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pan-delure · 5 years ago

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hey I'm starting dice casting in resin as a quarantine activity! anything you think I should know? (I have researched a decent amount about what to do or not do but I feel like it'd be better to get the opinion of someone who knows things!) thanks for your time! I love your blog btw

Oh my gosh, thank you! Wow... okay where to start... (Just a heads up to anyone reading, this is going to be a long and probably rambling post)

There's definitely a large learning curve for dice making, so like you said it's really good to do your research! Experimentation is important, but I'll try to share as much as I can to help!

There are a few important stages that help improve the quality of your dice, and the quality bumps up a bit each time you go up a stage. Each stage would cost a fair bit to bump up, but it does show an improvement and most importantly, each one reduces the amount of time and effort you have to put into completely finishing a set of dice. If you ever get discouraged, remember that failure is part of learning, and of course your results will get better with experience! I'll include some pics of my first dice versus my most recent ones for comparison.

The first tests I ever tried with making dice, I had barely a clue as to what to try. The first molds I ever made were made with a small, extremely expensive Hobby Lobby silicone mold kit, and a small bottle of Alumilite casting resin.

At the time, I knew from watching King of Random videos that the best thing to use to remove the bubbles from silicone (improving the quality of your molds and final product DRAMATICALLY) was to use a vacuum chamber to "degass" the silicone as much as possible. At the time I couldn't afford one, so my old molds often had tiny bubbles that would leave small, stippled pieces of resin all over the surface of my dice. So, how do we get around all of this?

Well, one way would be to buy a vacuum chamber, but I recently found a better way to make sure there are no bubbles! But, I'll talk a bit more about this later.

(Side Note: I do not support Hobby Lobby or their policies in the slightest, but at the time it was the only place in my town that offered silicone or resin, and it still is. I now buy almost all of my supplies online, and buy direct from the manufacturer if they have a website to avoid using Amazon.)

So first off, what kind of resin should you use?

This is normally just determined by personal preference, but I really enjoy using Art n Glow casting resin for all of my dice. You measure the two parts in a 1:1 ratio by volume, and it hardens pretty well as long as you mix it for 3-4 minutes before adding any pigments or dyes. I'll add a link to their website here, but keep in mind they also sell a lot of interesting pigment options besides just resin.

So what about silicone?

So after my first unfortunate mishaps with my old Hobby Lobby silicone, I decided to do some digging and see what would actually work the best. After watching a lot of Rybonator's videos on youtube about making molds, I went with Smooth-On brand Mold Star Slow 15 silicone for my first serious molds. This specific silicone is a two-part, green platinum cure silicone, which basically means it will last a lot longer than something like a tin cured silicone. (I would add a link for where to buy it, but there is another silicone that I like much better that I'll talk about in a moment.)

This worked pretty well for me, but there is a major downside. When you use an opaque silicone, you can't see the resin as you fill up your molds. This works for a LOT of applications, but if you're interested in doing layered, swirled, or pride themed dice, I would instead go with Smooth-On Sorta-Clear 37 silicone (link included). One trial kit is more than enough for one full set of dice molds, with a bit extra left over for other projects. Not only do the clear molds leave you open to being able to make layered or pride dice, but the silicone itself is a bit firmer than Slow 15, which makes it easier to secure the mold together before you pour resin into it, and the mold is a bit more durable overall.

(Comparison photos of molds I've made with Slow 15 and Sorta-Clear 37, and my og molds)

But how do we deal with all of the pesky bubbles in the silicone and resin?

Well, I'm glad you asked. So, normally a vacuum chamber would be used to remove the bubbles from the silicone, and then you would use a pressure pot after you fill them with resin to basically crush down any bubbles that are suspended in your resin while it hardens and cures. When I wasn't unemployed and had a decently steady stream of income, I went out of my way to track down a decent vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump (which I had to buy separately). However, with a bit of experimentation, I found that you don't really need a vacuum chamber at all! Instead of buying both pieces, which would (if you're lucky) would cost around ~$75 for the vacuum chamber and pump, and $100 for the pressure pot, just using a pressure pot in place of a vacuum chamber will save on both time and a TON of money.

