10
Warning!
Mix small amounts of lacquer and don?t be too greedy with TIX and try to mix too much. I
tried to make a “mega amount” of lacquer and it took a while to mix as I tried to get a
dough-like amount of lacquer.
My mobile phone rang and I was chatting and mixing the lacquer. After I had been mixing
for about 10 minutes, the stick I was mixing with got stuck and the bowl started to heat
up! This was due a chain reaction.
When mixing too much epoxy for too long, the heat caused by the reaction starts to
accelerate the reaction, which in turn creates more heat.
Eventually, the bowl was burning hot and smoking, and I threw it out the back door
straight into a snowdrift!
The result was a stone hard lump of lacquer and a bad mood for wasting expensive
products.
The lacquer is meant to be gel-like to get the desired layer of a couple of
millimetres thick with one stroke. When the lacquer is laid, let it dry for about
15 minutes. While drying, part of the lacquer usually flows to the deepest
dent of the mould. You can thicken it with a small portion of TIX. Sprinkle
some dust on the lacquer seam and mix in on thick with the brush, so you
can paint it onto the vertical parts.
Note: If you have some leftover lacquer mix in the pot, it?s worth thickening with TIX and
brushing on the inside of the stone. It will only go to waste otherwise.
Let the mould dry overnight and then gently touch the surface of the lacquer.
If the lacquer is sticky, let it dry some more. If it feels hard, you can peel it off
the cast. It?s easier if you start with the edges and peel them off gently so the
stuck lacquer won?t crack or damage the mould. After peeling off the edges
you can pull the cast off the mould like you would peel a banana.
Remove the mould from the artificial stone:
start with the edges and peel back gently.
Finished stones.