Dice Casting - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Part 2

[@robwustyle]

In the old days back in 1980 when you bought dice for D&D the dice came with a crayon. You would just color back and forth over the face of the die and the crayon would scrap off and fill the void. Then you just took a rag and wiped the face and done. Love the channel I learn so much from your vids. I make collectable figures and your channel offers great info. Keep up the good work...thanks again

[@joe_ferreira]

I appreciate the lack of music and straight to the point content. Thank you!

[@LordBarrington]

Rybonator has a bunch of great videos on dice making, casting, and lettering! The way he inks his dice is to fill it in with paint then wipe away the excess with your thumb

[@jeffmoore6917]

That dude does some sweet dice projects.

[@monomakes]

That's a good way to get a coloured thumb!😉 I wipe the face on some paper towel initially.

[@dougatfuto5]

think I remember him mentioning it was also a slow process, I like the idea of dip and tumble

[@Lord_Godd]

I love the ketchup and mustard dice.

[@monomakes]

I always use a pressure pot with my dice, don't have a vacuum chamber. Just make sure you fill the mould to the top and adding a generous amount to the cap. Then add the weight to reduce lifted faces. Works for me at least.

[@mraide]

Thank you once again for a top tip and step by step guide

[@ChrisLeeW00]

If you keep making videos, I'll keep watching!

[@ScaledCreations]

Wax is the easiest way to color the numbers, as suggested crayons work great!

[@unikua218]

The blue and black set is beautiful!!

[@wuerfel_schmied]

welcome to the wondrous land of dice making ^^. You should also pressure cast the epoxy resin. More patience to get bubbles removed, or use heat, but that shrinks your working time. Then add them to the pressure pot. If you need a reservoir (I know you want to minimize clean up) you can poke a small hole through the lid into each die, at best at the corner. Then do all the same as before, but after closing the mold, add a few drops of resin to the reservoir holes, that can compensate the removed bubbles from the pressure pot. For Inking, I like to use needle bottles and acrylic paint, use a paper towel to remove fresh residue paint und after drying take a towel and some alcohol to remove the last fine residues on the surface.

[@DKarkarov]

Needle bottles is a nice idea, definitely worth a shot.

[@wuerfel_schmied]

@@DKarkarov works especially good on self made dice with deeper number engravings.

[@DKarkarov]

@@wuerfel_schmied Gonna give it a shot myself, just waiting on amazon. Mine definitely qualify for deeper engraving.

[@wuerfel_schmied]

@@DKarkarov you have an Instagram to follow your work?

[@DKarkarov]

@@wuerfel_schmied unfortunately I am a perfectionist and generally don't show anything but I will see if I can look you up later and what I can do.

[@OldManRogers]

It's always a pleasure to watch a master artisan at work! Rybonator does a lot of dice and has videos on inking them too.

[@jst1man]

Several things: When you use a vacuum with epoxy resin you need to let it rise and fall a few times. Next: when you reused the mold with a different chemical, you didn't bother to clean. 99% isopropyl alcohol is the best, solves the water problem also. I personally wouldn't use that type of resin for dice. I use a reason that takes awhile to cure, that way I can rectify my mistakes before hand. Also: No master what epoxy you use, it is Not a forgiving material at any time! The others are right check out Rybonator he's pretty impressive, I think your 1 set mold is something he needs to learn. The potential is high! I'm going to try it myself. I always wanted a custom Yahtzee set!

[@annekabrimhall1059]

Love watching you work! Love your giggle ha ha

[@leekestner1554]

If the numbers are large enough (not micro die) a very fine Sharps pen can be used but it requires a steady hand. Alcohol can remove mistakes before the ink dries but you have to be quick.

[@Wazanator]

These dice look great! You did an excellent job

[@levinebette15]

I love the bowling ball swirl on those die.

[@TengizAdamashvili]

bubbles come from temperature. The resin basically starts to boil, and you saw effect being worse when you heated it up before pouring. Hardening is an exothermic reaction. So you either need to slow it down by mixing it cold and smaller quantities, and pressurize it quickly, before it heats up. High pressure increases the boiling point. I'd do 1 dice at a time and pressurize it right away. You only have about a minute of working time with those

[@Rob-qe3cg]

I know some people like felt tip pens and varnish for their dice lettering. And chessex and them do it by spritzing paint all over it, then throwing it in a tumbler (which is why the edges are rounded).

[@design321]

I always learn something from your videos. And failures are just as important as successes as they teach us as well. Thank you.

[@pmd1973]

In the "old days" the dice usually didn't come with the numbers painted. We rubbed crayon into the faces to make the numbers more readable. That probably doesn't help you out but I thought I would share anyway.

[@azuritet3]

I've heard that large scale manufacturers dip the dice in paint and then put them in a rock tumbler to wear away the excess. That is probably equally unhelpful.

[@paulkalupnieks]

I came here to suggest this exact way to color the numbers

[@snowrs1]

This brings me back to my early D&D days

[@justindjackson]

I don't know if you come back and check comments, but if mosture is a problem, try storing it with Silica gel. It's what they put with electronics to help with mosture.

[@ChempZee]

I love that vacuum pump. It sounds like a 48 Ford. :-)

[@RobertTolone]

More like a ‘48 single cylinder Briggs & Stratton!

[@ЛевПетров-э3п]

Спасибо, это очень интересная информация. Действительно, когда покупаешь смолу в магазине, это как берёшь кота в мешке.

[@kult4444]

I don't have a vacuum chamber so mix my resin in a pot that is sat in freshly boiled water it helps to get the bubbles out quicker along with a heat gun.

[@Mokaygee]

If the dice surface is smooth, you can literally just broad stroke the paint over the face, filling the number in, then wipe the excess pain away with your finger! It speeds painting your resin dice by about 4x!

[@RobertTolone]

That’s exactly how I did it! Good to know.

[@francoisstevens4349]

Something I noted while making my dice was that each time I pressurized my castings air got pushed into the silicone mold and that caused multiple sets of mine to fail due to excessive bubbles. My solution is to let the mold itself de-gas for about 2 hours before I do my next casting. My guess is that silicone is porous to a very tiny extent, but enough to get air trapped. I could actually see the air escape from the silicone when I poured water into the cavities and saw bubbles being produced by the mold. Quick not on the mold: I use platinum cure silicone that was cured at room temperature of about 24C under 3 bar of pressure. Castings done without letting the mold degas always had huge voids, every time. Castings done after letting the mold de-gas had a 100% success rate, I am now at 24 sets without any voids.

[@NM-wd7kx]

Have you ever tried vacuum degassing? I only use a vacuum chamber & let most of my resin castings set under a very weak vacuum (mostly just to keep the lid on) but I don't tend to run into bubble issues unless I've made mistakes

[@YanickFM]

The tape on the mold to clean the flash.... My life has just been changed

[@mikeoliver6742]

I redid the paint on my old dice using white UV resin nail polish, squeegeeing it on with a straight razor blade. It worked pretty well, no cleanup, though they have started to come loose over time.

[@BeOurBee]

That's super interesting information about the urethane/epoxy reaction on the mold walls. Also, really great bit of investigation into debubbling the art resin! When I got my first set of dice, I'd heard the best and quickest way to fill in the numbers was to take a grease pencil and grind hard into the die faces, then wipe off the excess. It's not bad, and takes less time than letting paint dry. Wax crayons might work too, but I haven't tried that. In terms of results, acrylic paint should be at least as good and being in recessed numbers helps keep it from chipping away even in a dice bag.

[@JPBlock73]

I remember back in 1980-somethin’ Dungeons & Dragons sets came with a white crayon to fill in the dice. It always seemed to work pretty well from what I remember…

[@CallousCoder]

That’s hilarious Robert! I too have nuts laying around and used them in the same way :) I should’ve watched this video last week. As I had to make a new set of magic gimmicks dice and I obviously too the harder route with a clay base. I wasn’t too concerned about sanding as it’s a magic prop anyways. But this approach would’ve saved me some time for sure.

[@barry_t]

I always used to use a wax crayon to color my dice...it gets in the grooves, and the excess wipes away

[@PropGuru702]

Oh and regarding the numbers, grab yourself some leaf metals for gilding. Can get just about any metal you'd want. Copper gold or silver look great on darker colored dice. Simply stretch a piece of fabric over a smooth block of wood and clamp it down so it is stretched smooth and tight. Brush on the gilding adhesive onto the face of the die and then put a few drops of isopropyl alcohol on the fabric block and rub the face of the die to Clean off the sizing/adhesive. Then when you add your metal leaf it will only stick in the recessed numbers to give a very classy metallic appearance 😉

[@rowanstephenson3192]

So educational thank you Robert learning lots from you x

[@RobertTolone]

Thanks Rowan!

[@HonestAuntyElle]

Just found your channel and saw the part 1 and steady crafter combo, was hoping part 2 would be quick, and it literally dropped while i was waiting!

[@gekkoberry371]

i've just started out working with silicone and resin, and your videos help so much 🥺❤

[@frea_o]

If you're going to cast with something like art resin without a pressure pot, you really need to make sure your mold is insanely good. There's a tutorial here showing off how to do it, which includes pre-painting the numbers with silicone, then the faces, then taking very careful steps when both pouring the mold and then pouring the resin itself (warm water bath, using a sealed stir stick to prevent bubblage, stirring very slowly, letting the dice sit until the end of the pot life without the lid on, popping bubbles with a lighter multiple times). I don't cast without a pressure pot when I'm doing dice, and I've never needed a vacuum chamber. I used to dump a lot on the cap, but now I just make sure I have a nice dome on the poured dice and a good amount of weight on the lid.

[@chartle1]

I now see the delay. Looks like you went down a little rabbit hole. 🐰 😀

[@svartann]

Thank you for that video! A lot of great advice that will help me finally make good dice!

[@RobertTolone]

👍

[@jezfish1]

Very interesting observations Bob. Always something new and interesting to learn on your channel. Best Regards, Jez

[@BaronMcCausland]

Hi Robert! Wondering if you still intend to cut some of the dice open so we can learn the quality of the fill? I am so curious about the result!

[@nerored6235]

My god, sir, I so wish I could start my own shop like yours and just work for myself out of it making molds and castings.

[@RobertTolone]

My first shop was my bedroom, my second shop was in the garage. I didn’t move into an actual studio space until I was 30. And only then because I outgrew the garage and needed the space to produce my products. It started out as a wood shop and it was more than 10 years before I began working with resin. Start where you can and grow over time.

[@WilSisney]

I have experienced the exact same foaming issue with Art Resin in the past, when I first started making dice. I feel that pain!

[@jayr5167]

I believe you're getting bubbles in the clear resin because as it hardens, it starts getting hot and creates bubbles. With the head you casted in comparison, I'm willing to bet the mold had a pour spout which also acts like vent tube for the bubbles. With the dice mold once you close the lid everything is trapped inside. You should try the clear resin with the dice mold without closing the "lid" just as an experiment.

[@DKarkarov]

I expect the other mold was open back with no vent hole at all as there would be no need. Art Resin is definitely a cheaper "crafter" resin and not a lot of fun to work with.

[@jayr5167]

@@DKarkarov the head mold was probably a conventional 1 piece with a pour spout, which acts like a vent for bubbles and gases from the curing process. That clear resin, although it takes a while to cure can yeild some pretty nice results and is pretty forgiving when used in typical molds.

[@jayr5167]

@@A.B994 I would have to disagree with your first comment about the heat, speaking from experience not opinion. I had this issue with a mold of similar construction for small clear resin pieces, less than 10ml each. Using the same exact resin from the bottles that rendered the poor results. First i tried using less and less color, which helped some what.(with and without a vac prior to pouring and with and without a pressure pot in different combinations). But what fixed it was using it without the "flap" allowing the gases to escape. I was using the same resin Robert used in this video .

[@jayr5167]

@@A.B994 mold star. Never had an issue with it before, including with that art resin that I got from Micheal's. I was going to say it was old or just moisture, but i tried the same mold in a controlled environment without closing the flap (allowing it to breathe) and it cured perfect with color and no color added (using the same resin, from the same batch). Ive come to the conclusion that it needed some sort of vent. I just switched to smooth on clear, to avoid this.

