So I'm working at a heavy equipment manufacturer. We powdercoat everything, we powdercoat in two flavors, yellow and black. Our coating frames generally get buildup overtime.
I want to do something with the buildup. Probably bee-themed jewelry.
Thinking I'll stabilize them in clear epoxy so I can work with them, then cut out the various shapes and whatnot. What do I need to prepare for, what tools should I look at, etc etc.
There were some guys making Jewelry from The Ford factory paint booth buildup ,
I wonder if the chemicals will react to your skin ?
EDIT: here it is Home - Fordite.com
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Where I got the idea. Well, not that guy/gal/whoever. But Fordite in general.
To protect from skin irritation, I'm planning on coating the finished product in a thin layer of whatever I use to stabilize it. I dont think prolonged contact would irritate most skins, though. There's no warnings for that with the regularly coated stuff
I've been playing with UV-cure epoxy lately. It's been quite easy to use.
Notably, not that long ago I turned a ring for my wife. The barrel is stainless steel and I cut a groove I filled with clear epoxy and lapis lazuli.
I've been using a UV flashlight to temporarily cure the epoxy while I set all the pieces, and then letting it cure in the sun for a while prior to machine-finishing. Using a silicone mold has helped on the small pendants I've done, as the silicone releases the epoxy easily.
Depending on the shape of your mold you may want to set up some grow lights around it to help the epoxy cure if this is the way you go.
In reply to brandonsmash :
Any reason why you chose that type?
I went with the UV-cure stuff because when making a ring, I can put it on a mandrel and chuck it in the welding lathe. Then I can fill a bit at a time, do a short surface cure with the UV light, rotate it, and keep going. Additionally, for final cure I can just set my little welding lathe rotating at a slow speed in the sunlight and it works a treat.
In reply to brandonsmash :
Gotcha. Not 100% useful for me, but smart idea just using the weld turntable to spin it.
Dad said:
As I've told redditors on r/woodworking, epoxy isn't a product, it's a class of reaction. The components determine how the resin and product turn out. For example I have one (named HXTAL), that was formulated to match the refractive index of glass used in mirrors, so appears invisible in a crack, and doesn't yellow with age. It was $70 an ounce - back in the 1990s.
You might look up epoxies for River tables; woodworkers use 2" or thicker slabs with a void in the middle, fill the void with an epoxy, usually with some color in it. The first time you see one, you go, "Wow, cool!" But they've kinda been overdone. I have wondered what they were using that didn't yellow or turn absolutely brown with age, which almost all will do. One guy I talked with thought they reduced the amount of activator, as it is usually the cause of yellowing.
You might also investigate clear polyester resin, like used on boats. I know that a lot of high-end furniture and pianos in the '90s used it because it went on thick, could be sanded absolutely flat and buffed to a high-gloss. But it may crack with age, I haven't really looked into it.
They use stuff like this for river tables. No clue how they can guarantee it won't yellow or crumble. My organic chemistry isn't good enough for me to understand what epoxide reactions have in common, much less what makes them yellow.
https://www.bestbartopepoxy.com/products/ultraclear-deep-pour-epoxy
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