ALW Resin - Something to shareR

Projects & Prints
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I found the mixing of the AWL resin to be not only a pain but messy at times. Mixing 3 parts of beige to 1 part Black would require two bottles, one empty, to mix and then you would need a third to succeed in mixing those two together to get an even mix and color. So, I came up with this solution. I purchase two 1/2" gallon black K-style jugs and curved spouts and then designed a funnel for the mixing. The STL file is attached.

3D printed adapter for Resin Bottles.stl (617.5 KB)

Here are a series of photos showing the way I use this. The bottom of the funnel/adapter has an inside pipe that fits down in the K bottle. The upper chamber is large and has a tapered bottom for draining.
ReadyToPour
Ready to pour.
PouringBeige
Pour as much as the beige as you can until the bottle is almost totally drained.
BeigeDrip1
Upend the Beige AWL bottle into the top of the funnel and let it drain for about an hour or so. It will balance with no problem.
BlackPour1
Put the K bottle with the Beige resin in it on a postal scale and zero out the weight.
BlackPour1
Add just 15 ounces (weight) of the Black resin which equals 1/3 of a full bottle giving a 1 to 3 mix. Let the funnel drain some then put it in IPA to rinse clean and then let dry. Put a flat cap on the K bottle. I get mine of the 1 gallon jugs of IPA when empty. Mix the resin, switch the caps to the pour spout and your ready to go.

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Good creative thinking!!

Chris

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I took a less scientific approach. I got a full bottle of ALW beige and poured half of it into an empty beige bottle, Then eyeballed about 1/4 bottle of black into each one (until each of the 2 beige bottles was about 3/4 full), the closed them up and shook the hell of of them for 3-4 minutes.

That gave me a 2:1 mix, with the Grey v2 shading I was looking for. This mix seems to print very well with the White v1 profile.

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That’s what I use to do and found it messy compared to this way. $18 for the two jugs and shipping. Could have got 3 for about $4 more. Much easier to work with now and less dripping all the way around.

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Ok I missed it: is this done to get better detail or just the color change?

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Hmmm… never had any spills or 'messy" issues.

Notice that I only do 2:1 mix, which means my standard ALW bottle is still about 1/4 empty, so I can shake and mix without having to decant everything into another bottle.

I don’t think that mixing these 2 resins results in any better or worse detail.

It’s primarily done to change the color and let you see detail easier. The beige is so white, that it’s very hard to see details, or flaws, and you almost always have to apply some kind of primer just so you can see what needs fixing and cleaning. With Grey, it’s immediately visible.

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For me it’s also photographing products. We don’t finish them in any way, that’s up to the modeler.

Each to his own but I find this less messy, less drip wiping which is a waste of resin, etc. I use a LOT of resin, a lot. and just wiping the tops of the AWL bottles each time I finish mixing or pouring wastes small amounts of resin that add up. I buy my resin now in 4 bottle orders, 3 beige, 1 black about three to four times a month.

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Wow… ALW must really be loving you by now…:+1:

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Our newest product line is of HVAC Ductwork Fittings in scale of over 100+ pieces. Each one printed in quantity takes 4 hours on average. So right now I have 500+ hours of Form 2 machine time. Plus I have other products that are 3D printed. Some O scale 8’ tall scale brick chimneys, 25 up, will take 12 hours to print and use 248 ml of resin. Multiply that by another 100 products and you can see how much resin I’ll be using.

I’m just getting that category populated but here’s a link to it" https://www.rustystumps.com/HVAC-Fittings.asp

Not too bad for a 75 year old geesier now is it? [laugh]

2 Likes
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Not bad indeed.

I must be the only one here that’s hasn’t made a dime with his printer.

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I’ve yet to sell any of these fittings so I haven’t made a dime off a very heavy investment. My other 3D printed details are very popular and get excellent reviews. I suspect now that we have the tutorial videos starting to appear on the website and more fittings they may start selling. Always an adventure.

Doing the building kits are the same issue. I’ve had some I’ve spent time developing and manufacturing thinking they would be popular and only sold 3 of them. It’s a crap shoot no matter what.:grin:

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I take that back. Now that the inventory is building I finally sold and am packing the first order of these HVAC scale fittings. Not sure this will be worth the effort or not but we’ll see. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.