Fast Cast Degassing

[AdamG]

Hi Guys,

Anyone know if these below products work well with vacuum degassing?

Called both companies and neither were able to advise

http://www.resin-supplies-shop.com/epag ... ducts/FRP2

and Smoot Cast 305

http://www.benam.co.uk/products/plastic ... -cast-300/

Failing that… anyone know of a resin that has pot life of between 6 and 10 mins and demoed of 30mins or less that will be happily vacuumed?

Cheers

Adam

[Fleafa]

I degas with vacuum and have used both. Go with the Smooth-On.

[mangozac]

I'm not aware of any rigid polyurethane products that won't vacuum degas, so unless they're something exotic I'm sure both will be fine. As Fleafa stated, the Smooth Cast will definitely be fine (I've used it before).

[Fleafa]

Apologies for my previous brief reply, was in a rush

Neither will demould in 30 mins for miniatures. You're probably looking around 40mins, to be honest. My recommendation is 305 in summer, 300 in winter. The ABL Stevens stuff is decent, but Smooth-On blows it out of the water as far a post-cure working properties go. Almost like a hard injection plastic where the ABLS stuff is more brittle.
I buy the big container from Smooth-On and decant it into 2x6 wide-mouth HDPE bottles I bought on eBay. This minimises the exposure to air. Even the 'working' bottles keep well as the surface exposed to air is small compared with the container in which it is supplied. The ABLS stuff seems to have a shorter open shelf life.
Smooth-On charge a premium anyway, but their trial packs are EXPENSIVE! At the larger size, the price becomes more reasonable, and certainly reflects the difference in quality.

Trial price/kg inc. delivery:
ABLS: £17.03 (2 kg)
S-O: £35.58 (.86 kg)

Decent size price/kg inc. delivery:
ABLS: £11.33 (10 kg)
S-O: £17.30 (7 kg)

[AdamG]

Cheers Guys,

I've ordered some 305.

The biggest issue I was having is that I've just upgraded the vacuum chamber to a 26L capacity.

We can get full vacuum in around 70 seconds, but by the time you've mixed, poured, loaded up the chamber and got to full vacuum its around 2 and half mins.

The pot life of the resin I'm currently using is 3 mins so I don't have enough time to fully degas and return to normal pressure before its starts to gel. Outcome being that I'm stuck with massive air bubbles

Hopefully the extra few minuets of pot life on the 305 will let me degas fully.

Cheers

[Fleafa]

I've degassed 305 prior to pouring and then again once in the mould. No trouble

[AdamG]

Great stuff, some 305 should be arriving today.

Am going to do as you say. Degass after mixing, then pour and degas mould.

Cheers

[Fleafa]

Great. I hope you have success!

[AdamG]

WOW! 305 is rather nifty

Those extra couple of mins pot life has transformed the castings.

As you say, de-mould is more like 40mins for 28mm figs but thats only 10mins longer than the resin I was using.

I'm a 100% Smooth On convert now. All their products I've tried now ( Silicone and resin) work perfectly. As you say trial packs can be a bit pricey but the Gallon sized products are pretty competitive really, and the quality and speed at which they work are worth the extra couple of quid.

Cheers!

[Fleafa]

BOOM! Great

Which silicones have you used? I've not tried any of them and have run out of my regular.

[AdamG]

Mold Star 16 Fast:

http://www.benam.co.uk/products/silicon ... mold-star/

Fantastic stuff.