Resin and Moisture Don't Make Good Partners

It's raining today. In fact, at times it's been pouring! The air feels damp and laden with moisture. Not good weather for casting resin!

Having lived through the drought here in South East Queensland, I'm reluctant to ask that it stops raining. But seriously, all this rain is playing havoc with my casting! Polyurethane and moisture just do not mix!

Resin or Toffee...... what do you think?

Apart from the bubbly toffee-looking resin (completely expected in wet weather!), I've also been getting masses of miniature bubbles on the surface of the bangles. These usually occur at the pouring point and appear in a fine line rising to the top of the mould. But the last couple of days these bubbles are occurring in rounded clusters and in several spots around the outside of the bangle.

Annoying! Grrr! Bangle No. 2

But that's not to say they can't be fixed. Here's my first attempt at a repair job.

Bangle No. 1

It's a great improvement on what it looked like beforehand but you can still see the remnants of where I trimmed. I'm sure I can do better.

Let's have another go.

This is not a job for the impatient. You need a light touch with the Stanley knife to gently shave away the bubbled mass.

Bangle No. 3

It takes time to get down right underneath the bubbles and remove them and you have to be careful not to expose more. It's lucky that I find this quite therapeutic - a bit like whittling!

You end up trimming away a much larger area around the bubbles and it looks pretty awful at this stage.

But a light sand with fine sandpaper cleans it up quite nicely. You can still see some scuff marks from the sandpaper.

To make those scuff marks disappear, all it needs now is a sanding over the whole bangle with a superfine grade of sandpaper.

So, there you have it! You can get rid of those pesky miniature bubbles!

But the lesson here is: "Don't cast resin in wet, humid weather!"

Lesson learned!

'Til next time.....

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