Hi all
I'm new to Glasscast 50 but not to resin. I'm wanting to do some clear 50mm blocks with items suspended in the middle so was hoping to do 3 pours (the final one being a coating layer).
I work in a (heated) garden pod with a radiator running constantly. I heated both parts in a bath of warm/hot water for 10 mins before casting. I didn't de-gass in a vacuum chamber. I poured a c. 15mm depth at 4pm yesterday.
I went back this morning (thinking it might be at gel stage - it was way past so lesson learned!) to add my second layer and found these swirls as well as a load of trapped air? So I've binned them and need to start again (my brain is already thinking of random things I can do with the pliable resin though!). I will do some experiements today to try and establish the behaviour of the product in my situation but in the meantime my questions are these:

- what sort of timescale should I be looking at for the gel stage (I know there are several factors at play but even a rough indication would help)?
- what could have caused the swirls?
- why was there trapped air - especially when I went around the edge with a cocktail stick?
- am I decreasing the fluid stage by pre-heating? (I used it warm and didn't allow to cool)
- should I de-gass before pouring (I thought that was the beauty of slow cure in that it had time to naturally de-gas?)
- can I add a different brand and type of resin to the back of a piece before the front has fully cured? 


Many thanks in advance and I really hope someone can help.

The gel time of the 50 can be anywhere around 10 hours onwards at 20c but there are a lot of factors at play, temperature, volume of cast and thickness of cast, so best to check regularly and keep a close eye on it to avoid missing the B stage. 

I would try and accurately check your temperatures.  Ideally you need the resin to be stored at 20c ready for mixing, and the environment to be at 20C through out the cure time.  Pre-heating the resin above these temperatures will considerably reduce pot life and likely lead to a quicker cure time.  If you are pushing the thickness limits of the resin, this could cause exothermic damage to the resin in extreme cases. 

Not sure how well insulated or dry your outdoor pod is but it is worth checking to ensure you stay in parameters.  Cooler resin is thicker which means you get more bubbles during mixing and it is harder for them to escape once poured. Gently wafting over with a blow torch or heat gun is much quicker and more effective than a cocktail stick.    As such you should not need to degas the resin although it can't hurt. 

We have seen similar swirly, almost oily looking surface effects like that where there is humidity involved.  Fortunately it will sand out so if it has gone hard, a 120 grit sand before the next layer would remove it.

In theory, once at the B stage it should co cure with most epoxies.  We have only tested co curing with other GlassCast resins so if using others, might be worth a small test.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant