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Hi all, can a person use normal "surfboard" resin for casting in an instamould mould?

Thats a hard kind of question because there are heaps of different resins that are used in fins and surfboard shaping.

I think provided you are using a resin that is compatible with silicon molds then you should be fine.

But the truly best answer you are going to get is basically try it. Make a small mold, use a slow set catalyst, and pour it out, see what happens.

Bear in mind that many resins will give off heat as part of curing and the quicker the cure, the more heat that is produced in a shorter time, and this stuff IS heat softened ... so you might end up with softened detail depending on the size of the piece you are making.

I've used it to do smaller GS press moulded bits, though and it was fine.

Probably but you really don't want to.

This is why.
-Resins are really nasty stuff it isn't easy to work with in a responsible way at all. The upside of using the correct resin is near perfect detail. I don't know the properties of your resin. You really should look it up (later more on that).
It could work great or have all sorts of curing problems, it all depends on the resin you are using.
-Silicones are actually quite simple to use and not nearly as nasty as resins. They do create near perfect molds.
-Instamold molds are crap. Sorry, they really are the loss of detail of these molds makes them unfit for anything serious.

I see absolute no reason to use high risk & high detail stuff (resin) in crappy detail molds ( instamold).

I would use crappy but safe casting materials in instamold -> Gives the same detail as your plan.

Or use silicone molds with the resin -> Gives you high detail casts.

Just an advise don't use resin unless you exactly know what you are using and have the proper protection. Most types of resin are highly toxic and almost all are suspected to be carcinogenic. Opening your window and using thin latex gloves isn;t nearly enough to protect you from it. So pls look up your resin and educate yourself on things like strikes through time of gloves and important safety aspects. And NEVER trust a fancy "safe" bottle or resin without detailed documentation on its safety hazards.

Ps. If you happen to stumble upon a truly safe to use (bio)resin let me know.

Thanks for the advise guys, everytime my surfboard needed repairs I used just buy resin at the hardware store. I used to ask them I need resin to fix my board and they gave me some. Was planning on going the same route this time. Its just that I finally found some instamould in s.a (well I don't have it yet) and greenstuff is pretty expensive.

 oldzoggy wrote:
Just an advise don't use resin unless you exactly know what you are using and have the proper protection. Most types of resin are highly toxic and almost all are suspected to be carcinogenic. Opening your window and using thin latex gloves isn;t nearly enough to protect you from it. So pls look up your resin and educate yourself on things like strikes through time of gloves and important safety aspects. And NEVER trust a fancy "safe" bottle or resin without detailed documentation on its safety hazards.

Most resins are going to have an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) available with them. I've used epoxy resin for ages, latex gloves to minimise contact, ventilation to avoid inhaling fumes and glasses on the off chance some of it gets near your eyes (unlikely, but not worth risking IMO) then you're fine. Epoxy won't eat latex, it's just splash protection, so as long as you don't tear them they're fine. But you should check the MSDS of the resin you are using. When it comes to epoxy, the more dangerous thing is the solvents you are possibly using and the additives (microballoons for example are very bad to breath in).

Also.... silicone is expensive and much more time consuming to work with, so there's definitely motivation to pour resins in to instant mould. However there's absolutely no way I can tell you if the "surfboard resin" is going to work. "Resin" is a hugely broad term that covers a massive number of different substances, as such there's really no way of telling without more information.

Guess I will have to see what happens , thanks guys

, ventilation to avoid inhaling fumes

This is not as simple as it seems when you don't have a fume hood. Just opening a window or two will not prevent you from inhaling fumes at all. Sure you will inhale less. But you will still inhale some fumes.

Not all epoxies are as bad as others but there sure are a lot that have components (especially in the activator and solvents) in there that are suspected to have nasty long time effects such as nerve damage and carcinogenic effects. It isn't the direct chemical burn and nausea effects you have to worry about. its the stuff you don't notice right away that is the most harmful.

The thing with gloves isn't most of the dangerous substances might burn holes in it but that some might defuse trough it over time. Latex gloves aren't a good barrier at all for most small molecules. This isn't shocking for anyone used to work with chemicals. Most games and home users have never heard of this, and would assume that it would be safe to keep them on after you spilled some activator on it. An other risk might be contamination, since most of us are not trained to not contaminate their working area -> a.e. your room or body with your gloves. This might sound trivial but it really isn't.

This makes just trying the stuff out without decent preparations a bad idea. Sure you can just pour it together but please don't do it unless you have at least looked at a convincing sheet (some popular shops use really crappy data sheets) and researched what it actually means. Calling it "surf board " does not convince me that you know what you are doing at all. It could be any kind of resin with any kind of solvent and activator.

It is your health but I would not risk it in order to get some badly molded knock of models.

I'm all for the precuations and checking out the different resins, after all that's why I asked the q in the first place, as for the badly molded knock off models part....I never said anything anywhere that I will be trying to duplicate existing models,please do read what I am intending, so I think I would rather not comment any further as I was asking for help not assumptions.

Hello ^^

Why don't you use Fimo Air instead of resin after Oyumaru molding ? ^^

It works well :

http://letempledemorikun.blogspot.ru/2015/02/tuto-2-la-pate-de-moulage-oyumaru.html

http://letempledemorikun.blogspot.ru/2015/02/oyumaru-new-wave.html

http://letempledemorikun.blogspot.ru/2015/02/oyumaru-do-5e-lecon.html

Serviteur,

Morikun

The problem with most of the products you guys use is very hard to get in s.a. Will have to try search where to get that localy, as shipping cost is very expensive with our wonderfull exchange rate. Thanks for the links, bit hard to understand, will have to use google translate later.

http://www.amtcomposites.co.za/

Sells acryl one, silicones and lots of other casting materials

The knock off part -> I wasn't assuming that you want full recaster. It is just that Instamolds creates bad copies of anything you try to copy. Instamold will create bad knock off of evefrything you try to mold with it even if it is your own sculpt