Opaque white: Dye or Mica?

[George Speed]

Hi, All;
Well the objective here is to have a Blank with 3 colors.

The colors - ratio per "cup of measure" - Actually :150grams of Orange Mica, then 127.5 grams of Opaque White and 22.5 grams of a Yellowy - gold color Mica.
(so three color cups)

Perusing the You tube, etc, I am left with wondering about the Opaque White.

My question is:

White Mica Powder or Alumilite Opaque White Dye ?

The Resin is Alumilite Clear Slow - not the Epoxy type.

The Ratio recipe I have come up with via You Tube is:
MICA: 1 Gram of Mica for every 1 ounce of Resin.

DYE: 3 drops of Dye per 50 grams of Resin. (Zac H for the Dye)

FWIW, the Blank is 6 in x 1.5 in x 1.5 in. There i s a 1" long aluminum part in the finished Turn. - A Game call.
though generally speaking I do want the white good and opaque - solid

Thanks, Highly appreciate any and all Advice !
..Bryan

 

[Chris Lawrence]

I would do mica powder and dye. Mica powder will not mix completely with the resin and will give you swirls with spots of just clear resin. If you add some dye it will make it all white with the mica swirls still noticeable.

 

[George Speed]

thanks, I did notice on my first ever blank, the White Mica used took a much longer time to mix!

I used the Dye, and checked opacity as I added. Just now de-molded and it looks promising. Only a Turn will tell!

P.S. Subscribed

 

[Bob Franklin]

Alumilites white is a thick opaque solid color ( like white paint) so it will give you more swirls of opaque white in your blank than the mica will. With white Mica it will blend more as the heat from the resin curing will push the mica particles around and mix it more and then it won't really show much white unless you really pump up the amount of white resin in your pour and a lot of times that will make your whole blank come out lighter shade.

 

[Chris Lawrence]

For the life of me i cant find the pics but i made a few duck calls in the past using a piece of live edge burl mixed with resin that used dye and mica. I attached a pic of some pen blanks I made for someone. The orange one you can kind of see the lighter and darker spots. The lighter spots are the mica swirls they will give a little bit of a shimmer when light hits it.

 

[Bob Franklin]

White Mica in the Bottle stopper vs Alumilite White in the kaleidoscope, 2 distinctly different looks

 

[George Speed]

My early mornings post in "whats on your lathe" brought me back here!
I am glad it did! For one, I bet that Kaleidoscope is really something to use!!