[@jayr5167]

@@A.B994 yeah, the clears are always a challenge balancing time and clarity. Art Resin is decent and usually always available locally for me. By I try to stick to SmoothOn just to eliminate the possibility of chemicals not being compatible. Although I never did try a closed mold with another batch of art resin. Worth a shot just to rule it out.

[@ArtaWorks]

About the red dice where you were talking about resin molecules mixing with rubber. I'm interested to prove that theory you could saw a dice in half. If the middle is clear or at least bubbles are less and less dense towards the middle. Then it's what happened. If not then it's probably something else.

[@TheKillaconor]

color painting in the numbers can just be wiped off with your bare thumb. throw on paint and wipe off the rest. Have you also ran a lighter over the top of the wet resin to rid it of any bubbles.

[@nickfine5808]

Great video as usual Robert, loved it. I'm told that Posca art pens are the answer to painting in dice numbers.

[@Anton-zb9dc]

The best clear epoxy resin I could think of is any kind on carbon infusion resin, as it is highly viscous and easy to degas, you could definitely try it out yourself 😃

[@jordanhindes769]

Had fun with some Pu resin in platinum silicone moulds for my d&d group :) based of this . Thanks for the video as always keep up the great work

[@RobertTolone]

That’s great, thanks!

[@TylerProvick]

For production dice they will paint the raw castings and then tumble them with some abrasives. It both takes off the flash and removes the excess paint.

[@jmanuelzaid]

I have never been able to use epoxy resin without the pressure pot

[@Gary_Hun]

Bubbles float upwards right? So what i tend to do is either suck from the lower non-bubbly half of the container with a syringe, or poke a hole on the container's bottom side so clean material pours out of it, not the foamy stuff like in the case of pouring by tilting. If you want to pour regularly, just use a second container in which you collect the bubble-free half, then place a third container in its place while you tilt pour using the second.

[@crablord9362]

That is actually pretty genius, i might try this out! Thank you for sharing this :) I read somewhere online about the method of pouring the resin through a hole in the bottom of the container and thought it would just be really difficult and messy- so your technique sounds perfect!

[@lobstermendez]

I can tell you exactly why the resin dice had so many bubble. Resin has a safe temperature range for curing. Below the bottom of that range, it won't set. Above the top of that range, it will start to boil. You more than likely applied too much heat to the resin with the heat gun, then poured it, and the chemical reactions got it hot enough to boil.

[@PropGuru702]

@Rob I was under the impression this particular resin was pretty gassy and required a respirator to work with safely?

[@RobertTolone]

Most people use this resin to put a clear coating over a large surface. That puts a lot of volatiles in the air. I am pouring a very small amount of resin and my shop space is large and very well ventilated. Also, I’m talking on camera and my masks make me hard to hear.

[@BrainSlugs83]

1. To paint the numbers use a large brush and just dab it on there, and then immediately wipe it off. It will leave the cavity filled, and the surface clean. 2. To test them for even weighting, put them into a cup of warm water (can't remember if you add salt or soap), and spin them with your fingers. It should be really easy to see if they have a "preference" to stick with a certain side up.

[@VaultBoy13]

It's salt to make them buoyant.

[@scottythedawg]

wax crayon was the method for number colouring back in the day.

[@monomakes]

Also, I use acrylic meant for miniature painting.

[@gooshidildos2635]

I've used art resin a lot, and it's a bit of a pain to use. You can vacuum art resin, but you have to warm A and B in warm water baths before mixing, then quickly vacuum the resin. I let it go for a few min, because of the long working time, even with it warmed up, the pot life is still over 20min in my exp. I hit it with a heat gun to get rid of the tiny surface bubbles. But then I let it cure in my pressure pot for 12-24hrs. Also, I use platinum cure silicone and have cast both urethane resin and art resin without issue. Just a few tricks I've learned, I hope this helps someone

[@sean-michaelgettys6176]

