[Katherine Swift]

This question comes from Dhiren:

I am absolutely new to resins.

Could you help me

I loved your article on the type of resin to use.

Could you help me determine if resin would be the right material to make a two feet tall pyramid with high gloss? If yes, would polyurethane be the best option considering clarity, strength & weight (lighter the better)?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Dhiren,

Yes, a clear polyurethane would work for your project. If the finished casting was not glossy enough for you, you can polish it with a buffing wheel and the appropriate compound.

It will, however, be quite heavy. I don’t know how it compares to glass, but I can imagine it will be heavy to lift.

[Dhiren]

Thanks Katherine!

I will have to figure out another way in that case to reduce the weight, yet get the same clarity and clear edges for this one.

[Dhiren]

Ok… So I might be getting obsessed indeed with resin 😀

I am making some changes and for that was wondering if I could use resin liquid along with acrylic (sheet for example).

Is it possible to glue or bind epoxy resin and acrylic?

Doing this would likely help me here.

Then, would I be able to also gloss the surface and edges (if resin and acrylic are layered… sort of one on top of other – That is to say I sand both the resin and acrylic sheet thick edge together)?

Many Thanks!

[Katherine Swift]

Hmm. I haven’t used resin and acrylic like this so I can’t tell you what to expect. Resin will also act as a glue, so I have no worries that it won’t hold together. Were you hoping to use power tools to sand and gloss the surface? Many epoxies don’t do well with that. I can’t say about acrylic sheet.

Resin can get heavy too. I’m not sure if the acrylic sheet would hold the weight of resin, etc. without bending if they are thick layers.

[Rhonda]

Have you considered using Lucite panels, like that used for car windows, cut in pyramid shapes? Seams will be visible, don’t know how to prevent that. Devcon 5 minute epoxy seems to work well. This would be lighter than a solid casting, but still heavy. Also, if a 3-sided pyramid, edges would have to be beveled for a smooth seam; a 4-sided pyramid would go together without beveling edges if cut correctly.

[Dhiren]

Well, you did read my mind as I expected 🙂

I did take a quick look at lucite before but seemed not to be what I wanted in the pyramid. Let me check out from the beveling perspective for 3 sided pyramid (which I wanted), plus the Devcon epoxy.

Many thanks!

[Author]

Posts