Where to buy clear liquid glass for crafts

The synthetic resin for such processes is a monomer for making a plastic thermosetting polymer. During the setting process, the liquid monomer polymerizes into the polymer, thereby hardening into a solid. Single-monomer resins may be used in the process, which form homopolymers polymers containing only one type of polymer.

In such uses, the "curing agent" mixed with the resin contains what is loosely referred to as a " catalyst ," but which is more technically an initial source of free radicals such as MEKP to act as an initiator in a free-radical chemical chain reaction polymerization.

Alternately, resin casting may be accomplished with a resin plus a nearly equal amount of a "hardener" liquid as in many epoxy resin or polyester resin systems , which functionally contains a second polymer, for use in forming a final product plastic which is a copolymer.

Copolymers contain two different alternating chemical entities in the final polymer molecule. Most commonly a thermosetting resin is used that polymerizes by mixing with a curing agent polymerization catalyst at room temperature and normal pressure. The resins are named by analogy with plant resins, but are synthetic monomers for making polymer plastics. The so-called synthetic resins used include polystyrene resin, polyurethane resin, epoxy resin, unsaturated polyester resin , acrylic resin and silicone resin.

Epoxy resin has a lower viscosity than polyurethane resin [ citation needed ] ; polyester resin also shrinks markedly while curing. It is suitable for embedding objects such as, for example, acrylic trophies , for display purposes. Styrene is a similar liquid monomer at room temperature, which will also polymerize into clear glass-like polystyrene plastic, with addition of a suitable catalyst.

A flexible mold can be made of latex rubber, room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber or other similar materials at relatively low cost, but can only be used for a limited number of castings.

The simplest method is gravity casting where the resin is poured into the mold and pulled down into all the parts by gravity. When the two part resin is mixed air bubbles tend to be introduced into the liquid which can be removed in a vacuum chamber. The casting can also be done in a vacuum chamber when using open molds to either extract these bubbles, or in a pressure pot, to reduce their size to the point where they aren't visible.

The mold can also be vibrated to expel bubbles. Each unit requires some amount of hands-on labor, making the final cost per unit produced fairly high. This is in contrast to injection molding where the initial cost of creating the metal mold is higher, but the mold can be used to produce a much higher number of units, resulting in a lower cost per unit.

Resin casting is used to produce collectible and customized toys and figures like designer toys , garage kits and ball-jointed dolls , as well as scale models , either individual parts or entire models of objects like trains , aircraft or ships.

They are generally produced in small quantities, from the tens to a few hundred copies, compared to injection-molded plastic figures which are produced in many thousands. Resin casting is more labor intensive than injection molding, and the soft molds used are worn down by each cast. Copolymers contain two different alternating chemical entities in the final polymer molecule. Most commonly a thermosetting resin is used that polymerizes by mixing with a curing agent polymerization catalyst at room temperature and normal pressure.

The resins are named by analogy with plant resins, but are synthetic monomers for making polymer plastics.

The so-called synthetic resins used include polystyrene resin, polyurethane resin, epoxy resin, unsaturated polyester resin , acrylic resin and silicone resin. Epoxy resin has a lower viscosity than polyurethane resin [ citation needed ] ; polyester resin also shrinks markedly while curing. It is suitable for embedding objects such as, for example, acrylic trophies , for display purposes. Styrene is a similar liquid monomer at room temperature, which will also polymerize into clear glass-like polystyrene plastic, with addition of a suitable catalyst.

A flexible mold can be made of latex rubber, room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber or other similar materials at relatively low cost, but can only be used for a limited number of castings. The simplest method is gravity casting where the resin is poured into the mold and pulled down into all the parts by gravity. When the two part resin is mixed air bubbles tend to be introduced into the liquid which can be removed in a vacuum chamber. The casting can also be done in a vacuum chamber when using open molds to either extract these bubbles, or in a pressure pot, to reduce their size to the point where they aren't visible.

The mold can also be vibrated to expel bubbles. Each unit requires some amount of hands-on labor, making the final cost per unit produced fairly high. This is in contrast to injection molding where the initial cost of creating the metal mold is higher, but the mold can be used to produce a much higher number of units, resulting in a lower cost per unit.

Resin casting is used to produce collectible and customized toys and figures like designer toys , garage kits and ball-jointed dolls , as well as scale models , either individual parts or entire models of objects like trains , aircraft or ships.

They are generally produced in small quantities, from the tens to a few hundred copies, compared to injection-molded plastic figures which are produced in many thousands. Resin casting is more labor intensive than injection molding, and the soft molds used are worn down by each cast. The low initial investment cost of resin casting means that individual hobbyists can produce small runs for their own use, such as customization, while companies can use it to produce small runs for public sale.

The creation of a toy or figure start with the traditional sculpting process where the artist designs a clay sculpture. Where appropriate, for example when making a garage kit, the sculpture is dissected into several parts like head, torso, arms and legs. A flexible mold made from room temperature vulcanized RTV silicone rubber is made for each part. After the mold has been made, a synthetic resin - such as polyurethane or epoxy - mixed with a curing agent, is poured into each mold cavity.