I’m pretty new to working with resin, only been doing it a year of various pieces and parts for my sculpting, and I wanted to say the art resin had TONS of bubbles when stirred quickly, less when stirred more carefully, so don’t WHIP the clear resin. And the least when a stir tool on a drill was used (makes sense right?) also i gave a vigorous tapping to the flat back poured molds and vibrated the table they were all on. Pouring without degassing or pressure potting the resin and then let my resin just sit overnight. Actually I was surprised that last method had the least bubbles. I’ll keep working with this art resin because it was CRYSTAL clear so will likely get some of the results I’m looking for as I keep getting used to working with it. But I learned a lot watching your videos and not mixing other kinds of plastic in silicone molds used for casting epoxy resin was a HUGE tip. Also really learn a lot reading the comments from others who work with casting dice. Even tho I’m not casting dice, the tips about how they get rid of bubbles was great. Just thought I’d share my beginning tests and what I’ve learned so far in my own small resin work.

[@grimoirworkshop6623]

Good way to paint numbers might be what engravers do: paint all with regular oil paint and wipe with thumb

[@MastaRhee]

U've gotta use pressure pot for resin, always comes out clear. I feel like using the heat gun will just shorten the cure time

[@dustybookshelves2948]

Started watching b/c I always think about how a lot of the DIY dice being made in recent years just can't be properly weighted, but this ended up being so helpful. I'm about to do a big urethane project and had completely forgotten that if I want to try a variation of a part with clear resin, I need to pull a mold & set it aside specifically for that experiment.

[@lucasbattistella5400]

What is the lowest pressure you can leave the cure without getting bobbles? I wonder if I can improvise a pressure chamber with reinforced hydraulic PVC.

[@thomasfrewer1328]

There's a channel called Rybonator, he makes a lot of dice just like this and he does the colouring of the numbers pretty well. (Basically just splodge on a whole bunch of acrylic paint and then wipe away the excess, comes out really neat.)

[@rdgk1se3019]

Have you ever used talc to deGas a mold?........also I have heard of some resins that don't work well with "Platinum" rubbers.

[@a.c.velioglu4365]

Hello, Mr Roberts. Can a polyurethane finish be polished? There is alot of videsos about Epoxy Resin but couldt find any video about polyurethane pieces / Small parts etc ... Best Regards.

[@abzhasan8322]

Hi Robert, was wondering if you ever casted pewter metal? Great vids love watching them!

[@RobertTolone]

I have cast low temperature metals but not pewter.

[@tanterouge]

Hey, that heat gun thing was interesting. I'm going to do some prototyping just to learn and get to know the materials before investing in a vacuum chamber and a pressure pot - would a heat gun help somewhat with polyurethane resin as well? Since it's prototypes, bubbles aren't going to matter that much - but if I can help a bit of it it will help structural integrity.

[@ArcticFlies56]

Bob, I was wondering if you sprayed that chemical that stops foaming into urethane resin before you poured the dice mold? I never had any luck with urethane resin except for the first time when I opened the container of the urethane resin. I poured it into a new silicone mold. Since that time the urethane foamed on every pour even with using the pressure pot. I figured that the urethane picked moisture when I removed the cap from the new container. After that it was worthless. You asked about coloring in the numbers on the dice. I use magic marker thin point in different colors which seems to work well. They make an acrylic marker for use on dark colors. Best regards, Richard

[@glenfisher728]

You fill the air gap between the resin and top with an inert gas. Nothing is added to the resin .

[@RobertTolone]

@@glenfisher728 That’s right.

[@devanbrowne8706]

Wasn't the whole point of the special mold to try to ensure that the dice were fair? Do you have any way to test if this method actually succeeded in making significantly fairer dice over the cruder molds?

[@prodius613]

i think it would work putting the epoxy resin in the pressure pot.

[@RobertTolone]

Yes it would.

[@graealex]

I'm always thinking, wouldn't it be possible to mix the components together without introducing any bubbles in the first place? Like in the nozzle of those two component epoxy glue syringes? Or maybe directly in a vacuum?

[@dougatfuto5]

that''s actually a fun idea. I use the 3m glue guns and those mixing nozzles are like a little maze.

[@graealex]

@@dougatfuto5 I was sceptical whether a guy with a popsicle stick was what peak performance looked like, and turns out the industry actually has a solution to mix under vacuum without blades, in the form of planetary centrifugal mixers.

