Mixing casting resins

[Fomen38]

Mike or Larry- last night I decided to mix some different casting resins. The reason I did this is because I'm a guy..... and it's what we do I mixed them as liquid components. I mixed the A of Flex 70 with the B side of Alumilite regular casting plastic. The I reversed the mix with the other components in a different cup. Once sufficiently mix, I combined the cups into one, and thoroughly mixed. I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

What I had as an end product was a slightly flexible rubber that was (minimum) about 10 points higher in shore hardness than the Flex 70; but since the Alumilite regular casting plastic generates so much heat, and it cures so fast, it expedited the curing process of the Flex product it was mixed with. I know Larry said in one of his videos that he's about the most impatient guy in the world (next to me of course), so this is good news for guys like us. The full cure time took about 1 hour, and I'm sure it would have been even faster had I heated the mold, or stuck the resin under a heat lamp. This was a full cure in my garage (probably 65-68 degrees) without any additional heat sources. The mix ratio I used was 1 to 1 Flex to Alumilite reg. The end product was VERY, VERY tough. I couldn't tear it if I tried, yet it still maintained some flexibility.

I also noticed that since the components of the Alumilite regular are much less viscous than those of the Flex product, and since it generates so much heat, it lowers the viscosity of the entire combination of the 2 products. This allowed for all the bubbles to rise to the top before the product fully cured; making for a completely bubble free end result.

I know you probably don't recommend mixing the products, but I was just wondering if you've ever experimented like this; mixing resins in their liquid forms? You might want to try it and see if you get the same result. Then you can pump out a new product called Flex Fast Cure

Scott

[Mike - Alumilite]

Good stuff Scott,

Actually yes, we have played with crossing some materials and as long as you stay true to the A & B of each system ... Flex or Regular or whatever ... you will stay on ratio (enough x's for the o's) and typically everything will crosslink pretty well. The only variation is that some raw materials will crosslink faster than others so the green strength doesn't always correlate to the finished strength. Meaning yes, you may be able to demold it much earlier because the Reg in the system gave it enough backbone however it could be fragile early on until the slower crosslinking of the Flex takes place. Basically the cure schedule is pretty unpredictable but can be learned fairly quick as you experienced. Good stuff and thanks for sharing your mad scientist skills with us!

Mike