Using a pressure pot is one of the main stages that helps improve the quality and time spent sanding dramatically, and both Rybonator and Peter Brown have great videos on setting up your pressure pot. Harbor Freight sells a great model that has a massive capacity and is absolutely perfect for dice making! The technique for using a pressure pot for curing silicone is rather simple, just pour your silicone into your molds and place into the pressure pot, then let them cure for the length of time given on the packaging instructions.

In terms of actually preparing dice for molds, I would follow this guide from Rybonator, which is pretty much what I've followed in making mine. My molds are slightly different, but it's just trial and error to see what works for you!

Hey, so how do you pigment your dice?

Pretty much any way you want! There are lots of different ways to color and tinted resin, and nearly infinite things you can inset into them!

A few of the things I use are the cheap $0.50 bottles of acrylic paint you can buy at Walmart or any hobby store, alcohol based inks, liquid glitter, glow powder from Art n Glow, mica powders, pearl powder, cocoa powder, gold leaf, so pretty much anything! Peter Brown has an amazing video series where he takes household items and tests how well they work as resin dyes (link), and it serves as a pretty good source of inspiration for what to use!

Oh lord, am I going to have to sand these?

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALWAYS WEAR A RESPIRATOR OR FACE MASK, EYE PROTECTION, AND GLOVES WHEN WORKING WITH RESIN! (Yes, always!)

Unfortunately, sanding your dice can be one of the most tedious parts of this hobby, but each of the stages I've mentioned such as using a pressure pot or even getting your own dice masters can really cut down on the amount of time that you have to spend sanding and polishing. Personally, I use a mix of different wet sanding grits (normally the grits I use are 300, 600, 800, 1200, and 2000), and once I'm happy with the surface finish I move on to something called Zona papers (link), which work amazingly well compared to things like micro mesh pads that I've used in the past. I normally sand each face, including when polishing them, for about a minute or so on each face in a figure-8 motion, making sure that there is plenty of water to keep both dust from clogging the sand paper, as well as to reduce the amount you are breathing in. Buying master dice, such as those from Blue Mimic, can really reduce the amount of time you have to sand, but most hobby dice makers may not go so far as they can cost over hundreds of dollars, but are necessary if you ever plan on selling them or starting a business with them.

That's about most of the advice I have when it comes to making dice, but if anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to ask!! If I think of anything else I'll add a reblog onto this with any extra info. Remember, any failures you make are absolutely part of the process, and make sure you keep them to remember how far you've come!

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acethena-discourse · 5 years ago

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@grungedyke Tumblr own’t let me reblogged, and i’m not sure if its being dumb or you blocked

Thanks for showing up dumbass. Your presence and your type of thinking in that server is like a tumor, do you realize that? You’re a spineless liar if you think a member saying they were leaving is “strongarming” someone, and those mods are truly either desperate or foolish to keep you in there. No wonder people are uncomfortable with the environment in there – you and other active users have a habit of distorting any disagreement into violent persecution while pretending everything on your side is completely “valid” and brave.

I’m allowed to stay because i don’t break rules. Even now, this isn’t breaking rules. I rarely interact with minors in the server unless they directly talk to me first. But please go off about how I’m terrible for thinking that demanding a mod force someone to stop unhealthy coping, and cropping that out is bad.

My claim that rules are more heavily enforced is directly addressing the fact that i have gotten in trouble for things i legit forget. Ie. THe server does not allow the word b*tch. So often i’ll type “bitching about’ and get a warning from dyno. Thats p fucking strict. I’ve also phrased things v poorly, and been told to either delete the message or clarification, I often opt to EDIT THE INFORMATION because I know exclus will screenshot the bad one, and not the new one. But okay.

Recently a rule has been implimented for triggers, telling us that server anouncemnts will be modifed with new triggers/squick as they appear. Now if you have issues with these instances of rules, please go take that up with the mods.

Now, as for your screenshot, yes, I did tell them to archive it, and how I’ve both handled people baying for blood over the art of 2 ocs in a server in the past. I locked the channel, put an NSFW ban in place, and then *archived them* something I’m surprised you are more grateful for. Considering not only would archiving the channel would keep the good advice (ie yes use lube, do not use soap like in fanfic etc.) along with the bad that yall screenshotted before.

