Five Things NOT To Do When Casting With Resin

One of the best ways to get good at casting with resin is to push it to its limit.

Said another way, push it to fail.

You’ll learn more from your resin mistakes than your successes.

Or even better — you can learn more from MY resin mistakes.

Like the day I used polyester resin and didn’t follow the basic resin rules I spend so much of my time evangelizing.

That’s why I’m sharing why ignoring my own advice wasted what should have been a beautiful afternoon crafting with resin.

Mistake #1:  Cast resin when you don’t give yourself enough time.

I wanted to pour resin outside because polyester resin smells worse than a post-practice high school football team in a farting contest. It was about 4 PM in January, and I knew I would only have another 60 minutes of daylight and warmth to work the resin, which I thought would be plenty of time. So I prepped mixing cups with a toothpick of color from my resin pigments.

 

I wanted enough polyester resin to put in 25 cups, so I poured as much resin as possible into a 10-ounce mixing cup.

What I should have done: Waited until I had double the time needed for this project. After estimating 1 hour, I should have budgeted two hours to cast resin. Ultimately, that means I wouldn’t have even started this project on this day and time.

Mistake #2:  Mix more resin than you can use in the pot time.

I wanted about 1/3 ounce of resin into each color cup. That meant I needed about 9 ounces of resin (total) for this resin experiment. And I decided to mix all the resin at once.

{NOT SO} fun fact — the pot time of polyester resin is 7 to 10 minutes. And here I thought I was going to mix, pour and color that resin twenty-five shades of amazingness in that time.

What I should have done: Mixed the resin in two to three batches for casting instead of one big batch.

Mistake #3:  Add extra hardener to speed up curing.

While it was in the upper 70s F, I knew it wouldn’t last as sunset approached. The resin kit directions said to add 6 to 8 drops of hardener.

But, I wanted it to warm quickly to start curing before the afternoon temperature cooled down.

If a little is good, scads must be superior.

What I should have done: Used the right amount of hardener and tried another way to get resin to cure quicker.

Mistake #4:  Be unorganized (or too lazy) to get the right tools for the project.

I took two to three minutes to pour the resin into the cups.

(That’s about 20 to 30% of the pot time going POOF.)

Then, I stirred with toothpicks instead of stirring sticks. The stirring sticks would have worked better because they mix color faster and with fewer bubbles. But, I didn’t have them close by and didn’t want to waste pot time looking for them.

It wasn’t long before I realized my resin was thickening. Then, I started mixing the resin like I was a Dr. Seuss line cook scrambling eggs.

What I should have done: Gathered my supplies together before mixing resin instead of winging it in a moment of panic.

Mistake #5:  Thinking I could beat the clock on a resin’s pot time.

At this point, I had to ask my assistant, (that guy who promised to love me through eternity in situations like this), to help me with mixing and casting the resin. But we couldn’t get all the resin colors mixed before it looked like we failed cooking class by trying to demold gelatin before it was set.

What I should have done: Not thinking I was ALL THAT because the resin always wins.

 

My consolation prize was seeing how gorgeous the Resin Obsession epoxy pigments look in polyester resin.

Wondering what else not to do when casting resin?

Then you will want a copy of my ebook, Resin Fundamentals.  I’ve condensed my sixteen years of resin experience into an easy-to-read book. You’ll get the crucial details you need to know to be successful with resin on day one! Buy the PDF book now, and you get a download link in your email inbox in minutes.

Unpublished Blog Posts of Resin Obsession, LLC © 2023 Resin Obsession, LLC