[@chriswebb9375]

The glue mixers you are talking about are called static mixers, they work well but you need to ensure you are pushing the material through at ratio because they mix well locally but not through a whole mix so you need some way of metering the materials (like the cartridge the glue comes in), they also take a bit of experimentation to determine which diameter, number and type of elements works best for a particular resin. Planatary centrifugal mixers are fantastic but they have down sides first they heat the material significantly so you would never beable to use a fast cast PU using one, secondly they are massively expensive, we have one in the lab here it mixes upto 100g and cost in the region of £10,000 so not the sort of thing a hobbiest is ever going to be able to justify.

[@graealex]

@@chriswebb9375 Thanks for the insights.

[@chartle1]

Yes the dice!!!

[@BaronMcCausland]

Robert - Congratulations on getting some cast dice out with pretty clean - bubble free - surfaces; but, would you mind cutting open some of those dice open, so we can see if there are bubble-voids inside the castings? I ask this of you, for dice with internal voids will not roll true - as dice always seek their lowest center of gravity, and thereby, would favor the heaviest side on the bottom and the lightest side to the top - and, we can learn if this casting method will produce true dice, or, ornaments. Thank you so much!

[@RobertTolone]

I will be happy to cut some open. But just playing with them they seem to give a random result. I suppose for any really valid test you would have to roll them thousands of times.

[@BaronMcCausland]

@@RobertTolone 10's of thousands of rolls, unfortunately is require to reveal an inherent bias of a die. The other way to test a die for being true and balanced is to float the die in a glass of water with a very high saline concentration and a few drop of dish-washing liquid to reduce the surface tension ; thereby, rendering the die in question neutrally buoyant as it floats in the salt water - wherein, the 'light side', IF THERE IS ONE, will repeatedly roll to the top side of the die and be revealed more often than not, as the 'heavy side' naturally comes to rest on the underside. That being sad, cutting open some of these cosmetically good castings will tell us what we need to know visually; if less than a 100% internal fill is revealed, the die cannot hope to roll true. I'm hoping for success! Thank you for going the extra step for your fans and students, Robert, you are THE BEST!!!

[@stefanf6495]

Hi Robert, can you say anything about the dimensional accuracy of the castings compared to the originals? I'd almost assume there is some shrinkage along the way (silicone and resin), but how much?

[@RobertTolone]

There is some tiny shrinkage no doubt but, without having to put calipers on the copies, I have to say that the difference was not noticeable.

[@craigmile7286]

perhaps the phrase "grinder and paint, makes me the welder I aint" could apply to opaque vs. clear resins as well.

[@emilyrealname634]

Great info as always! One of my favorite channels. Could you remove/move bubbles with centrifugal forces? Are there any other tin sure silicone suppliers you recommend besides silpak?

[@glenfisher728]

A pressure pot doesn't remove bubbles from resin it reduces them microscopic size . No a centrifuge wouldn't work .

[@GunMaster114]

question can you make dice without a presure pot or a vacum chamber ??

[@carctct6435]

Yes but they have little imperfections and the failure rate is higher. By imperfections I mean the best ones I have without preassure have very small bubbles in 1 of the faces, like it was poked 20 times with the very tip of a needle. Someone who isn't looking very close wouldn't notice it. And by failure rate I mean ~25% of my dice have unfixable issues or things I could fix but don't want to bother with. I always warm my resin before mixing because bubbles flow out better but I have less work time.

[@luizagriebeler]

Awesome! Now, the million dolar question: did you, sir, play DnD with those?

[@RobertTolone]

No I didn’t. I was never much of a game player; I was more of a making things kind of kid. I actually know almost nothing about tabletop games. My only interest in them is designing and sculpting game pieces. A process which invariably includes 3d printing, mold making and resin casting.

[@Jkauppa]

interested in hexagonal lego-tap interlocking stackable block kit

[@Jkauppa]

anvil

[@Jkauppa]

hairs gone, noice

[@Jkauppa]

diy is the best, features, not bugs

[@Jkauppa]

character, they have

[@Jkauppa]

surface pattern dip, for the dice

[@Harlequin619]

Really cool, a quick question, how do you dispose of the leftover resin and silicone?

