Resin-ating Through Art: Dice Pouring De-mystified!

[@mattersofthehartbynat8815]

Very informative and easy to follow tutorial. You showed some great tips! Thank you for taking the time to share with us. Much love from Nat. (Brisbane, Australia) ♥️♥️🇦🇺

[@foxysartbox]

Absolutely welcome! Hope it inspires you to make awesome stuff!

[@drbobiwsky]

This is beautiful! Thank you so much for teaching step by step instructions.

[@foxysartbox]

You're welcome. More to come with some different, more involved styles.

[@HeartlessTheRabbit]

....I think i just found my calling.....subscribed. and inspired.

[@foxysartbox]

Awesome! Hope you make some lovely creations. :) I have other tutorials about resin basics on this channel that might be helpful if working with resin is new to you.

[@HeartlessTheRabbit]

very much so lol@@foxysartbox

[@bakedstreetyt]

great video, very well explained and the result looks really good!

[@foxysartbox]

Glad you like the tutorial. It's funny, but I usually struggle with breaking things down when folks ask me to. Doing these tutorials has made me focus on the steps and break them up into segments.

[@TheResinersPourHouse]

I always have a very thick side to my 1's. Its always very proud no matter what mold I use. I even have one from druid. How do I get rid of it?

[@foxysartbox]

You can always trim it away with an Xacto knife and then buff in the sanding phase. Orrrrr... one way to at least limit it is to place an additional weight on top of the mold. Not too heavy, don't want to crush the mold and deform the dice. But enough to really squish that void. Make sure it covers the entire cap evenly, if not it may make a couple dice with a larger edge. I have noticed doing this on my own pours makes that proud edge only a minor trim job. Hope that tip works. ;)

[@TheResinersPourHouse]

@@foxysartbox Thanks so much! I'll try it!

[@foxysartbox]

Best of luck!

[@wYatt121509]

GREAT info friend. Well explained and demonstrated. SUBBED!

[@foxysartbox]

Thank you! More "dicey" videos in the pipeline. Stay tuned!

[@IcsulX]

Yes, more dice vids pleaseee

[@foxysartbox]

I will. It might be a little bit, but stay tuned!

[@slickseviper9758]

make sure to inspect your molds carefully especially from big shops too! (Example my druid dice mold has the D12 off center for the face on the cap. If this happens bring it to the mold makers attention ASAP so they can give a refund or remake. Smaller size makers typically make molds for a bit more money but also of more consistant quality ) Another tip for dice making, when you leave the dice face open burn the top of the dice after 10 minutes with a lighter if you're not comfortable with alchohol this will pop inital bubbles making the risk of bubbles even less than before.

[@foxysartbox]

Excellent tips! I haven't run into a shifted di face on mold yet. But good companies will back up their products. :) I admit that I haven't used the lighter method on my dice mold, but I do show the alcohol spray method in my videos before capping.

[@slickseviper9758]

one place i haven't had any issues from is WisdomCheckCreations Druid dice has sent me 3 (in a row) bad molds so i just asked for a refund xD @@foxysartbox

[@foxysartbox]

Sorry to hear that about Druid Dice. I've only gotten the one set with the matching blank mold. I hope I wasn't just lucky.

[@slickseviper9758]

from talking to other people it sounds like you were. seems like the one i got was 'Average'@@foxysartbox

[@foxysartbox]

Interesting to hear and something to contemplate when I am ready for new molds--unless I opt to make my own masters and molds. For those who choose not to, there are many dice mold makers out there. May crafters odds be in their favor with their selections.

[@primaggio1]

Where did you buy this rotating table? Very nice video btw, helped a lot! :)

[@foxysartbox]

I got the rotation display from Amazon. Bought the mirror from a local store.

[@ravn606]

This is super helpful. Thank you

[@foxysartbox]

You are very welcome! Glad it helps.

[@caerlong]

Great video, where did you get that sander?❤❤

[@foxysartbox]

It's a mini pottery wheel. I got it off of Amazon years ago, but this particular model isn't available any longer. However, any small pottery wheel should do the trick. ;)

[@caerlong]

@@foxysartbox Well, I'm going to see if I can find one at a good price. How do you attach the sandpaper to the base?

[@foxysartbox]

@@caerlong Strips of painters tape to hold it down.

[@shapiirax3917]

So ... I have a question, i ran trough so many dice-making related places and i still dont have answer for that... Pressure chamber or however to call that - i have that type where you have a pot and a pump that sucks air off and... You should let te pump run whole curing process or just drop pressure to ~-1bar and then hold it?

[@foxysartbox]

You're talking about a vacuum chamber. :) That is a different process intended to degas the bubbles out of the resin prior to pouring in a mixing cup. In your case you would cycle through vacuum and release to get rid of the bubbles within your resin's working time. Then slowly pour into your molds. Degassing expands the volume of your resin and if placed in the molds would probably make a huge mess of your chamber. You can do the degassing and pour your dice for a tabletop cure. This has better odds than pouring without the degassing. The reason the pressure pot works so will is you can skip the degas as any smaller bubbles will be compressed beyond what the eye can see, and it helps to suck the mold cap on higher so it doesn't form voids from microbubbles that can form in curing resin. Hope that answers your question.

