Hey oh! I have seriously been thinking about building some of my own puzzles, this forum has been truly inspirational! I started checking into some products and was wondering if you are familiar or if anybody U.S. related know of any good places to get chemicals and all that jazz.
I haven't bought anything yet, and being a struggling college student I want to make sure i get the right stuff. I went to my nearest craft store and here is what i found.
For molds i found a product called Paratol 706-G. It seemed to be ok. It said it could be a layer building mold or a pourable mold.
Then I found some casting resin with the catylist, is this the stuff i want? Will it work, or at least do a decent job?
Well, please let me know if these products are anything useful, any tips of the trade would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much!!!
Jake

Casting resin that uses a catalyst is polyester. It's pretty toxic stuff so make sure you don't breathe it in and don't expose your eyes to any potential vapors. Its advantage is low cost. It will do what you want if it has the required hardness. I think polyesters tend to cure hard but are somewhat brittle. It seems that polyester is better suited as a liquid filler for puzzle pieces you are planning on cutting down.

Polyurethane is much nicer to your health to work with but its disadvantage is that you need exact ratios for proper mixes.

For making molds I used Synair S333 which requires a releasing agent for use with polyurethane molds. Chances are wherever you buy the molding from will also point you to the right releasing agent.

For my casting I used Synair Mark-15 polyurethane which has a pretty lengthy pot life (15 minutes before it starts gelling, so you can mix and pour almost at leisure). It cures to a nice shore D hardness of 85 which is good and it's a nice bright white color. It is a bit on the expensive side though but good stuff doesn't come cheap.

As for tips, read the articles that Wayne has posted in this website. They really do cover most of what you need to know. About the only thing not covered is specific products by name.

Hooked up with someone at a party tonight and discussed polyurethanes, chemicals, dust and grinding etc. He mentioned a lot of the stuff we are using is high risk, some possibly carcinogenic. He is going to help me out with the health and safety documentation. He's a plastics expert (polymer physics).

ALrighty, thanks much! where do you get your synair products?

Jake,
Man yer in for heartache if you use the polyester resin that you found.... you might as well spend a few $ more and get polyurethane resin. Try online at Micro-Mark

http://www.micromark.com

CR-600 or CR-900 casting resins are very good quality
they also sell RTV Silicone, release agents, etc.

They will send you a free catalog and also offer online ordering. Reasonalbe shipping rates and fast service.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to drop me a line. I'll share any info I have about making you own puzzles as will others in this forum.

_pink

That site is awesome!!! It even has milliput!!! I've been trying to find that stuff for awhile. Thanks much. This has been a big help!

Just so you know, Black Milliput may be a better choice for some situations. It can be bought only directly from http://www.milliput.com but they sell it for about 5-6 dollars per package. Oh yea, and they only accept British currency but they will work with you.

Wayne Johnson wrote:
> Hooked up with someone at a party tonight
> and discussed polyurethanes, chemicals,
> dust and grinding etc. He mentioned a lot
> of the stuff we are using is high r
>isk, some possibly carcinogenic.

That's a shocker. With all of the things I've done over the years I'm probably headed to an early grave anwyay.

Oh yea, and if you plan on painting over the finished pieces anyway, you might want to consider Magic Sculp as an alternative. It is MUCH cheaper than Milliput but has properties almost identical to the more expensive stuff. I intend to use it heavily over Millipu when it is once again Time to make custom pieces for molding.

Cool! I got a catalog on the way, and before i know it, I'll be making some stuff. Thanks for the advice and the articles were extremly helpful!!
jake