[@RobertTolone]

I use it all up. If I have some dregs in a bucket I will react it into solid plastic and throw it out. Also, my city has a toxic waste disposal site but I try not to have to use them.

[@wishowl2234]

Would pie weight work well in place of the nuts as weights?

[@glenfisher728]

You would probably need more volume to increase the weight.

[@wishowl2234]

@@glenfisher728 but the there would also be less empty space between the pie weight than the nuts.

[@RobertTolone]

Experiment to find the weight that gives you the minimum flash. If pie weights are sufficient then you’re good to go.

[@ChrisSGreenawalt]

You absolutely have to use a pressure pot after you pour them.

[@smzubek]

Why couldn't you pressurize the epoxy resin? I'd love to see a test of that.

[@glenfisher728]

You would need to keep it under pressure for many hours because it is very slow setting .

[@jasoncarlaritz5558]

+1 to checking out Rybonator here on KZbin. Casting dice is essentially all he does and they come out great.

[@andy-in-indy]

Watching him pour the nuts makes me think of Peter Brown welding similar sized nuts together for a weight with stabilizing resin.

[@roger.agburn]

👍 I kind of dislike this kind of mold. Dunno why, maybe because it seems to be messy.

[@strhunter666]

slap some paint on the numbers and wipe off the extra with a finger

[@amilcarmiguel7274]

👍🇧🇷 BRASIL

[@crashoverride93637]

Now you feel my pain I went straight from zero casting experience to polyhedral dice

[@richh5038]

why use three cups? why not pour one half into the other, less cups used

[@RobertTolone]

Because the mix ratio will be off. There will be less of the material that is poured into the other cup. But when you pour both cups into a third cup they leave the same amount of residue behind so the amount in the mix cup will be the same. You could however, weigh the A and B sides into the same cup.

[@DKarkarov]

As far as painting dice go there are a few methods. The professionals (aka major companies) actually just put the die in a paint vat, paint the whole thing, then do a final "tumble" in a industrial tumbler and it just applies a final polish while knocking the excess paint off everything but the numbers. The normal hobby way of doing it is just slather some acrylic paint in and then rub it onto a paper towel on a flat surface to take out the excess. The next method is basically the same as method 2, but instead you just get a "paint pen" (sharpie makes them) and you just use the pen to write in the numbers then wipe it off ala the paper towel. There is also an actual tool specifically designed to fill dice numbers and pips in by hand that some dice makers like brybelly I think use but I got no idea what it is called, or how you would get one. I have seen it used in videos though, it is almost like a ink pen sort of thing, it just deposits the paint into the cavity and is somehow loaded to always have the exact amount. Mold wise I am impressed, I expected way worse results. I knew the flash would be ok, and the clean up would be minimal, but the epoxy resin is never going to be bubble free without pressure, and you can't pressure with no vent. The Urethane came out pretty darn well, too bad urethane resins are always opaque.

[@chriswebb9375]

Just so you know you can get clear urethanes, water white and UV stable much better than epoxies in fact. The downside to them is that to get them really hard and still be low viscosity for casting you need to use monomeric isocyanates for the hardeners which are toxic by inhalation. So unless you know what your doing and have all the correct precautions in place they are not suitable for hobbiest/home use.

[@paulghignon4092]

Honestly in my experience, simply painting the numbers then wiping them off is the fastest and easiest method. I know the youtuber Rybonator simply uses his finger to wipe away excess paint. I personally just use paper towels that have a very small amount of ipa on them. When mass producing them I just slap the paint on quickly across all of them, then go back and clean them up.

[@crowntimber1]

Test your dice with saltwater to see if they are fair

[@YanniCooper]

14:55 I think you've got that backwards, the problems are caused when the materials do interact?! You /don't/ want your resin interacting with your mold, or with residue from the previous casting!

[@andy-in-indy]

Also, FLASH! (Ah-HAA)

[@eugenejosephfoss]

Try coloring them in with crayons.

[@evansn79]

oh those are awesome, red and yellow dice! "Wow those are singularly unattractive dice." well...nevermind.

[@ravenskeep9009]

The problem was that you were using Art Resin, that resin SUCKS for that type of stuff. A different epoxy resin would work better. Don't let Art Resin put you off epoxy resins!!