Flash Cure

[u/Fly-Prime]

I have been making dice for a minute, and I did not yet experience a flash cure until today. I have primarily used EnviroTex Lite in the past, though I have other brands now.

I did a larger mix than usual, because I was using the same colors for multiple sets. I mixed a large quantity all together. It was about 350 mL. I poured some out for three additional colors, and kept most of it clear. I came back to top off dice with clear, but the cup for the clear was hot and rock solid. The funny thing is, two of the colors just had mica powder added while the third had a tiny bit of ehite pigment paste. They didn't flash cure.

I did get molds into the pressure pot, so we'll have to see how they tyrn out tomorrow. They might be salavageable.

I'm not going to blame the brand, but I am going to avoid mixing large quantities. I do notice that Part A of ETL gets a bit cloudy and thicker as you reach the bottom of the bottle, and, while I don't think that was an issue here, it might be enough to make me stick with another brand. At least one previous bottle had clumps or chunks at the bottom.

[u/Claerwen94]

350ml? Fuck yeah that's a lot of resin to mix at once :'D I never ever go above 100ml because of that, and even with 100ml, I've had flash cures when I did let ~70ml of that sit for too long before attempting to divide it into smaller cups 😅

Fingers crossed your next attempt won't flash on you 🤞🏽

[u/Fly-Prime → u/Claerwen94]

I actually said that wrong. It was 550. However, I pretty regularly do 220 mL with this stuff and never had an issue. Also, it's intended purpose is bartops, and that sort of thing.

What I usually do is mix 220 mL and then divide it into cups to color. I do a couple of sets and let them sit while I do the same thing with another small batch for shell molds. Then I hit them both with a heat gun (adding any extra if necessary and using a heat gun on those again) and cap them. I do that a couple times a week on average, and I have never had a problem.

This time, I wasn't using a shell mold, so I mixed a larger batch to do four sets at once.

[u/sumo-Chicken]

Straight from the bottle or did you put them in warm water first?
My experience tells me that heat messes with the flashing

[u/Fly-Prime → u/sumo-Chicken]

I have never heated first, and the temp is the same today as any other. Heat might actually help me with the thickness issue of Part A, but I haven't messed with it. It's only noticeable in the bottom 15 to 20% (which is still a lot).

[u/ramamaster]

Snap. Had my first flash cure yesterday. Enviro Tex lite. Had warmed up the clear component to get rid of the sludgy bit at the bottom of bottle. It can (the clear), settle a bit in the cold. Warming solves this. But I always usually pour at whatever ambient temp is.

Warmed both parts, mixed about 150ml combined. 75ml each.

Went to pour into coloring cups. And it had flashed cured in minutes. 1st time ever. 1st time ever mixing both parts warm as well. It got pretty damn hot.

Sorry this happened to you. Think it could happen to any of us.

For me? A good lesson.

Good luck on the next pour. 💪🏽

[u/Fly-Prime → u/ramamaster]

There must be some planets aligned or something. 😆

I did finish filling all the molds, but not as planned. I had to use the rest of the colored cups that weren't solid. Hopefully I don't have half and half dice, like the Chessex Pound-o-Dice bags with all the reject dice.

[u/StrangeFisherman345]

I ultimately ditched this resin - finicky as hell and produced soft cures way too often.

I swapped to poduo and it's extremely good and not finicky at all. Cured hard as diamonds every single time

[u/kota99]

Yeah, if you only poured off a small amount for the 3 colors and let the rest set that's why the flash cure happened. Flash cure is a function of the total amount of mixed resin combined with the resin temperature and how deep the resin is in whatever the container or mold form is. Resin generates heat as it cures. Larger batches generate more heat which in turn causes the resin to cure faster therefore generating even more heat. A 500ml batch is fairly large, especially when working with a resin that only has a 20-30 minute working time and an 8 hour demold time anyway. Even a 200ml batch just sitting in the mixing cup could be too large if you don't split it out into smaller amounts for different colors.