void and simply hold back from filling to the top surface of the B55 characters. A very thin layer of resin will work just as well because you are key locking the resin to the piece.

[Katherine Swift]

Safer in what way? The finished product? When mixing polyurethanes, they can more dangerous than epoxy as some require special breathing equipment.

Polyurethane is going to drip as well. You can try a quick curing polyurethane, but you have to be ready to brush it and keep your piece moving. You may still have some drips, but at least you will do less babysitting of your resin. 🙂

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Kathie,

For this project, I would not use a polyester resin. The surface exposed to air during curing will remain tacky, so it’s one more step to have to deal with. I also not aware of a ‘small scale crafting’ acrylic resin for your project. That leaves an epoxy for your table. I would use the Resin Obsession artwork resin. You can buy it in our store here: https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/resin/resin-obsession-artwork-resin

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Kim,

Two things that might give you trouble:

1. I don’t know how well the plastic will tolerate the heat of the resin curing. If you want to try, I would cast it somewhere you can easily capture a mess should the resin eat through the plastic.

2. A mold release is definitely necessary for casting in this. Even then, I don’t know if you will be able to get it out. You can see what happened when I tried casting resin in a thin plastic soap mold: https://resinobsession.com/molds-mold-making/casting-resin-in-a-soap-mold

As for what you can do with it, I can see it being a neat looking light pull. You could also try drilling it so that you could use it to string lights. Imagine drilling horizontally through the base, then drilling perpendicular to that up through the bulb. Maybe then you could pass Christmas tree lights through them to help light them up. If you are only casting a ‘half’ light bulb, you could put a light behind it.