Liquid Plastic (Resin) Visor Cast - Trial by Fire

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iancorrao

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In an attempt to find a new means of visor creation, I stumbled upon a thread on this site, somone asking about if they can use plastic resin for the covering the pepakura helmets. I wouldn't say it was a viable option for that, but seeing as how it's clear I thought perhaps it could work for a casted visor. Below is my first experience with the stuff. I used Castin' Craft Resin, which received horrible reviews... wonderful. I was actually trying to find the other option, Castin' Craft Clear Casting Resin with Catalyst but my local Michael's (Craft Store) didn't have it. The thing that also drove me to give this a shot was the ability to dye (Castin' Craft Dye) the resin before casting.

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Seeing as how I had never worked with this resin before, I figured I would give it a test before going all out and trying to cast my visor with this stuff. Fair warning if you do buy it, it's just as toxic as the fiberglass resin, so be sure to wear your face masks & breathers. I added a small amount to a plastic cup, mixed in some dye, and then the catalyst. Below you can see that it was about 1/2 inch thick, and you could see through it without too much distortion, obviously the visor only needs to be about 1/8 inch, so I don't think there would be any distortion. The sample test had promising results. What I didn't take into account is how this stuff doesn't like to stick to the sides/walls of things, like Smooth-Cast does. It also doesn't cure as quick.

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It took about an hour for the small, hockey puck-like cast to cure solid (obviously 24 hours or so would be better). So I moved on to the bigger and "better". I mixed up another batch, this time I put a lot more plastic resin in, dyed it to my liking, and then added quite a bit of catalyst (package says to add about 15 drops per ounce). In retrospect, I think I should have added a lot more, I had about 6 ounces of resin... crap. So, I got my helmet mold ready and dumped it in. I used the same swirling technique that I would with Smooth-Cast, but I knew that the resin wouldn't stick to the sides very well, so I tried my best to continue swirling until the resin turned into a slow moving sludge. It probably would have gone better had I added more (the correct amount?) of catalyst.

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So this morning I went to check out my creation (abomination) and found that eventhough I though I had waited long enough for the resin to be sludge and wouldn't just fall down the sides of the mold, it had. :( bummer. But, as you can see in the pictures, it did create a nice solid mold of the tip of the helmet. It did have stringy sticky film connected to it.

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Final Report

Had I added more catalyst and focused on keeping the resin from pooling at the bottom of the helmet, I think you would all be looking at a nice plastic casted visor. I know that vacuum formers are cheap to build, and I will end up doing that I'm sure this resin option was a nice test and if I get the urge, I'm going to attempt it again with my refined process. The other downfall is now cleaning the sticky uncured resin from my mold!

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Interesting, I've seen this resin at Michael's before. I was curious as to whether or not it could be used for visors, but by the time I saw it, I already had my vacuum former built. I like how i can be dyed, but it seems like it would have the same problem my visor has, you can see out, but people can see in, if of course the room is well lit.

As for yours, you could focus on only casting the visor, and make it into a separate piece and attaching it after the helmet is cast. Or see if they make a thickener for it, so its not as hard to cast with.
 
I would not prefer this Kind of clear Casting Resin, it is one of the Resins, that are just used to embed Objects like Flowers or Insects, etc..

But SmoothOn does have the correct Resin that might work for this, Crystal Clear or Clear Flex should work.
 
You may want to try out a combination technique. This resin allows you to die it to your liking which is a big advantage. But vacforming is the easiest way to get shape you want. So my idea is to use this resin to cast a "sheet" of plastic in the color you want and then try to vacform that sheet around your visor shape.

If you try that out I'd be really interested in seeing the results.
 
Part of the problem with curing on that resin is where you are located it's not as warm as down here in the south so it takes longer to cure up there, I would recommend doubling the catalyst.
 
Had I been smart, I would have used the $45 to build or buy materials for "My first vacuum former" but I figured I go the road less traveled, for no apparent reason. NintenDude, it's actually pretty hot round these parts right now, 95degrees out and what not. I think you're right though, I just needed to add more catalyst as I mentioned in the original post.

Starvinartist80, I wonder if that sheet idea would work. The consistency of the plastic almost reminds me of a jolly rancher (a little harder) or fake glass made from sugar. I wonder if I tried vacuum forming it if it would become sticky and just melt inconsistantly.

Jimmy to your point, based on how it looked when I wasn't holding it up to the light it looked like it would appear pretty dark as a visor and would conceal your face, but you're probably right.
 
Excellent effort! Whether successful or not, it's great to see someone trying something new instead of just asking questions and hoping someone else will do the research to find the answers. Well done.
 
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