Jesmonite

[Tahu]

Hey Everyone!



If you dont know why I am looking for a non-toxic material, you can read my earlier thread: http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24175



I am living in Sweden, where Resin is quite hard to find, and cost alot. Today, I actually found Jesmonite! But it costed me MORE THAN TWICE as much as the website 405th linked from the UK.

But, it would have been really greatly apperciated if someone who is using this, or knows about Jesmonite could answer some questions



1. Is it really non-toxic, and with no use for any respirator?



2. Can you mix it with ordinary fiberglass woven?



3. How will the surface become when you resin your armor piece? Is it good to grind, apply color and bondo too?



4. Is this website that 405th linked : http://www.propbuilder.co.uk/jesmonite-testing.html safe to buy from?



5. Does anyone know how much it will cost to ship just overseas to me in Sweden ?



6. Finally, do you recommend it?





As I said, I would be extremly happy for any answers I could get, and experiences



All the best, and a great weekend to you all!

/Tahu

[AceHigh]

I don't have much info to offer, but I'll give you what I have.



I have been in contact with a few suppliers from the UK as I too have found that swedish retailers keep insanely high prices. While I haven't got a shipping price from Propbuilder, it usually lands at £25-30 (around SEK300-350) for orders under ~30 kgs. I can only suspect that they'd have about the same price.



Of all the retailers in the UK I have been in contact with, Propbuilder have been by far the quickest to reply to my emails. I consider that a big advantage when it comes to customer service.



If you're gonna place an order, I might be interested in co-oping it in order to split the transport costs. Might not be of any use if you're in Norrland, but if you're anywhere near the west coast we could each save a few bucks.

[sierra092]

If you look in the UK products thread (in the UK forum), Jonny already tested jesmonite and it turned out to be too heavy and too brittle. Just giving you the heads up

[Tahu]

Acehigh, just a quick question, is it the same price no matter how much you order? As long as it is under 30 kg? Then Co-oping transport would be really good.



I came in contact with ABIC (swedish manufacturer) that takes 225 SEK for 3 kg powder, and around 150 SEK for 1 kg liquid. While this company takes 199,47 SEK for 3 kg powder and 1 kg Liquid



And it could be used as castin resin!!



Sierra092, thanks for the reply, did he combine it with fiberglass woven? Do he have pics?



All the best!

/Tahu



EDIT: Found a Person on 405th that is using Jesmonite : http://405th.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16699 , looks very promising though

[sierra092]

Oooo that link looks prmising, might take a closer look.

Whats the currency rate at the moment?

[Tahu]

Depends, I useally go to http://www.valuta.se/ , its on Swedish, but its up the date, and you could see the currencies for almost anything.



All the best!

/Tahu

[AceHigh]

I've already replied to your PM Tahu, but it might benefit somebody else: It seems there is a minimum cost when shipping from the UK to Sweden, which basically means any weight up to 30 kgs will cost the same.



If enough people are interested in getting together to order stuff from the UK, I might be willing to organize something so we can cut costs. There are 4 shops in the UK that seem really good, and unfortunately they all seem to have something that I want that the others don't have.







Sierra092, do you have any reference material like videos or photos of Jonny's test? On the website, the sellers make a few tests: http://www.propbuild...te-testing.html



[media]http://www.youtube.c...layer_embedded#[/media]



According to the link he used a pepakura model, covered it with resin and used two layers of fibre glass mat. I must say it looks sturdy enough to be used as a prop. Even though the guy doesn't look like Hercules, it still takes him a few good whacks with a hammer to break it. I haven't seen anyone do any similar tests with Aqua-Resin or any other resin for that matter. It would be really great to have some comparisson.







I would actually probably prefer using other resins, but I live in an apartment, which means I'm worried about fuming out my neighbours.

[Tahu]

What Jonny did with his Jesmonite that wasnt so good, was that he molded in pure Jesmonite (which is also possible) , but its was a bit heavy according to him. I have mailed one of the shops,

and he says grinding Jesmonite is like grinding normal resin, a little tougher, but thats is like anything you reinforce with Fiberglass woven he says.



Best Regards

/Tahu

[AceHigh]

I found an alternative to Jesmonite for us European people today. It's called Acrylic One and is supplied by a Dutch company from what I can see. I have very limited information about it at this point, but I'm gonna try to do some research about it.

[Jonny]

Hey guys, as you guys have said I have used it to make a casting of my Iron Man helmet.

I used 3 layers to make it, each with 200g of liquid and 500g of powder. So 3 x 700g = 2.1kg, far too heavy for a wearable helmet.



The reason I made three layers was that I wasn't confident enough that it was thick enough.



After the first layer when I was holding the mould I got quite a few cracks around the edges, it kinda reminded me of polyfiller, the stuff you use to fill small holes in walls around the house.

The second layer I used quadraxial fiberglass fabric (although normal CSM or tissue will do). Even after this I wasn't confident enough that it was strong enough to pull from the mould so I did one final layer.



I personally don't think I'll use Jesmonite for any of my future armor, I much prefer working with Polyester or polyurethane plastics.