This weekend I am in my shop and it is very hot – like Tropical hot! It is 95 degrees, the humidity is 80%, and I am melting in my shop!
I am casting my watch parts, surgical knives and abalone shell pens in clear acrylic for the Washington, DC Pen Show that is coming up next weekend.
When it is this hot, I have to cut down on the number of drops of hardener I use for my castings. The more hardener you use the faster the acrylic sets up. With the additional temperature being that hot, the castings set up even faster! This will cause a problem later when you turn them, they will be more brittle and can shatter more easily! So the solution is to cut down on the number of drops and let the casting harden more slowly producing less heat (you have enough external heat being 95 degrees!).
Speaking of heat, we are still running the “hot” specials on the Jar Openers , Pizza Cutters and the latest item Napkin Ring Holders until Monday so take advantage and stock up on these items. You can make them later when it is not so hot!
Okay, enough cooling off for me in the house. I’m going back in the shop to finish my pens and other turnings!
Happy turning!
Barry;
Have you ever thought of installing an AC in your shop? I’m about 60 miles north of you and it’s hot here too. You made reference in your post to ‘surgical knives’ (I assume you mean scalpels?) and would like to see a pic or two of these as they would make very meaningful gifts for some close Dr. friends of mine. Thanks…
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Come on down to south Georgia and I’ll show you hot and humid. Not long agao it was 82 at 2 AM. Oh, 10,000 ‘ in Colorado was so sweet a few weeks ago. Heat of the day was 65 in late July 🙂
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Hot … u want hot? when I was in High School … living at home of course … on the third floor … one night it was over 90 at midnight … and that was with the fan on … yes … it was an ELECTRIC fan …
Thanks for this tip on hardener, Barry.