epoxy challenge

[calabrese55]

Recently finished this vase after a long and winding road. The construction is birch and resin. The experiment here was to  use resin in between the staves as opposed to contrasting wood. The construction required several molds to four areas with resin fill. The work was a bit of a challenge as resin has the unique ability to LEAK OUT to spite my best efforts to seal and contain the resin. Add to this a couple of catches on the resin but ultimately I fought the urge to simply shelve it and chalk it up to close but no cigar. After about two months of one step forward and two steps back it finally let me win.  The pictures here tell some of the story..........never surrender 

calabrese55

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

Now that's just to cool!

[Grandpadave52]

Amazing creativity Mike. Ya' did good...real good. Thanks for sharing.

[Gerald]

That looks like one complicated set up to pour. Looking good

[lew]

Absolutely incredible, Mike!

[calabrese55]

5 hours ago, Gerald said:

That looks like one complicated set up to pour. Looking good

Hi Gerald. Not really complicated , if you revisit the first picture shown again here  I simply placed 1/4 inch spacers between the staves that otherwise would have been contrasting full contact wood spacers in between or stave to stave contact. I decided to try the resin between the staves (this is a secret so you can't tell anyone OK ) as it has a distinct advantage beyond the visual impact. When the stave construction  is solid wood either stave to stave or stave - spacer-stave the mating angles, (just like segmented work) have to be right on or you get mis-match gaps. The beauty of the resin is you can be a little off on the blade/stave cut angle   AND THER IS THE ADVANTAGE !  It is almost impossible to get the stave to stave  angle right on when cutting the staves. I can get pretty close but I always have to hand sand a bit to dial them in. The 1/4 inch spacers largely reduce the angular contact stave to stave almost like only gluing a wedgie ring in two halves and sanding to dial in later. the spacers are pulled out after the staves are captured in place with hot melt and some scarps , pictured here. The issue i had is I did a real crappy job of sealing off all the leak paths as such I had the main body section leaked partially out on me four times  . Lastly all 5 resin sections were cast separately and epoxy assembled into one piece later in the process. Thanks Gerald as always for you kind comment.

 

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[calabrese55]

Thanks Lew, Fred, Dave52, Dan & Gerald for always looking at my junk....wait a minute that does not sound right you guys know what i mean ...always appreciate you endless support THANKS AGAIN,  mike c

[calabrese55]

Thanks Gordon for yo0ur kind comment.

mike c