In my last post I showed some pictures of molds I had filled with clear resin and beads. These were using 1 part epoxy resin to 1 part hardener, which is meant to cure fully in 72 hours but soft cure in 24. Well, I kept checking and it just wouldn't harden. In the end a few semi hardened and the rest are a squidgy mess! It's also pretty difficult trying to get them out of the mold.
I had a look around online to try and find out what the problem could have been. According to Craftbits.com it could have been my mold: http://www.craftbits.com/project/basic-resin-casting
"Latex molds: These are great to use as the flexibility of them means you
can literally POP out your resin cast. You may need to experiment with
your resin as some resins require a little extra hardener to cure in a
latex mold due to the fact that the temperature of the resin is effected
because of the latex". Hmmm, maybe I should have added more hardener.
Some more interesting words from Crafbits.com:
"Mold Release: If you are using a flexible mold there really is not need
to add a mold release agent. However a perfect inexpensive release agent
is spray cooking oil. Simply give your mold a quick spray and wipe over
and it's ready to use". I used Vaseline and it seems a bit sticky and not particularly effective. Next time I will try cooking oil. Failing that, I think I'll buy some mold release.
Other reasons why resin might not cure, can be found here: http://www.resinobsession.com/Resin-FAQ/134/12-reasons-why-your-resin-didnt-cure.html
From these reasons the only things I can think of that would have gone wrong are not adding enough hardener for a latex mold and not having a warm enough room. I did warm the bottles in hot water before using it (specified in the instructions) and the heating was on, but it could have been a reason.
So now I'm left with the difficulty of trying to get the gooey shapes out of the molds and get rid of all the sticky mess. Might just leave that for a bit!
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