andersonec
Established Member
A friend saw a clock made using pencils and resin on y-tube and asked if I could make one for them, of course says I, they duly bought the pencils and the resin, after cutting the pencils into 40mm lengths, much experimenting and watching a couple of you tube videos I found the best way to line them up was a square box with a piece of Oak in the centre to be used for chucking, I didn't want to force the pencils apart with the chuck.
I got this all sorted, mixed the resin, poured it onto the pencils and spent a few minutes making sure it was well distributed and between all the pencils, it stank the house out for a couple of days until I took it out to the garage, cut the circular blank and mounted it onto the lathe. I was in the process of flattening the back and making a dovetail chucking point when the thing came apart and pieces hurtled across the garage(and it was on a slow speed) luckily I was at the front working on the chucking point and not in direct line with the blank, phew :shock: .
After doing a little research on the resin I concluded that it was the wrong type, I was supplied with Polyester Resin which I have since discovered has almost no bonding/adhesive power, it is used for casting or making free standing items, not bonding two items together, what I should have been using was Epoxy Resin which has powerful adhesive qualities (and no smell problems) but at about twice the price I can see why I was supplied with Polyester Resin.
I have bitten the bullet and forked out to replace the items and will be using the Epoxy Resin this time so if anybody out there has the same idea, please do not use Polyester resin for the job. [-X
Andy
I got this all sorted, mixed the resin, poured it onto the pencils and spent a few minutes making sure it was well distributed and between all the pencils, it stank the house out for a couple of days until I took it out to the garage, cut the circular blank and mounted it onto the lathe. I was in the process of flattening the back and making a dovetail chucking point when the thing came apart and pieces hurtled across the garage(and it was on a slow speed) luckily I was at the front working on the chucking point and not in direct line with the blank, phew :shock: .
After doing a little research on the resin I concluded that it was the wrong type, I was supplied with Polyester Resin which I have since discovered has almost no bonding/adhesive power, it is used for casting or making free standing items, not bonding two items together, what I should have been using was Epoxy Resin which has powerful adhesive qualities (and no smell problems) but at about twice the price I can see why I was supplied with Polyester Resin.
I have bitten the bullet and forked out to replace the items and will be using the Epoxy Resin this time so if anybody out there has the same idea, please do not use Polyester resin for the job. [-X
Andy
