Can anyone recommend a superior casting resin. Looking for crystal glass clear quality for casting wood skegs/fins. I’ve experimented with different brands and countless variations of humidity, temp, thinning /no thinning, different brands of acetone, wide range of catalyst ratios, etc. and have had results ranging up to satisfactory, but still searching for excellence. Thought maybe someone had been through a similar curve and might have landed on a primo product to recommend. Thanks much.
Its been some time back but I was making one of those redwood burl clocks. I used the casting resin that Tap Platic sold. It work out great for me. It was a two part use one to one. Kinda price as I recall. Good luck.
You can get stuff at craft shops, even some walmarts, called ‘envirotex - lite’ or ‘crystal sheen’. Both are super clear, super gloss finish epoxy resins for light casting.
Thanks Wildy, I’m not a glasser so I’m not checked out, but can you still glass with poly resin over the epoxy casting resin you mentioned?
I’m not sure what you want to do with your fins. If you want to seal them before laminating onto a board using poly resin, just use lam resin, letting it soak and cure, a couple of coats if you are worried about air bleed. If you are making a display type fin, then this stuff would be excellent, as it can be sanded and recoated. I don’t guarantee how poly would bond to it, as I’ve never tried with this stuff. Epoxy to poly is good, but the other way around occasionally has problems.
Dick Blick makes a polyester casting resin that may solve some bonding issues.
http://www.dickblick.com/zz335/20/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=2061
Never used it, but was researching for an idea I was going to try for a clear bead around a plywood fin.
After cutting out my shape I was gonna cut a 1/4"-1/2" slot centered along the outline and fill it with the casting resin. When I foil the fin it should leave a nice clear bead all the way around and be fairly hard.
Like I said just a thought I had, not sure if it would work or not.