I’ve been working on a scale model project where I embed a figure inside a block of resin. It needs to be a cylinder, but I’m thinking it would be easier to cast in a square form and lathe it round. It’s a ton easier to find/make square molds than perfect cylinders.
But I’m new to resin casting, and the goal is to have this thing be crystal clear. Is that possible?
@pconklin2000 I hear from Nick that you might also have some experience with this? @hayek I saw in another thread that you’ve been doing something like this?
Yes, you can get crystal-clear resin results. How big is the figure you want to embed? Do you want it suspended in the middle of clear resin?
Depending on how many finished pieces you need - it’s easier/cheaper to make your own molds. I use PVC for my pool cues but again it depends on how big your figure is - round is easier to cut down but square or rectangle are not much harder.
Also, for crystal clear you’ll want to use a pressure chamber to eliminate air bubbles. There is one in the shop - if your piece fits, the bucket is 12"x15" - I’m happy to show you how to use it.
Hi @jakemckee – casting & turning is very much doable, but to offer a couple words of warning:
No matter how clear the casting is at the beginning, the resin will yellow over time as it absorbs light. Some people will add a tiny drop of blue dye to fight that effect, although I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t vouch for how well it works.
When you turn an embedded object, the resin effectively forms a lens. That in turn distorts the image of the object so you get some funny effects. Here’s my own attempt from a long while back and you can see how it changed Bruce’s face:
It may not make a big difference depending on the object you’re embedding, but just a heads-up
When I’m pouring the resin, I’ve got it down pretty well with one exception… the “lip” at the top of the pour where the resin sorta creeps up the sides (I’ve been using acrylic as walls, which works really well). I can cut down the excessive material to a point, but going much further is a problem. To get a full flat top on my dioramas, I can’t just sand flat and then try to buff back because there’s so much other stuff sticking out the top. Is there a trick to reducing and/or fixing this problem?