[@59AnneRose]

Great video how long did you have the dice in the vacuum pot for?

[@foxysartbox]

The full duration of the resin cure time. For the kind I use it's 12 hours. I typically leave it in overnight as dice are small and the reaction creates less heat extending the cure time. ;)

[@joelcardona6404]

What kind of pressure pot do you use/recommend for anyone who is getting into this hobby? Also was that stand thing you loaded into yours something you made or something you can buy?

[@foxysartbox]

California Art Tools (CAT) makes pressure pots that are specifically intended for resin casting. Mine is the 5 gallon. If you will only doing smaller batches of things, they make a 2.5 gallon pot that doesn't cost as much as the 5. The "stand" is a home-made rack using 12 inch metal pizza flats with holes drilled into them. They are suspended on carriage bolts and held in place by wing nuts for adjustability. If you don't want to make your own, there are plenty of folks out there who make pressure pot racks. Druid Dice is now offering one for both sizes of the CAT pressure pots. ;)

[@joelcardona6404]

@@foxysartbox Thanks so much for getting back to me I'll have go and take a look at them!

[@foxysartbox]

@@joelcardona6404You're welcome. :)

[@chazgomez7169]

Can you post a link to the type of pottery wheel you use?

[@foxysartbox]

Regretfully when someone else asked me I went into my Amazon order to find it is no longer available. But--it was listed as a mini pottery wheel. Hopefully something similar pops up for you.

[@LaconicMuse378]

Was this supposed to make me feel less intimidated about making my own die?

[@foxysartbox]

I hope it does. I will say that dice are tricky. When I first started I had the cheaper individual cap molds and made a massive mess! None of them worked. It's rare to find someone who likes them, even the super-experienced dice makers. When I switched to the Amazon deal cap mold with the whole set in one mold it got better, but I still had problems the first couple pours because I tried to be too neat. I hadn't overpoured or put resin on the cap. Once I did those tricks I haven't had a void since. ;) I wish you luck on casting your own dice and if you have questions, feel free to drop me a line.

[@Jeffs40K]

good video, But why not Paint before Sanding, so it removes any outside the numbers

[@foxysartbox]

You can do that, but sanding tends to be a bit messy and can deposit some of the fine debris in the number grooves. By doing the painting afterward you don't have to clean that out of the finished paint. ;)

[@LordThree]

Excellent tutorial but not sure about your color choices tho. A little hard to read

[@foxysartbox]

Thank you for watching. The colors pop quite a bit more in person, especially the metallic numbers. I have an older camera and it tends to be a bit fussy when filming.

[@jamesbrady5751]

If you want to start with resin for the sake of making money, do not start with dice. It is a very high upfront cost

[@foxysartbox]

Absolutely agree! Dice are tricky and prone to technical problems. It's much better to approach them after experience with resin and building up the equipment that flips the odds in the maker's favor.

[@lt-ug2pz]

I started with dice, but that is because I knew I would use them or could give them as gifts if I decided selling wasn't worth it. Now I sell at my FLGS and craft fairs

[@foxysartbox]

@@lt-ug2pzAwesome! It took me a bit to get to dice work. Everyone has a different journey into resin work, heck art is general, and that's what makes it such a great community to dwell in. :)

[@kbilsky]

please, PLESAE, do not use "vocal fry" 🙏

[@foxysartbox]

To be perfectly honest with you, as a middle-aged woman, what you are hearing is actually my normal speaking voice. When recording I'm just watching the video footage I shot edited together and narrating the steps into my desk mic. Your comment was the first time I became aware of the term "vocal fry" and had to look it up as I thought it might be some setting on my mic I messed up as I am newer to recording myself. Thanks for teaching me a new term. I'll try to be aware and stay closer to modal.

[@TheResinersPourHouse]

​@@foxysartbox I like the sound of your voice.

[@foxysartbox]

@@TheResinersPourHouse Why thank you, it's the only voice I have. ;)

[@IKilledYourDude]

How long do you typically wait after pouring before you spray with alcohol or use heat to pop bubbles? I know it’s resin-dependent, but perhaps as a proportion to the resin’s work time?

[@foxysartbox]

Good question. I don't have a straight answer to that. Most of the time I am pouring multiple items and simply hit it with the spray right before I put it into onto my rack to go into the pressure pot. I don't track the specific time. My work time on the 1:1 ratio epoxy resin is 45 minutes. I would say on average I'm probably hitting it with the alcohol or heat gun (careful with using both! A heat gun can ignite the alcohol fumes!) about 15-20 minutes after mixing. If I'm leaving it on the table-top to cure, I babysit it for the first couple hours. There is a large D20 dice jar that I use 2:1 ratio deep pour epoxy in. This one has a 72 hour cure time. I babysit this one for many hours before potting it. All in all, most of the time if you are using a pressure pot heat isn't needed, and the alcohol helps just before going in to catch any bubble at the edges that can remain. Hope that helps. :)