On these pages we will share hints and tips about working with our cast resin products. As well as other helpful ideas learned over the years

Adhesives

• Be aware that MEK based solvent cements, (plastic cement such as Testor’s), do not work on resin castings. For indoor applications ACC, (super glue), works fine. Epoxy, silicone, contact type cement like Pliobond or Walther’s Goo will hold up to outdoor conditions.
• We have been highly successful using G-S Hypo-tube Cement to attach window glazing to our castings.  It is a crystal clear tacky cement often used to attach watch crystals. Hypo-Tube  cement can be ordered from us on the Tools & Adhesives page. As with most adhesives; a little goes a long way. Use sparingly and follow the tips for keeping the tube free-flowing and your Hypo-Tube cement will last through many projects. I have a tube that I used throughout Tom Millers project and is still good for more! Tom’s buildings had a lot of windows and that meant a lot of gluing.

• Regardless of the type of adhesives used, always take the time to wash the castings with warm water and dish soap to remove the mold release. You may want to take the extra step to lightly sand the flat side of the casting before gluing the glazing on. There may be some wax residue that can inhibit the bond.

• As for glazing; 1/16 - 3/32 clear Lexan, (acrylic, Plexiglas) is our first choice; particularly outside. It cuts easily by scribing and snapping or cut on a table saw. The Microlux tilt arbor table saw is great for this. We have several in our shop and they are used daily. A carbide blade is best for the Lexan. If you have a number of the same sized windows to add glazing to; set up the rip fence, cut strips to one dimension then cross cut the strips to the other dimension. Simple and quick.

How to Remove flash from window castings; a somewhat pain-free method:

This technique creates a lot of dust, so keep your shop-vac, (with filter bag), handy and wear a dust mask!

The first step is to affix a full sheet of 150 grit sandpaper to a nice-flat piece of 3/4” thick melamine, (particle board with the smooth glossy white finish). You can get small pieces used for shelving at Big Box hardware stores. I attach the sandpaper with adhesive transfer tape made by 3M. Thin film double-sided tape will work. You really need only tape two edges, just make sure the sandpaper lays flat. It helps a lot to clamp the board to the edge of your worktable to keep it from moving around.

My setup, note the amount of dust piled up. Someone needs to clean! I keep a flat piece of finer grade paper on hand to help finish the process.

This is a raw casting; what you get from Scale Art Parts. Note the thin film behind the panes. We try to keep this as thin as possible, but there is always some. You can remove it with a sharp hobby knife, but if you are doing a lot, whew! It is also easy to nick the casting or yourself. “So how do I remove the offending flash?”, you ask. Some of you may have already guessed it:

Put light, even pressure on the casting. Don’t press too hard; resin sands fast! We want to keep the back of the casting flat and of even thickness. Move the casting in a circular motion-first one direction than the other; right to left-left to right.

Change your hand position on the casting from time to time in an effort to spread pressure over the casting evenly.

Work carefully and check your progress often to make sure you are not sanding one side of the casting too thin. It really takes very little time; your are removing only about .002” - ,010” of material, give or take a thousandth. The pieces of film will fall out when you are done. It takes a lot less time to describe the process than to do it!

One final thing for now; note the extension screwed to the protractor guide on this Microlux saw. It allows the use of a stop for multiple same-sized crosscuts. Here again, the Handy clamp finds a useful purpose. We have three of these saws in the shop and all of them get used regularly when multiple set-ups are needed. One of these saws has been in regular use for over 20 years with no downtime!!! Great tool when a full-sized table saw is too big.

Wash

Glazing