You may pretend to be nice, but that typical tendersoft nerd innocent-white-person shit does not stop you from being predatory.

There is no pretending. I genuinely believe it or not, believe in being nice to just about everyone I come across. That includes you, or a stranger on the bus or even someone walking by my house in a fucking ski mask. Being polite, and kind is just something I believe in. Until you give me beyond a reasonable doubt, I don’t even owe you basic compassion, then you’re gonna get it. Yes, that includes for big mistakes like not having age roles when you were finding your feet in discord moderation. That includes, people like you, who are trying to accuse me of “preserving gross content” when the reality is archiving a chat is a neutral suggestion because it favors no one. But i see, clearly i should go around kicking random babies and yelling don’t touch me. Because clearly if i’m not openly 100% mean to everyone, i must have some ulterior motive for my kindness right?

Can you name a single change to the rules aside from this recent “keep all the messages and let the adults keep reading them” shite?

See the above. In the past when users got banned all their messages would be deleted. They started keeping this for context. Then there's last year where someone decided to doxx a bunch of discords and said “Btw I did this bc uwuw you don’t edit screenshots” it took two weeks to give or take for mods to come to a verdict on what to do. So they made the rule that screenshots may not have their og username in them. Based on this, alone, i suspect the nsfw channels and sex ed might not be reopened for a similar period of time until the mods make new rules and clarify old ones.

It’s irrelevant and maybe even suspicious for you to bring up the wrongdoings of people who are completely unrelated to this situation. You’re already deflecting onto other people, offering no evidence of the “context,” and bitching on behalf of the mods. If you were in any way committed to safety or improving the situation, you wouldn’t be bringing up random people and downplaying things you obviously witnessed.

“offering no evidence of the context” for someone in the server you would know a handful of things about me 1) mobile tumblr is hell and i attach information from pc once I can. 2) I was out of town for someone so eager to screenshot me funny how you were so eager to forget that information.

So heres screenshot 1

Funfact i did not, and still don’t know what agere is. Now i will say my stance on cgl is that its not for me. I don’t like it, i don’t want to hear about it. But as long as both participates are 18, i also don’t need to know about it. Now if a minor was in chat, said “i participate in cgl with my partner” i would full stop be like what the fuck. And would leave if the mods decided to condone it, but that isn’t what happened. But you can see the mods do point out that if an unhealthy relationship or it was discussed at all outside of nsfw- channels they would be warned, banned, or reported.

Then there is the obvious mention that age regression isn’t a consenting adult, yeah. Ya dang right it not motherfucker. But let's talk about the word AGERE in relation to this. I’ve never once heard that there is a special word for nonsexual coping mechanism. So like damn, I’ll just add that into my vocabulary.

But I didn’t know that word exists, me saying “non sexual cgl” or “coping cgl” is literally me acknowledging that I find that eh but ultimately okay between consenting adults who are not aged regressing vs sexual cgl.

screen shot 2

In this a user tries to suggest the mods have a moral obligation to inform someone its “unhealthy” when mods point out that no they do not, but nor do they allow users to go off telling everyone “Oh cgl is a great coping mechinism you should do it to.”

Which is important. Because again, I hate cgl, but I also am of the mind that, i can’t stop it. I outright can’t, so no i’m not gonna get involved in someones personal road to recovery and be like “you’re disgusting”. I can however tell them to keep it away from me, and not to discuss it in channels minors can see. (a policy that has been in place for a while now.)

screenshot 3

More of the mods not condoning it, and stating p clearly that policies have changed since 2017/early 2018. I’ve been in the server since july 2018ish. And things have been nearly constantly evolving.

screenshot 4

Mods again emphasizing that you can find the policy changes since the messages have changed. Because that is important. They confined this to other channels. Why they didn’t delete the information in sexed, i can’t actually say one way or another. They might have kept it because they believe in mistakes of that caliber being left alone. But you also have no evidence for why they kept the og messages.

