Casting my own stems

[caskwith]

I have a few ideas from some special stems/inlay material. What kind of products do people out there use and how do you use them? I have a feeling this is going to be a lot more difficult than I first thought but if it works out even half as good as I think it will then it will be an awesome project.

[KurtHuhn]

I learned a crapload of info from the penturners. There's more guys casting their own pen blanks than there are pipe makers, I think. By and large there are only two choices for casting - polyester resin and Alumilite. Of the two, Polyester is the most widely used, and there's loads and loads of good info out there.

I played with it for a while, but haven't done anything recently. A word of warning - don't cast polyester inside the house. It has a very strong odor, and it tends to linger. Alumilite is easier to cast, in my opinion, and doesn't have the nasty odor.

[Danskpibemager]

Hey Chris,
About 2 years ago I decided to cast my own stems from polyester thinking it would be more cost effective than buying rods or blanks and for the most part it worked out fairly well. Kurt is right that it must be done outdoors unless you have a very large exhaust system in your workshop and the temperature needs to be at least 70 degrees F in order for the catalyst to work. The only downside were micro-bubbles that showed up throughout the cast rods. To do the job right you need a vacuum pot during curing and then a post heat treatment to make the rods/bars more machinable like Ebonite. I guess in small batches it would work just fine if the bars are cast in 6" long square molds. Be advised there is a learning curve as to the correct amount of catalyst to resin ratio to make the end result workable. All the penturner forums are full of info like Kurt mentioned. Good luck!

Regards,
Kevin

[caskwith]

Excellent thanks for the info guys. Time to get my research hat on!

[e Markle]

You might contact Michael Parks as well. I know he casts a fair amount of inlays, but I'm not sure what materials he uses.

[kkendall]

You can also cast the rods in PVC pipe.

[caskwith]

You can also cast the rods in PVC pipe.

That was my plan Kim, use very thin PVC pipe that i could cut away so as not to damage the rod.

[eder]

Sounds interesting!

I've found these on YouTube:
Polyester Casting - Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RokWw-BR6FM
Polyester Casting - Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGfzQ8k_SUA
Polyester Casting - Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxx_g2G81r8
Polyester Casting - Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WXEG1vlVUQ

eder.