Manu Propria - Ruby red polyester

[Manupropria]

Over the weekend I casted some rods of ruby red polyester to make a fountain pen.
It was my first time but think some of you have worked with polyester already.
I casted the polyester in brass tubes with 0.50 mm walls. After hardening for 24 hours the polyester was still not really hard and I dropped them into the kitchen stove for one hour at temperature of 120°C. After cooling I realized, that the polyester has shrinked a little bit an the rods could easily be pushed through the tubes. Then the material was really hard, good to turn and drill but difficult to cut the threads.
And this is what came out
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[tandaina]

Very cool, so semi transparent?

[drgoretex]

Nice work! Polyester is indeed tricky. Threads chip easily, and worse, the pen itself shatters easily if dropped. There are some truly beautiful Poly resins (like yours, for instance), but I would be very selective about when to use them.

Ken

[Manupropria]

Thank you Ken,
Indeed very bristle material. I assume it will stay be a prototype. But very nice play of light and color, hard to capture in a photo

Best,

Martin

[pedestrian]

If working with polyester is difficult and yields quite brittle pens, try epoxy instead. By adjusting the amount of peroxide you can modify the brittleness of the material al also, is far more resilient than polyester...

[Manupropria]

Thank you very much for advise. I have chosen polyester for its stability regarding color and clearness but will give epoxy a try. Thank you again, Martin

[pedestrian]

For colour stability (is degradation against UV is what you mean) you can either add UV filter to the resin or apply a final clearcoat layer with filter on it...
As far as epoxy concerns, there are few variation featuring from light blue-ish to light brown/yellow. Is just a matter of establishing contact with your nearest resin supplier and have a look to the brands available.
Cheers!

[Manupropria]

Thank you for the interesting information. I have to go into the material more deeply, Best, Martin

[johnus]

Very impressed.