But the reason, i consider what herpcourse did lying by omission, is herpcourse led you to believe the above screenshots were out in the open. The ones i just posted happened in some random channel. They did not, they happened in an age locked channel. That only adults are in. And mods are under no obligation to 1) be your personal therapist, 2) nor are they obligated to go “uwu reminder cgl in all situations no matter what is disgusting you dirties” because doing so is preformative. One of the mods is squicked by it just like me. But please go off about how admitting past mistakes happened, refusing to performatively disown something, and refusing to tell anyone who mentions it in the age locked channels is actually gross and unhealthy when you know nothing about them is bad.

I did not, in fact, witness anything in sexed, because I don’t go there. I only witnessed the stuff that followed herpcourse callout, which means the above messages. I have sexed muted.

I also didn’t bring up random people I brought up a known predator who is on youtube, actually sends salacious photos to minors, and is p safe to say fucking gross, my point was there are actual sharks in the water, please stop focusing on the tuna. Because you can surprise, call out both behaviors. But i’ve yet to see an exclus call out someone like pkrussel, instead choosing to focus on people who might have a seemingly large following in one community. Me pointing out sharks in the beach and asking you to stop focusing on tuna, is not telling you to ignore the tuna.

I’m only as committed to this situation as anyone can be, which isn’t v much considering I’ve yet to witness someone grooming a minor in gen chat. Or witnessed them grooming minors at all. The only skin i have in this game is the following: Minors still being allowed access to decent sex-ed resources and being allowed to ask questions. And 2) my own personal discomfort with all cgl. My hope is that rules do become more clear, maybe only discussion of sex ed by users to be direct questions only. Meaning a minor can come in ask a direct question and receive a direct answer. Which while not ideal sex ed, is sitll better than what i got, what you probably got, and what they’re likely getting (if getting any at all)

The mods are not level-headed and not passive when they actually care and think they have control. They’re cowardly, that’s the difference. They literally got more mad over someone making fun of one of their icons and a minor saying genuine trauma with the q slur is possible.

I don’t expect them to be 100% level headed. I’d honestly be kinda upset if they didn’t display emotions when shit like this happens. But please give me a source on the icon thing (which btw, no you shouldn’t make fun of people, period) and for the minor saying ‘queer can have trauma’ bc I do think it can. But if you join fya, you can’t request it be tagged as qlur. Because there is a lot o discussion not only of queer as a personal identity but also queer as a history. Which means groups like queer nation, or shows today like queer eye. And just like I hope if I’m discussing the motorcycle gang made up of lesbians called dykes on bikes and their history, you’d not want me to censor, or remove their history and accomplishments by calling them “d-slur on bikes uwu” you don’t expect me to censor the discussion above. But to my knowledge, the denial is not “queer isn’t used as a slur” its “queer as an identity deserves respect, and to insist its evil is to take the word our oppressors used and give it back to them.”

Also what’s with you specifically and always bringing up “afab” as a gotcha descriptor in arguments? What are you trying to say?

Bc lets be real, when you talk about ddlg, you’re talking about an afab person dressing up as a child and calling her partner daddy while he fucks her most times. Didn’t know to point out the difference between that and agere was in fact a “gotcha” based purely on the agab of the person. But okay.

You need to leave and delete your five blogs from anywhere you can speak to minors like yesterday.

Okay, what are the five blogs? Bc I’m only aware of...literally none that interact with minors in conscious effort.

I highly doubt there’s any reason for them to have changed, considering the execrable atmosphere in that server, so here’s a screenshot of one mod (toytulini) going Karen mode along with a bunch of other 20+ year olds while the minor they were targeting tried to defuse the situation as mentioned above.

What is the context? Bc i legit don't’ see any. I see them arguing, btu about what, I don’t know, if i was involved myself, I do not remember. So again, not much of a smoking gun. It looks like they were trying to get someone to actually *understand* what was being said, but that wasn’t appearing to happen. But again, missing context such as what the argument was about, why that started, so on so forth. also if the person was told not to argue there, yeah, they should have moved it. as per server rules, there are channels to argue in, that wasn’t one. So no matter the context, if they were breaking rules, and did not move when requested, yes, they should be given a ban based on whatever the conversation topic was.

Now, i’ve provided evidence. I’m gonna go to bed, please feel free to dm me here if you need me to clarify anything or want to throw out accusations about how being kind must be predatory af since i’m barely an adult and adults lose compassion after becoming 18.

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