So I was slush casting the inside of a skull prop to reinforce it when I go to make a sand mold of it to blow glass into sometime later today. And to make sure that the resin would cure all the way, I used a lot more hardener than I should've.
I filled up one of those little mix trays that comes with the quart sized resin can with resin. I think it may hold something like 6 oz tops. At 7 drops/oz to cure properly it should've taken me only 42 drops total each time I needed to mix up a full tray (I mixed 5 and I still need more!). Anyway, instead of using the directed 42 drops, I used 60 in each tray. The good news is that the resin sets within 7-10 minutes with this mix time. The bad news is that as it catalyzes it generates an insane amount of heat!
Now when we go to paint the fiberglass layer on the insides of our armor usually the temperature reaches somewhere between 100°F-110°F tops. This mixture with the 60 drop ratio (~1-1/2 times the normal dose) reached its peak at somewhere between 150°F-180°F! I don't know what the flashpoint of Ester resin is but I probably came dangerously close to achieving it with this round and I also came pretty close to burning my hand when I picked it up to check the status of the resin. I actually could not hold it in my hand as it was too damn hot! The heat has since dissipated to about the normal curing temperature of 105°F now but it has taken almost half an hour to sink that much heat off of it.
So remember kids that when you're playing with resins or casting with them, read the damn directions so you don't end up setting your project/apartment on fire! And if you do notice that the generated heat is becoming insane and too hot to handle, pop it in the fridge for a minute or so and watch it.
I filled up one of those little mix trays that comes with the quart sized resin can with resin. I think it may hold something like 6 oz tops. At 7 drops/oz to cure properly it should've taken me only 42 drops total each time I needed to mix up a full tray (I mixed 5 and I still need more!). Anyway, instead of using the directed 42 drops, I used 60 in each tray. The good news is that the resin sets within 7-10 minutes with this mix time. The bad news is that as it catalyzes it generates an insane amount of heat!
Now when we go to paint the fiberglass layer on the insides of our armor usually the temperature reaches somewhere between 100°F-110°F tops. This mixture with the 60 drop ratio (~1-1/2 times the normal dose) reached its peak at somewhere between 150°F-180°F! I don't know what the flashpoint of Ester resin is but I probably came dangerously close to achieving it with this round and I also came pretty close to burning my hand when I picked it up to check the status of the resin. I actually could not hold it in my hand as it was too damn hot! The heat has since dissipated to about the normal curing temperature of 105°F now but it has taken almost half an hour to sink that much heat off of it.
So remember kids that when you're playing with resins or casting with them, read the damn directions so you don't end up setting your project/apartment on fire! And if you do notice that the generated heat is becoming insane and too hot to handle, pop it in the fridge for a minute or so and watch it.