Does anyone have an idea on how to thin out old pigments (2-3 yrs old)from getting thick and becomming seperated from not being used. Has the chem. properties in these pigments started breaking down and thus cannot rejuvinated. I do notice that they have lost their deep color and seem dull. Has anyone ever have this same problem. Your thoughts would be great help. Roger
Does anyone have an idea on how to thin out old pigments (2-3 yrs > old)from getting thick and becomming seperated from not being used. Has > the chem. properties in these pigments started breaking down and thus > cannot rejuvinated. I do notice that they have lost their deep color and > seem dull. Has anyone ever have this same problem. Your thoughts would be > great help. Roger The vehicle that pigments are suspended in is unknown to me, but is is very neutral. Thinning with styrene is a short term solution, as it reacts with the pigment and further speeds up the deterioration. Acetone evaporates off too fast, laquerer thinner seems to work very well, although it comes in several temperature ranges. The summer type (slow) is not what to use, something in the make up slows down resin radically. Cold weather thinners works best, cuts the worst of set up old pigment and doesn’t effect the gel and cure time of the resin. I also use it to desolve wax to make surfacing agent.
i’ve used some old surfshade pigment. when testing the yellow one i found that it totally screwed up the curing, it never set up. be sure to test anything you plan to use. i would suggest buying some new, most of the problems with fading (yellow tints) and the weird reds can be overcome if you buy (or mix) the right stuff.
The long term solution has a larger initial investment, but it could keep you from having to return to the pigment store every six months. Go to an art supply store and buy powdered colors with no medium. Then mix powdered color into your resin as you need it. A big bonus to this method is that you can mix powdered colors into virtually any medium. You don’t have to buy ten quarts in different colors of acrylic paint or lacquer either. You don’t have to waste space and money storing all these paints as they go bad. Just buy base medium as you need it and mix your colors. Powdered colors are to colored paints as MP3 is to 45 RPM records. Just keep your powder dry.
The long term solution has a larger initial investment, but it could keep > you from having to return to the pigment store every six months. Go to an > art supply store and buy powdered colors with no medium. Then mix powdered > color into your resin as you need it.>>> A big bonus to this method is that you can mix powdered colors into > virtually any medium. You don’t have to buy ten quarts in different colors > of acrylic paint or lacquer either. You don’t have to waste space and > money storing all these paints as they go bad. Just buy base medium as you > need it and mix your colors.>>> Powdered colors are to colored paints as MP3 is to 45 RPM records. Just > keep your powder dry. I bought a black dry powdered pigment at the commercial paint supply, I was using it for colored glue-ups. The only PROBLEM was it completely killed the catalyst, the batch would NOT go off at all! When I lived in Rhode Island, I got a sub job from the local Catholic church to build a new spire and cross for them. It was lammed with mat and gel coated white, with the cross to be gold. I went to an industrial supply co. and got “gold” powder, it was bronze powder I believe. It was fine enough to go into a nice solution in the finish resin. Here’s the clincher, the instant I added any catalyst to the batch, it would gel in less that 15 seconds, even a few drops would make it bang. The only solution was to apply it in the shade and roll it into the sun, it would kick in only a few minutes this way. The sun burned the wax off, but a clear coat fixed that. Resins are promoted with DMA (dimethel anylene) and cobalt, a heavy metal, used to cure resins and printing inks. The bronze powder must have acted as an additional promoter, so anytime an additve is put into resin, a test batch shouold be tried first. I’ve used automotive colorants for laqueres, they slow down resin, but resin is pretty forgiving. What do you have to lose, ha ha haaaaaa!!!