Panels & Resin - how thick is too thick?

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

I'm feeling the design urge again and I have been looking into making my own mould to make all resin panels instead of 3D printed, there's a fair bit that can go wrong but I should start experimenting this week.

I have resin coated 3D Printed panels in the past with varied success due to limited thickness,

I have bought a shitload of mini gear & cog metal parts to embed for a steampunk style but unsure if it will work within a reasonable thickness. It could end up quite thick as I want to pour a base colour layer and then a clear top coat with the gears embedded.

For a proper steampunk style the gears ideally need to be 2 layers, a 3mm thick panel wouldn't work with those poxy battery & switch recesses which are around 2mm, by the time I've added the base layer to cover those recesses I'm up to around 2.2mm, the gears are between 1.2 - 1.6mm plus enough resin to float and cover them I'm looking at around 4mm - 4.5mm panels with just 1 layer of gears and 6mm with 2 layers of cogs.

I think 6mm is just too thick, but is a single layer 4.5mm acceptable?

I could make them thinner *if I use all clear resin but I think it would start to look messy seeing the internals behind the gears and potentially no gears over the recesses.

There is another option by leaving the gears protruding by 0.5mm which would mean the panels have the gear texture which might be nice (none of the gears/cogs are sharp.

Thoughts please?

Here's an example of a multi layered that inspired me.

 

[rew]

I would favour the gears slightly protruding. Think it would give a nice look/ texture.

 

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

Here's a (very) rough layout of a single layer
(dodgy phone pic sorry)

 

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

Just trying some layouts on printed panels, the full resin will look far better (hopefully)

 

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

Some prototypes, fucked them up a little due to cold room temperature (first time I have tried resin in the winter - lesson learned!)

The resin should have had a much clearer and glossy look, the 'Splatter' version is Alcohol Ink in Resin

 

[rew]

Some prototypes, fucked them up a little due to cold room temperature (first time I have tried resin in the winter - lesson learned!)

The resin should have had a much clearer and glossy look, the 'Splatter' version is Alcohol Ink in Resin

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View attachment 266953

I like the blue version.

 

[monstermash]

Looking good mate. You can hit them with a heat gun once poured can't you? (based on watching you tube pours a couple of times) or was it the pour that was tricky? Not that i can tell from looking at them you prob polished out the imperfections did you?

 

[Vapaneezer Scrooge]

Looking good mate. You can hit them with a heat gun once poured can't you? (based on watching you tube pours a couple of times) or was it the pour that was tricky? Not that i can tell from looking at them you prob polished out the imperfections did you?

I did use a heat gun/torch But it made little difference, I could tell well before it set that something wasn't right when I saw clouding and feather lines, looked it up and it is a classic sign of low temperature mixing and pouring.

I've not attempted polishing them yet until a good week of curing but I'm not expecting much as the cloudiness looks deep, you see it more when you rotate it in the light, it's a shame as if they had glassed up as normal I would have been well chuffed with them, but at least I know for the next batch

 

[crustyfolker]

Nice to see, just be careful that the steampunk style isn't copywriting. The white version is what i would go for, its the oposite to a white bb with black panels with the added gears i would like to see the white panel with black gears/ cogs. i have not used my BB for a while mainly due to DNA colour chips being superior imo. but it will get some use as time goes by. Keep going with the creative ideas it's good to see something different to the usual BB doors available

 

[mattc1]

Nice wok indeed. Look forward to seeing the proper finished ones, I bet they will be very cool bud.