I'am getting ready to finish a splash and ripple scene that is going good except for the final pour to make the water and ripples the book I have says to use a 2%mixture of catalst to resin in order to have a slow set up time and prevent yellowing only problem i got is I have no idea how to figure out the mixing ratio on this I need enough resin to cover a piece 22"x18" being deep enough to make ripples in can anyone help me out hate to wreak the mount on the last step thanks in advance for any help
Bill
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On a piece that size three to four ounces of resin should be all you need. The resin doesn't need to be more than one eight inch thick to make ripples. I don't have the tables handy, but I can tell you how to figure out the amount of catalyst. You need to convert the number of ounces of resin to cc's If memory serves me 30cc's equal an ounce. If you use 3 ounces thats 90 cc's for simplicity use 100 cc's of resin. That means you need 2cc's of catalyst. On very thin pours like this you may need slightly more catalyst or you could be waiting a long time to gel. I would use about 2.5 cc's Use an insulin syringe to measure your catalyst. Thin pours can be over catalized, but be careful if you go thicker.
Hope this helps
Tony
It is late and I don't have time to do the math for you. but your base is 396 square inches in area. You will need approximately 1/2 inch of resin to achieve the effect you want. The 396 square inches at one half inch thickness comes to 198 cubic inches. A cylinder that is 6" in diameter and seven inches tall contains 197.82 cubic inches. To find the volume of a cylinder, multiply "Pi" which is 3.14 times the square of the radius times the height of the container.
A one quart paper milk carton 2.75 X 2.75 X 7.5 contains 56.72 cubic inches, so three quarts of resin should do the trick. The thinner the thickness of the pour, the more resin required to maintain reaction speed. Too slow, and you will be forever trying to create the effect you want, too fast and cracking may occur. If the resin you are using has a graduated container for the catalyst, I would recommend using 5/8 of a one gallon sized container to allow time for work, yet not cause the reaction to be too slow. Good Luck
Don't listen to Bill. Take Tony's advice. A 1/2" thick pour will make a BIG mess and ruin your spash scene.
If you choose to make a thick pour, (never over 1/2 inch) you need to under catalyze. No more than one or two drops per ounch. A two percent catalization could burn your house down. If you forget everything else about resin, remember thin pours need more catalyst and thick pours need much less per ounce. for a ripple you only need enough resin to coat the surface and move it around with a brush.
Frank Newmyer has a very good video on making ripples and splashes, available from WASCO. It's well worth the money. When you see it you may say that's pretty simple, but that's what we need. Ways to make
difficult things simple.
Tony
Would like to say a extra thank you to all of yous who helped me make my splash a reality I don't have anything to compare it to but it looks awful good to me real good for the first time with no idea what to do so thanks again guys esp. Tony it worked great as far as i can tell take care
Bill